Business

17 Tips for Building a Successful Virtual Team

Virtual teams and work-from-home arrangements have grown in popularity in recent years. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a significant shift in how people approach their work. As of 2023, 12.7% of full-time employees were working remotely with 16% of companies being fully remote in operations.

With the rise of remote work and hybrid working environments, it has become increasingly important for management to learn how to manage these teams effectively. Although virtual teams can provide many benefits, they also present challenges, including decreased productivity and heightened distractions within the home workspace.

A successful virtual team is effective and delivers high-quality results. They know how to balance regular check-ins while maintaining autonomy, and self-discipline. Effective communication, inclusivity, and trust are all fundamental elements. Platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Slack are essential to a successful virtual team.

In the following sections, we will dive deeper into 17 tips for a successful virtual team.

1) Adaptability

Given that the world of virtual work is a relatively recent concept, not everyone has fully acclimated to it. Thus, having employees who are willing to adapt, learn, overcome challenges, and obstacles is important to the success of a virtual team. It’s crucial to encourage your team as you navigate this virtual environment together.

2) Technology

In an office setting, collaboration often involves face-to-face interactions such as meetings in conference rooms and informal chats at other’s desks. However, online work arrangements, don’t allow for this to happen. Thus, having appropriate technology to help facilitate some of these interactions is important. This technology enables communication channels and enhances the efficiency of remote work. Later sections will delve into various types of platforms that serve this purpose.

3) Communication

Effective communication has always been a key to success for any team but it's even more important for virtual teams. With everyone working independently, you can’t just pop by a co-worker's desk to discuss a project. Communication looks very different virtually. With virtual teams, you send emails, and instant messages, schedule video calls, etc. Setting clear communication standards becomes paramount, given the heightened autonomy in remote work, which can lead to communication gaps. Using online programs such as Trello, Miro, Figma, etc. can help to increase the coordination, communication, and efficiency of a virtual team.

4) Motivation and Self-Discipline

Many of us have likely experienced working from home, where we encounter tempting distractions like napping, checking our phones, or watching TV. Successfully navigating these distractions and maintaining focus on work requires significant self-discipline.

The absence of direct supervision results in employees feeling less guilty for succumbing to distractions and being unproductive. Thus, employees must have internal motivation and self-discipline to hold themselves accountable. This isn’t always an easy task so it’s important management asks questions during the interview process to try and identify individuals who have a strong sense of motivation. You must also set standards and promote a culture of self-discipline.

5) Team Culture

Although the team is virtual, setting a team culture is still important. In the office, it’s easy to build stronger connections with your team through talking in the mornings, taking coffee breaks, and much more. A team’s culture can play a big role in motivation, as it increases an employee’s engagement and makes them feel a part of something bigger.

Establishing a team culture online can be hard compared to in person. You might consider hosting online events to build the culture and relationships of the team. You can also host in-person events occasionally to facilitate face-to-face interactions.

6) Online Team Building Activities

As previously discussed, establishing a team culture involves team activities. Here, we will dive deeper into what these team-building activities entail. We often forget the importance of relationships. Employees seek friendships with the people they work with and when they can do so, they care more about the place they work. This contributes to their satisfaction, reduced employee turnover, productivity, etc.

There are a variety of online games that can be done but some popular options involve virtual escape rooms, murder mysteries, trivia, charades, etc.

Sometimes motivation to join these events online is reduced, so leadership needs to set an example and attend these events.

7) Setting Goals

When working in virtual teams, check-ins happen less frequently as you can’t easily drop by your boss’s desk to stay updated on the work and the team.

This is why setting clear goals and effectively communicating them to the team is so important. Clear goals serve as a roadmap for all team members, providing clarity on what they should be working toward. Without such clarity in goal-setting and communication, employees may find themselves uncertain about their objectives. This can also lead to different employees working towards different end goals.

8) Sense of Purpose

An integral aspect of a successful work team is having employees who are dedicated to their tasks and committed to the team's success. To be dedicated to your work, you need to feel a sense of purpose in your work. This can be hard when working virtually as you feel very disconnected from the team.

It’s important for management to not just delegate but explain what the individual’s contributions do for the company as a whole. Providing recognition also plays a pivotal role, as it reinforces the significance and impact of employees' efforts. If an employee doesn’t see the value of their work, they won’t feel that they play an important role on the team, leading to reduced motivation toward the team’s success.

