Surely you know that it is extremely important to continuously make coworkers feel seen and to give them attention frequently. This is like high octane fuel for our employee engagement. But how do you do this in the best way when working remotely?
According to the SHRM / Globoforce Survey 2015, based on data from 6000 people, 86% say that being seen and noticed makes them happier, more joyful and more engaged.
The challenge is how to do this when leading remotely, in a way that really feels genuine and not strained and automated.
Here are a few tips on how to give coworkers relevant attention when working remotely.
A ‘thank you’ goes a long way
Deloitte did a survey on 16 000 people in 2018 where 54% said that they preferred a verbal ‘thank you’ and 31% preferred a written ‘thank you’ when being recognized for their performance.
Only 14% of the employees said that a gift or celebration of some kind was their preferred way of encouragement or reward.
It is obvious that most people don’t expect something big when getting praise or recognition. It is enough with a simple ‘thank you’, written or verbally, as long as it is genuine. Think about this when leading remotely: it is so easy to make a call, send an email or a slack message to say thanks.
Be specific when giving praise
Have you ever said ‘Good work everyone’, without naming the coworker or specifying what was good?
Well, at least I have. Of course it is better than nothing, but it can easily become routine. Try to be specific in your positive feedback. Who was it that did something good, and what was good? Try to praise the performance and not just the result. To be specific is always important when giving feedback, and it is particularly important when working remotely. If you are not specific, it can easily happen that someone feels forgotten and doesn’t really understand what you mean.
Share what you hear from others
A very efficient way to give praise and to recognize coworkers performance is to repeat things you have heard from others.
Have you for instance received a positive customer review that would be encouraging for the team? Or perhaps someone internally have told you how easy it was to work with one of your staff? Share others praise and observations, and not just your own.
Acknowledge immediately
Don’t wait with giving praise until your next one-to-one meeting or even worse: the annual performance review. Give praise and recognition immediately, so that it becomes relevant and so that you encourage the behaviors and performances that you want to see more of, in your staff.
To give praise and acknowledging coworkers remotely is important, since you can often feel forgotten when you don’t see your colleagues or your manager. Invest 15 minutes next week to make sure that you give recognition and praise to at least three coworkers.
Sometime it is hard to come up with what you should acknowledge and praise your staff for. Then use your Puls activities that the coworkers create by themselves when using the Puls engagement platform. These are simple and quick activities that everyone can do. They contribute to increased engagement and self management, and give you as a leader a good agenda to talk about when seeing and recognizing your staff, both in the office and remotely.
Do you want to develop your team and yourself as leader?
Check out Puls employee engagement platform
An AI-based employee engagement platform that coaches employees and managers to feel and perform better.
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Why does Puls Solutions exist?
Puls Solutions exists because we want to develop teams and leaders to feel and perform better.
We offer an AI-based employee engagement platform to create the right conditions for a good work environment and high employee engagement. A platform that is the team´s best friend.
Our platform involves the employees, relieves the managers and helps them to prioritize and implement improvements that leads to increased employee engagement and increased business results. For real.
