an employer’s guide to virtual engagement.

It is essential to engage with your employees, as it helps to build loyalty and increase retention. This is even more important in 2020, when it has become increasingly challenging and important to keep morale high.

If done right, working arrangements like remote working or telecommuting also encourage autonomy, flexibility and agility, all of which could benefit the company in the long run. Furthermore, employees are expecting flexible work arrangements to be the norm in the future after having a taste of how it has helped them achieve work-life balance.

However, many employers are still sceptical about such policies. “Do I trust my employees enough to let them work with little supervision? What if people start to grow apart and impact our ability to collaborate as an organisation?”

When forced to transit their workforce home as a measure to curb the pandemic, many employers eventually overcame their initial differences. Some have even observed increased workforce productivity with remote working, and have tweaked their HR frameworks and IT infrastructure to enable remote working until 2021.

engagement is key to loyal and productive employees

Organisations need to recognise the distinct difference between having to meet deadlines (productive worker) and wanting to meet deadlines (engaged and loyal employee). The idea is to strike a balance between both.  

When employees are motivated to work, they are more willing to find ways to be innovative, get to know and collaborate with each other and produce higher quality work that they take pride in. 

Remote working will be the new normal that both employers and workers have to accustom themselves to. An employee engagement strategy is important to keep your employees virtually engaged. Workers may work in the office on alternate weeks or assigned days, or even permanently shift their office work back home.

key highlights of the guide

• engaging the entire workforce from an organisational-level 
• remote upskilling and training opportunities 
• digital team building activities to build synergy 
• maintaining physical and mental health

related content

• best practices to manage remote workers
• minimising the spread of COVID-19
• an employer’s guide to managing COVID-19