What Tools Should You Use for Remote Working and Employee Engagement

In light of the increasing reliance on virtual and remote workplace arrangements, keeping employees engaged is now more important to boost morale and ensure productivity. Understandably, ensuring engagement where employees barely interact with themselves may be difficult. Not to worry, this article is a practical guide to providing engagement – particularly in IT firms where most of the work can be done remotely. The sections below consider must-haves by IT companies to boost their employee's morale. But first, let's consider why it is essential to engage employees. 

Why Should You Engage Employees in a Remote Work Place?

Every employer – remote or physical – must continuously engage employees. This remains even more certain for remote work settings with little physical interaction. But do not just take our word for it. Here are some reasons to consider engaging your employees in a software development company.

1. Productivity

Many companies adopting remote or hybrid workplace arrangements must realize that employee engagement is intricately related to productivity. The higher the engagement, the higher the productivity levels. Where there are intentional and specific moves on the part of IT firms to keep employees engaged, they feel valued and vital. They are more likely to be motivated, leading to an increase in productivity. 

2. Inclusion

Communication, inclusion, and diversity are at the heart of employee engagement, and they all ensure that your employees have the right motives for putting in the work. With engagement, employees feel included, and working at the firm comes more naturally. 

3. Human Capital Management 

A form of human capital management is employee engagement. Human leadership is essential for the growth and success of every company – particularly  IT outsourcing companies, which partly rely on referrals and reputation for business growth. Employee engagement is a great place to begin your human management within the firm.

4. Collaboration and Cohesion

Remote workplace engagement allows for collaboration and agreement between employees. This creates excellent team spirit, bonding, cohesion, and a brilliant workplace culture. Employee engagement may be the turning point needed to boost effectiveness and cohesion among the teams and departments in the company, regardless of the remote nature of the workplace. 

What are the Tools for Engaging Employees in Remote Work Place

1. Communication Tools

What good is remote work without effective communication? All software development companies and IT outsourcing firms have one or several platforms through which employees communicate. Contact gets the job done while ensuring all team employees agree regarding what needs to be done. This is why it is essential to make communication tools your priority; they are a one-way train for continuous engagement and productivity. Tools like this include Slack , Email, Google Workspace , Zoom , Microsoft Teams , and many others. 

2. Collaboration Tools

Every remote work requires one form of collaboration platform or many. Due to the lack of physical presence, employees must interact and work on projects successfully. Thanks to rapid technological development, some media and applications offer services for file sharing, project coordination, editing, resource access, and so much more. The Google Workspace and other applications like Microsoft Office 365 are great collaboration tools. Some automation tools can also be collaborative,  allowing colleagues to automate and streamline their tasks, share them, or break them into bits. 

3. Feedback Tools

Are you looking for a great way to manage your employees? Try feedback. You undoubtedly would want employees to avoid walking out on you or drawing up lousy PR for your company. All of those can easily be avoided by having periodic feedback using surveys. Platforms like Culture Monkey , SurveyMonkey , Qualtrics , and 15Five are great for getting employee input. Remember, you should take both positive and not-so-positive responses. Sometimes, you may also need to get such surveys anonymously to encourage transparency without fear of repercussions. 

4. Virtual Leisure Tools

Have you ever heard the saying, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." Jack – in this instance, your employees – deserve some occasional time out for the stress of remote working and interactions. One brilliant way to boost employee engagement is to have leisure tools for interactions and to encourage team spirit within the firm. Tools like Yammer and Donuts are great for employee interactions, whether remote or physical. 

5. Reward and Bonuses Tools

One of the most underrated employee engagement tools is reward and bonus tools. These platforms offer a chance to recognize employees and boost morale. The remote nature may not allow employee recognition and rewards like you would have in a physical setting. But not to worry, several platforms like KudosNow and GloboForce – now called Workhuman - provide employee recognition and rewards services to promote employee engagement and boost morale. Employees will find a new edge in being recognized for their work and will put in the efforts needed for enhanced productivity within the company. 

6. Automation Tools

Automation tools may not be a direct source of employee engagement, but they help boost employee morale by reducing workload. These tools help to streamline tasks while ensuring efficiency. They automate workflow for specific events and can be invaluable when used by two employees or teams working on a project. Examples of these kinds of tools include Zapier and Integromat.

Conclusion 

In this write-up, we have clearly shown why it is essential to have structures in place to support employee engagement. The preceding section has also provided the various categories of engagement tools with examples that are accessible – paid and unpaid. There are certainly more platforms and tools to look into. But in the meantime, these should provide a great starting point for your employee engagement project and endeavors.