9) Delegation

Everyone plays a role in a team and it's important you know what your role is. Managers need to delegate tasks and make this clear to everyone. There can be miscommunication when employees take the initiative on their own to do things without a clear direction of what is expected. This might result in certain tasks not being done or multiple people doing the same task. This doesn’t mean initiative isn’t important but that delegation is a crucial first step to take. It makes it clear to employees what they need to do especially when they work independently.

10) Set Clear Expectations

As we know, virtual teams require independent work. There is a lack of oversight by management as you can’t see what your team is doing. Although you can never guarantee that your team is performing to your expectations, setting clear expectations can help to guide employees. Throughout onboarding and even during the time of employment, it is critical to emphasize expectations in terms of working hours, work quality, turnaround time, policies, procedures, etc. This helps employees to know what is expected of them and how to do their job properly.

11) Regular Check-ins and Be Available

Remote work does require a lot of self-direction but management should still oversee the work of the team. Thus, regular check-ins either weekly or bi-weekly will help to keep the team on track and allow everyone to share updates on their work. This allows for more effective communication and helps the team feel like they are a part of something bigger. When working at home, it’s easy to forget what you are contributing to and that you are part of a bigger team.

Not only are check-ins important but being available for your team. Employees may have questions that arise when doing their work and since they can’t pop by your desk, they need to be able to reach you online. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t focus on your work or that you should answer the second that they message you, but make sure you are keeping an eye on your messages. You could even consider setting aside a period during the week when you are open for questions and chats.

12) Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is crucial for any organization’s success. Maintaining engagement can be harder in a virtual setting when interaction is reduced. Employee engagement drives productivity, commitment, and a positive culture. Cultivating strong employee engagement is not always easy. As previously highlighted, virtual work environments often pose challenges such as distractions and reduced motivation, making employee engagement crucial in mitigating these issues. As this is not an easy task, you might consider discovering ways to improve employee engagement.

13) Recognition

A part of employee engagement, satisfaction in the workplace, and commitment to your work comes from positive reinforcement. Providing recognition and feedback allows employees to feel appreciated for the work they do.

Even in traditional in-person settings, recognition can sometimes be insufficient, despite the presence of non-verbal cues that offer reassurance in ways that words cannot. it's important to proactively announce and recognize team contributions during regular meetings or through rewards. By demonstrating that you acknowledge and value their efforts, even within a virtual team, you motivate employees to invest more effort in their roles and strengthen their commitment.

14) Flexible Working Hours

Flexible working hours are important for any team. With virtual teams, there can sometimes be more burnout as the individual’s personal life and work life overlap as it all happens in their home. As employees get burnt out in the office and become less productive, the same happens for virtual teams although it seems like a more “relaxed” work arrangement.

Allowing for flexible working hours will allow the employee to take breaks when needed without feeling guilty. It will help to refresh their productivity and provide them the opportunity to work when their motivation is higher.

You might also consider why your team is working virtually. It might be because they physically cannot be in office due to children that need to be taken care of, elderly, etc. This can be exhausting, balancing working and taking care of someone at the same time. Thus, offering flexible working hours will allow employees to work when it is best for them while increasing employee satisfaction and engagement.

15) Project Management Tools

As previously mentioned, project management tools help to ensure communication. It also helps with shared goals and staying informed. Using such tools will keep track of everything that everyone is working on and keep it all on one platform. This allows the team to track the progress towards deadlines and will notify others when a team member completes their tasks. This will ensure instant updates on the progress of a project, allowing for collaboration and organization through continual co-creation.

Teams can consider platforms such as:

  • Trello: track tasks, deadlines, and comments with colour tags in a calendar layout. Co-create projects in real-time.

  • SmartDraw: helps teams that work primarily with images and visual presentations with free templates in a shareable format.

16) Virtual Team Training

Without an in-person setting, establishing a rigorous and clear training program will improve the team's success. Even in the office, programs do not always provide sufficient training for the employees. With online teams, it’s even more important as you don’t have someone to turn to right away if you need help.

It’s important to also consider informal training for your employees via creative media resources. Consider creating a B2B podcast for your company, where you can learn from key clients, CEO/leaders, and network with influential figures in your industry. This can help employees learn more about your culture, improve personally, and move your business forward.

Most companies don’t have the time to figure out the format, production, and marketing that goes into a B2B podcast, so you can leverage a B2B podcasting partner to handle the entire process.

