October 1, 2021

6 Ways to Improve Remote Employee Retention

Man at desk with laptop

Remote teams face unique challenges when it comes to employee retention and employee engagement. Without regular face-to-face time and regular touch points, these teams can be both difficult to manage and difficult to communicate with.  In order to keep your best employees, it is important to examine your company’s management, communication and work practices.  

Here are six ways to ensure top performers stay at your company in a remote work environment.

  1. Be Adaptable

Managing remote teams requires flexibility and the ability to adapt to changing needs and circumstances, including shifting schedules, changes in procedures and technological setbacks.  The best employers proactively seek to remove roadblocks, set clear and transparent expectations and instead of micromanaging, and trust employees as valuable members of their teams to meet business objectives.

1. Invest in New Technologies 

Rapid technological adaptation was essential for organizations to stay productive throughout 2020 and 2021 and ongoing investment will strengthen your business's teamwork across departments, geographical areas, and time zones. Tools include video conferencing platforms, cloud-based file-sharing services, and wellness platforms to support your employees’ physical and mental health. 

2. Provide Feedback More Frequently

Employees don't always know where they stand nor what is expected of them and remote employees often feel as if they are on their own. This puts your organization more at risk for losing your best  employees.  To combat this, ensure you have regularly structured touch points with your employees, including 1:1s and aim for feedback that is specific and constructive.  Is it also essential to ask for feedback from your employees.  Are they experiencing any barriers or concerns?  Ask how you can help them and then follow up.  

3. Support Work-Life Balance

Often, our employees are looking for not just flexibility for where they work but also when they work.  Allowing employees to care for themselves and their responsibilities that exist outside of their job obligations lets them know that their needs are important, too.  Progressive companies understand that by supporting the whole person they are empowering their employees to be the best version of themselves. 

4. Remember the Little Things

Small gestures show employees your appreciation of their work and time, which in turn makes them feel valued and cared for.  It is amazing how important simply saying thank you can be.  If possible, refrain from messaging your staff during non-business hours, or let your employees know that you do not expect them to respond until the next business day.  Bring the water-cooler moment into your remote culture by chatting with your employees about non-business related topics, and when you ask how they are doing, really listen.

5. Encourage Creativity and New Ideas

Another way to improve employee retention is by encouraging creativity and new ideas.  For example, if  an engineer approaches the engineering manager with a suggestion for how something could be done better, that idea should not just be met with a no or an explanation as to why it won't work.  A workplace culture that supports employee contributions and ideas allows creativity to flourish.  When a company embraces the mantra “You can lead from any chair”, the result is new ideas, new solutions and happier, more engaged employees 

Continue to support your remote or hybrid workforce with Sprout At Work, a wellbeing solution designed to educate, engage and inspire your employees.  Book your discovery call today.   

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