The business world is becoming increasingly entrepreneurial. Businesses are more fluid than before, axing traditional ways of working with employees, organization styles, and even traditional offices. Remote work is a big part of this shift and it’s happening fast. In 2019, 66% of companies are offering remote work as an option and 16% are fully remote. Employees are expecting remote work opportunities from companies and companies are realizing the cost benefits as well as the door it opens for a larger talent pool.
With the option for remote work, you are able to recruit talent from anywhere in the world. The physical barriers and discussions about relocation are no longer an issue. There are plenty of employees, as a result, who are used to remote work, are highly trained and experienced, and are seeking opportunities. These employees are the cornerstone companies need to successfully manage remote work and continue to compete.
How do companies lock down top remote talent?
Here’s a few tips on how to attract and keep top remote talent from an almost entirely remote team:
Plan meetup opportunities to build a sense of community:
It’s easy for remote workers to get a sense that they are outside the company or are not permanently connected to the organization and its growth. Particularly, if your employees are full time employees who are remote, it’s important to take measures to keep them feeling a part of a greater organization. Planning annual meetups and retreats for remote employees to meet in person is a great way to keep people connected to the company. Large remote teams like Buffer plan these annually to create a sense of unity. It can also really be a testament to the fun and flexibility remote work offers if your employees are able to meet somewhere new every year around the world. Read more about top team building activities.
Use remote work and autonomous work as a selling point:
Just as companies have become more entrepreneurial, so have employees. Many employees, especially those with specialized skills and experience, prefer to take a more autonomous approach to work. With remote working, they are able to. You can inspire and empower employees to think and act entrepreneurial. It benefits your company and keeps employees engaged and happy at work. Here are some ways to get your team thinking entrepreneurially.
Provide opportunity for growth while remote:
Particularly with employees who are working entirely remote and working part time remote, it can feel as if their work is contract work and stagnant in nature. Any time employees feel there is no opportunity for growth and development in their job, they are likely to become disengaged and less productive. With remote employees, it’s even more important to make it clear there are growth opportunities despite there being no central office. Expanding responsibilities over time and working remote employees into different projects that span across departments helps them feel more involved and growing with the company rather than an outside contractor.
Have intuitive communication and collaboration processes:
Communication is absolutely the most important factor when it comes to remote work. Remote work is only effective when there is fluid and intuitive communication processes in place. Remote workers can lose morale and become disengaged with low levels of communication or it is too difficult to work as a team. There is so much potential for collaboration online with the right processes and tools in place. Remote teams need a centralized digital workspace that acts as a virtual office where everyone can communicate and collaborate effectively. Hibox is the perfect all-in-one platform for remote teams. Hibox has company chat, task management, file sharing on your favorite platforms, and video conferencing built into the same platform. No outside integrations are necessary to get all the functionality remote workers need.
Remote workers can chat in organized streams and create tasks within them to stay organized. All your files are shared in one central place so your team can work together without multiple versions of documents floating around via email. Video conferencing makes keeping remote workers engaged with the whole team easy without needing to have everyone logged into different tools. Hibox covers the bases for collaboration and communication for remote teams. Having these processes set up as you onboard talent shows you are organized and supportive of remote work.
Share your long term goals as a company and the vision of your founders:
Think about the companies that everyone wants to work for. They are very open and public about their goals and how they plan to lead their industry. Working for them is a badge of honor for top talent. Google, Facebook, and even more non-tech companies like Northface and Nike are very clear about their bigger picture goals and values. This helps build their company brand which attracts top talent. When a company is open about their strategic direction and shares their goals, top talent wants to be a part of it. It becomes more than just a job, it becomes an opportunity to be a part of something bigger and with more purpose. Having your founders and executives share the direction of the company and regularly share updates on what’s new helps build the company brand and stay top of mind with talent.
Work feedback and goal setting into regular communication:
Keeping remote employees engaged is key to keeping top talent on your team. Employees that receive regular feedback are more engaged and feel their work is more important at their company. For remote workers, it can be easy to feel like your work is a very small part that you don’t see the impact of. It’s important to provide feedback, regularly schedule calls, and set long and short term goals to show remote employees that their work is valued and their performance is important to the company. You can do this virtually with video conferencing in Hibox and task management to plan out long and short term goals during performance reviews.
Work in opportunities for remote employees to communicate with others often:
It can be really easy for top talent to get stuck in their own bubble. Not building relationships at work can lead to employees being disengaged and more likely to leave. Remote workers are particularly susceptible to this. There can also be a lot of missed opportunities for ideas to be shared and solutions created when there is not a lot of internal communication. It’s important to create opportunities for remote talent to be communicating on a regular basis. A central public stream where everyone can share general updates is a great way to keep a line of communication open. You can also create chat streams in Hibox for new ideas and suggestions, collaborating on new projects, and a “just for fun” stream to create an open communication culture for your virtual team.
Creating a company brand and environment that is attractive and supportive of top remote talent should be a top priority of companies that want to stay ahead of the curve. Now more than ever, companies based anywhere at any size have the opportunity to compete on a larger scale thanks to remote work. For the best way to support communication and collaboration for your remote team, try Hibox for free.