Technological training is key. The use of technology is so important in a virtual environment as you are using online communication platforms alongside other project management collaboration tools. Some employees might be unfamiliar with these platforms and will require training to ensure they can be productive rather than trying to figure out the technology.

As previously mentioned, communication is more important than ever. However, not everyone is great at communication. Thus, effective communication training is important. This entails both verbal and written communication. Having training for written communication is key as it can be hard to properly express what you mean in writing. Written communication lacks vocal inflection and body language which can lead to miscommunication. So, training regarding how to write an email or send a Teams message can play an important role in ensuring a successful virtual team.

17) Reviews

As most of us know, you normally want feedback when you do your work. You want to hear what you are doing good and what you need to improve on. Doing regular reviews is important so that employees can know how they are performing. During these reviews, you can outline feedback and set goals moving forward. Not only does this allow the employee to correct unproductive performance but also provides direction for the future.

Conclusion

As we navigate this new landscape of virtual teams, we learn something new every day. Every day we work online, we become more effective and successful in our teams. If you are considering starting a virtual team or having problems with your current virtual team, it’s important to ask how and why. It’s time to consider some of these steps and make your way to a successful virtual team.

Written by Kaitlin Duong

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Jony Studios is a client-focused media production studio offering audio/video production, B2B podcasting, and audiobook services. They have worked with a wide range of clients from small businesses to larger organizations such as Penguin Random House, Amazon, University of Waterloo, Freakonomics Radio and many others.

 
 

20 Ways to Promote Your Book

Authors invest a lot of time into crafting their books, so it’s important that their promotional efforts are effective. You don’t want hours of hard work and thousands of dollars to be poured into a book without results.

Before you create a marketing plan to promote your book, you must ask two key questions:

  1. What value will readers get from your book?

  2. Why should a reader listen to you over others?

These questions allow you to articulate your book's benefits, the needs it satisfies, and why you are uniquely qualified to serve those needs. Effective marketing of your book entails not only answering these questions but doing so before you even write the book. Doing this allows you to seamlessly integrate these promotional tactics into your writing process.

Now that you’ve started thinking about these questions, let’s dive deeper into 20 ways you can effectively promote your book.

1) Identify Your Audience

To effectively promote your book, you need to know who you are promoting to. Consider what your book is about, and who you are trying to reach. Once you identify your audience, you can conduct more research on the demographic. This will allow you to identify who they are, what they like, what they are looking for, what platforms they are on and much more. All of this will make it much easier to promote your book.

For non-fiction authors, this can be quite simple. For instance, if you are writing a beginner’s guide to car repairs, your audience comprises individuals interested in learning how to repair their car. However, for fiction authors, identifying your audience is a little trickier. Fiction books serve a variety of purposes and thus can appeal to various markets. Analyzing other fiction authors with similar themes might help you refine your target audience.

2) Perfect the Book

Now that you have written a great book, many other factors go into perfecting the book. The title, the cover, and the description all play a role in a successfully promoted book. The title gives them an idea of what the book is about, the cover plays a role in catching someone’s attention, and the description acts to sell the book. Before the release, you need to ensure all elements of the book, external and internal, are perfected and consistent. We will dive deeper into these elements in the following sections.

Remember that the title and description need to be SEO friendly. This will help to get your book recognized when people are googling online.

3) Create an Eyecatching Cover

You might know the saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Although this is true, consumers can’t help but form opinions based on a book’s cover. When you are browsing a bookstore, you are overwhelmed by the number of available options. You tend to gravitate to a visually appealing cover. I know that I do this all the time. A nice cover grabs your attention in the sea of others, and it helps you to establish your perception of what the book is about.

Unfortunately, you might have a well-written book, but a poor cover can make the difference between someone picking up your book and skipping over it. Remember to remain consistent with your covers to establish a brand across all your works. This makes it easier for fans to quickly identify your books when they see them.

4) Write a Good Description

Most books are very long, and readers want to know what your book is about before buying it. So, a book description that is short and sweet is a great way to sell a reader on your book.

You need to be creative in this. Remember, an eye-catching cover is important. It’s enough to get the reader to pick up your book, but once they pick it up, they will read the description to decide if they want to buy it. So, your description can't simply describe what the book is about, it needs to sell to the reader why your book is worth purchasing. Think back to the question we asked at the beginning regarding what value a reader will get from your book. The description is where you can answer that question.

5) Take Your Author Photo

The book cover and the description are all about branding your book. But what about you? Readers are naturally curious about who the author is and how you can meet their needs. This takes us back to our second question about why a reader should listen to you over others.

