5 tips to increase engagement while working from home

Keeping employees engaged is vital to productivity and retaining talent. As telework becomes increasingly widespread, managers will need to adjust their leadership styles to ensure employee engagement out of the office.

Why engagement matters

When engagement is enhanced within an organisation, each person respects and trusts one another, and shares a common purpose in the work they do together. As a result, it improves the productivity and profitability of the organisation and reduces the turnover rate.

How to increase engagement in your organisation

Engagement occurs when the purpose of individuals and organisations are harmonised and can grow together, but how can this be achieved?

First, it is crucial to have transparency with respect to the company's goals and management strategy. For example, managers should communicate well with team members, clarify what their work means, and balance each person’s intentions with the company's goals. The aim is to start with individual growth goals needed to get the job done, revenue targets and significance in management strategy. In addition, it would be good to deepen our understanding step by step to achieve the goal of returning the wealth and knowledge gained by the company through our business to society. If course, it may not be possible to disclose everything, but it is also important to explain why it cannot be opened. In other words, eliminating the stress of ambiguity is the first step to increasing engagement.

After being transparent about the goal, the next step is to share the social significance of why the goal is important with team members.

5 Tips to increase engagement from work from home

When working from home, it is necessary to be more conscious of increasing engagement compared to when working face-to-face. Here, we introduce five measures to increase engagement.

1. Have employees work with autonomy

If you can decide what to do, when to do it, and how much time to spend for each task, you will be less stressful. To increase engagement, managers should not focus on managing their staff but on how to enable them to work autonomously. Managing staff remotely is oftentimes more difficult than managing in a face-to-face environment as this requires a change in mindset. Allowing employees to complete their work independently will not only increase work productivity, it also enhances employee engagement. Utilising an online tool that allows you to visualise each team member’s progress can be useful for ensuring everyone is on track.  

2. Give the person a job they’re passionate about

Engagement naturally declines when people feel like they are doing a job they don’t enjoy. Matching a job with the right person based on his or her talents and strengths is important. In short, having the right person in the right place increases engagement and productivity. Even while teleworking, be sure to frequently communicate to confirm that the person is motivated and passionate about the work given. When you're working from home, it’s difficult to pick up on facial expressions and body language that are visible when working in the office. Therefore, it is essential to communicate consciously. If someone feels unmotivated, rather than scolding, talk to them about “why the job is important to them, the company, and society” and develop a common understanding.

3. Evaluate based on outcomes

If employees demonstrate their talents and work independently, the results will naturally come out. Up until now, Japanese companies tended to evaluate the process, but this is not exactly possible during telework. Instead, trust each team member’s autonomy and make evaluations based on the results produced. To properly evaluate results, it is necessary to predetermine the various responsibilities and expectations of a job role.

4. Communicate closely with each person

To build a trusting relationship with employees, we need to listen to the passion of each individual, harmonise the organisational and individual goals, and grow together. Since it is difficult to communicate casually when teleworking, you will need to actively set up 1-on-1 meetings. It is also important to properly evaluate results as well as present appropriate opportunities for growth. Such face-to-face communication may be common to the team-building method. According to the Tuckman theory of team development, the role of the leader is to determine roles, establish group objectives, strengthen relationships and motivate members. In the process, the team will behave autonomously and function in unity.

Whether in the workplace or at home, increasing engagement requires the kind of communication that leaders use in team building.

5. Recognise and praise each person's efforts

People lose motivation when their efforts go unrecognised. To increase engagement, remember to acknowledge and praise efforts and to do them publicly as much as possible. When holding a video conference where the entire team is gathered, use this as the opportunity to acknowledge everyone’s efforts and achievements. Receiving recognition in front of the team is crucial to increase engagement.

In a teleworking environment, how to communicate with employees rather than how to manage them is key to maintaining and improving engagement.