Remote working comes with its advantages but challenges too. For a business, the main advantage is the reduced fixed costs as they don't need to pay office rent for the whole team, utilities, and other office facilities as they used in the past. Also, moving the business to a remote working environment, increase the talent pool. They don't need to hire people just locally. Now they have access to the whole country or even the continent or the world if they decide to work asynchronously.
On the other side, the main challenge is to keep employees engaged. The relation between an employee and the business is harder to build now. They have fewer to no physical interactions with the rest of the team, and at the same time, there are many other opportunities on the market. The talent pool increased for the businesses, but the opportunities pool increased for employees too. Employees need to feel they are part of something meaningful and bigger than themselves. They need to feel contribution and rewarded properly by the company.
To have a good retention employee rate, businesses need to keep them motivated, and below I will point some ways to do it.
Working remotely means fewer interactions and most of them by writing. Sometimes during the week, there will be video calls to talk about current projects, discuss objectives, or review activities. These times need to be used wisely. Good communication starts with transparency and honest expectations from each side. If these are met, there can be build trust between businesses and their employees. It's hard to work in an environment where you cannot trust your teammates will give their best. Also, the employees need to feel comfortable to explore new things, make mistakes and develop themselves. This growth mindset needs to be designed by the company leadership.
Once or twice a year, companies need to bring everyone together for at least a couple of days. It is the perfect moment for everyone to feel involved and be part of a community. We, as humans, like to be part of communities and the companies are the most constant communities we are part of during our lives. So, a two weeks retreat in a nice place around the world is the perfect way to build relationships, review last months, clarify vision, set new objectives and drink a couple of beers.
Beyond a good salary, companies can attract good talent by offering benefits. Working remotely can be hard to manage as employees need a good work-life balance. So, during the last months, I saw companies that reward their employees if they practice meditation or support them subscriptions to apps like Calm. Also, some companies assure costs for their employees to practice sport. Another way to do it is to offer a setup budget that the employee can use to build the desired office. Last but not least, almost everyone has the desire to travel and visit new places, so companies can help their employees achieve their dream. They can offer the opportunity to work from different colivings in specific locations. In this way, the company knows that its employee has a good remote working environment and can be productive, and the employee achieve his dreams while working.
Motivating employees will be one of the biggest challenges the companies will face in the upcoming years. Having a competitive retention employee rate is an important KPI for every company and having motivated employees is a way to keep it high. It's easier to build an organizational culture that motivates employees rather than searching to hire new people every day. The three points described above are three ideas to achieve it or at least to offer disruptive improvements.
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