5 Tips on Improving Virtual Employee Engagement

Remember when lockdown was going to end in two weeks? Then we ended up spending 2 years indoors? What a time to be alive that was! The changes birthed a new reality where we suddenly had the option to work from home. I know my fellow introverts celebrated this big win! But how did working from home change us and how we engage with our work and how do we increase virtual employee engagement?

Tips on Virtual Employee Engagement

The blurred lines between work and home can become strenuous for some employees so how can you as an organization ensure optimal employee performance without the micro-managing vibes? Here are some tips:

1. Goal trackers

Goal trackers not only keep everyone in alignment but help to keep employees engaged with their work and know what they are working towards.

Creating goal-setting trackers or using goal tracking software such as Asana and Trello is helpful and employees get to compete with themselves!

You get a reward! You get a reward! Everyone gets a reward! You cannot expect employees to achieve their goals without an incentive. As much as we may not want to admit it, humans work on a reward basis so be generous with those rewards!

An example of this could be:

• sending your employee a box of chocolate or flowers to their home when they meet their goals.

2. Leaderboards for teams

Time to spice it up a little bit with some healthy competition. Creating leaderboards for teams will definitely get the ball rolling because we all know at least one person who is competitive. It is mostly  common to use leaderboards to tracks sales, however, extending this beyond revenue could bring even better results.

The best part about this is that all employees can engage within their teams e.g. Marketing department or Sales department. By participating, the groups can reap the group rewards after. Some examples of incentives:

• a free trip for the winning group
• free lunch etc.

3. Virtual team building exercises

Lets be honest, working from home can sometimes be hard especially for people who thrive for team work and collaboration. There are times when you want to just have a brainstorm chat and throw ideas around but working in isolation may not be conducive for this.

You might think that with all the technology we have at our disposal, it would make it easier but the truth is, it is not the same as human interaction. However, when these tools include an element of gamification then we start to see a new fun dimension come to life! Exciting isn’t it!

This ties in very well with point 2 as leaderboards are a great example of team building. Another great way to implement team building exercises is through virtual workshops. An example would be:

• A workshop where employees can be in groups and play different games against other groups.

This boosts morale as well as ensures that employees are engaged with everyone around them.

4. Chatbots for communication

We all know the importance of communication in a work environment. Communication is one of the biggest drivers of employee engagement but how can it be improved so as not to tire the HR department?

A simple way to do so would be the use of chatbots to create an employee engagement platform. The reason for this is so that HR managers can free themselves of certain tedious tasks and focus on important matters. In turn, employees can get the immediate help they need. The advantages of these chatbots include:

• Employees feel listened to and heard
• Little employee retention
• Employees can get immediate feedback
• The two way communication process helps keep employees engaged

5. Upskilling employees

Imagine how quickly employees have to adjust to the world around them whereby changes to their job roles happen almost daily. Employees need to upskill as fast as possible or they will be left behind. However, it has been generally seen that employees aren’t always keen on learning new skills. By gamifying upskilling processes, businesses can drive better employee participation.

Deloitte infused gamification principles to ensure that employees register and complete courses within the Deloitte Leadership Academy program. Another great example of using gamification to upskill employees would be through online classes such as Growth Tribe. These classes offer people certificates which are reputable and offer discounts for those who finish their courses at an early date!  

There are so many great remote learning websites, and enrolling your employees in a course that they’re passionate about shows that you pay attention to what they enjoy or are interested in. Plus, they then bring back their learnings to the company and can in turn expand their role.

So there you have it! Have you tried any of these in your own workplace? Do let us know and share with your network too. Until next time!