How to Keep Employees Engaged and Productive in Our Post-COVID World

There’s No Place Like Home. Except the Office.

“WFH” is the New Normal

Are you one of the millions of people now working remotely, at least part of the time? It used to be the case that working from home was a coveted benefit, granted under special circumstances and rarely on a full time basis. But the current reality businesses are faced with to help ensure worker safety is different, and not just because it’s being mandated versus allowed. It’s a reality of sharing your home office (and Internet bandwidth!) with family members also faced with stay-at-home restrictions. Who has not had to take a break in an online call to help with a youngster’s virtual learning session?

However, we should also recognize the benefits of remote working. There are plenty of studies and surveys out there pointing out the upside of removing commute time, flexibility in work schedules, and the omnipresent opportunity to reply to emails or update that spreadsheet.

From a different perspective, in this mostly virtual collaboration environment, your interactions with your colleagues are broken into pre-scheduled, 30 or 60 minute chunks, or relegated to lengthy chat sessions. There is limited chance to share ad hoc thoughts and observations with anyone but your dog. You may feel that sometimes, “you’re on mute”; both literally and figuratively!

There is a great deal of information on this topic online, and particularly this study from Alliance Virtual Offices.

The reality is we’re heading for a hybrid workplace, in which companies need unified internal communications delivery to inform employees and clients. Digital noise is everywhere, and cutting through the sea of messaging is often critical to companies in helping them meet or exceed corporate objectives. You want a hub for all your workplace communications, delivering your important messaging to an engaged audience, regardless of location or device.

Targeted, Engaging Communication is Key

So, now that we are facing increased reliance on a remote workforce, organizations are scrambling to ensure employee engagement and productivity remain high.

If you are in a position in your organization that requires you to help manage a remote workforce, you know about this firsthand. It’s easier to have a feeling for how your team is doing when you spend your day right there with your people, and it’s also easier for you and your organization’s leadership to provide the communication and guidance needed to keep the workforce aligned to your vision, mission, and company culture.

At a more tactical level for those heading back to the office, employees should be constantly and consistently reminded of new safety protocols in the workplace. Communicating best practices should start before employees even arrive at the office and should be reinforced throughout their daily workplace journey. Employers should make employee communication around new work and safety protocols prominent and engaging.

Technology can also help by measuring the reach and impact of messaging. With most mobile and desktop messaging platforms, workplace communicators have the ability to know if messages were opened and read and can create segments of employee audiences for retargeting if critical messages are ignored.

How Do We Bridge the Workplace Communications Gap?

Bridging the gap between at-home and in-office workforce will be a continuing challenge, even as we potentially transition back to in-person workplaces. For some organizations, a mostly remote workforce may become “the new normal.” So, where can you strengthen your communication strategy and toolset? Here are some ideas:

• Identify key strategies/tactics to keep your workforce strong and engaged
• Mobilize employees real-time, providing actionable messaging
• Give access to actionable, real-time data that keeps your employee workforce strong and on-point
• Provide tools to communicate with flexibility
• Adopt integrations that tap into your teams’ existing technology platforms

An Intelligent Employee Communications and Engagement Platform

Safety concerns have ushered in a new work environment for us all. Some level of a remote workforce is inevitable. There are challenges to this, but also potential benefits if managed correctly. Having a clear communication strategy backed up by integrated technologies can promote a productive and engaging workplace.

If this is resonating with you, you should consider finding out how an advanced internal communications and Engagement Platform from Korbyt aids companies in navigating this new world. Watch an informative webinar and discover:

• How AI-assisted content management improves communication initiative outcomes
• UI/UX that makes the content creator’s life easier
• How to solve internal communication problems for the remote workforce