An author photo helps to establish your personal brand and allows readers to feel more connected to you as an author. A great author photo sets a tone and can be used in your book, on your website, and across promotional materials.

6) Create an Author Website

Although the bulk of your sales may not come directly from your website, it’s still important to have a central place where readers can find more information about you. An author website will allow you to feature information about yourself and your books. It’s a great way to address the question of why a reader should listen to you over others.

Through the use of a website, you can promote your book with blogs, special releases, and other engaging content. You can also generate a mailing list and create a community of readers.

To optimize your website, make sure to include features like an About the Author Page, a section showcasing all your books with direct links to purchase them, a regular newsletter, and much more.

7) Utilize Email Marketing

Make sure to capitalize on email marketing. Leverage your existing newsletter subscribers to announce the release of your new book. Make sure to create engaging emails that not only introduce your book but explain the needs it fulfills. You can also offer exclusive sneak peeks through your email list that encourages individuals to be more engaged.

If you are looking to grow your email list, you might consider reader magnets like a free eBook, or giveaway, that gives people a reason to sign up. Once they sign up, you can use it as a way to continue to promote all your work.

8) Add the Book to Your Email Signature

Although it may seem small, it can make a difference. You probably send a ton of emails in a day, so why not promote your book while you do it? Adding your book to your email signature subtly promotes it without feeling like you're being pushy. This might even make someone more inclined to buy your book because they came across the email signature themselves and don’t feel like you tried to push a sale on them.

9) Reach out to Bloggers and Influencers

People love to hear what others have to say. It’s all about getting the right people to talk about your book. Before your book is released, reach out to bloggers and influencers who are well-known to your target audience. For instance, if you are writing a cookbook, reach out to a well-known influencer that makes cooking videos. These influencers possess a substantial following within your target demographic and hold considerable influence within the community.

By sharing your book with these influencers or bloggers, you leverage their credibility to endorse your work and share their genuine opinions with their audience. This will help to generate stronger interest in your book as the endorsement is coming from someone well-known within the space.

10) Leverage Your Social Media Presence

In today’s digital age, social media is a key part of marketing. If you already have a social media presence, work on continuing to build it. It’s important to start by identifying where your target market is and what platforms they use the most. Make sure to focus your marketing efforts on those platforms.

Through social media, you can announce your books, provide exclusives, and interact with potential readers. It’s a great way to get the discussion going and to generate a community.

There are a variety of platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, etc. Identifying the right platforms not only depends on where your target market is but also on what makes the most sense for you. For example, Twitter is a great platform for people to share their thoughts. This is a great opportunity for non-fiction authors to share their thoughts and solidify their expertise on the topic. On the other hand, TikTok is a creative platform that tends to have a younger audience. It’s a great opportunity for authors who have a younger demographic, or who want to capitalize on the BookTok community.

11) Videos and Livestreams

On the topic of using your social media presence, videos and livestreams are a useful tool. This allows you to engage with your audience and directly communicate with them. Through this, you can promote your book and tell them why they should be reading your book specifically.

One way you can utilize this is by holding Q&A sessions. This can either be through a live stream or you can have people submit questions in advance that you generate video responses to. Once you have generated some interest in your book, it is natural for readers to get excited and have questions. By holding a Q&A you can continue to generate interest and provide some more insight. Be mindful that you don’t reveal too much so that readers are still surprised once they read your book.

You can also create vlogs showing behind-the-scenes clips of you working on your book. This helps to get readers more engaged and excited about the process. It also humanizes you as an author and allows for a better connection. This all plays into author branding.

12) Collect Book Reviews

What’s something you do before you buy something? You check reviews. You might notice that seeing good reviews encourages buying while the absence of reviews causes hesitation. This applies to your book as well. Without reviews, potential readers may be less inclined to buy your book. It’s crucial that you have reviews when your book launches so that the interest you have generated translates into sales.

However, getting book reviews isn’t always an easy task. So, before your book launches, it’s important to give some people the opportunity to read it and write an honest review. You can send it to book bloggers, and subscribers, get a professional book review, and much more.

13) Gather Blurbs for Your Book

Similar to reviews, blurbs are a great way to promote your book. Blurbs are quotes about your book from others who have read it. The best blurbs are the ones that come from people who are trusted by your target audience. Make sure to do your research and send your book to the right people. Once you have great blurbs, you can include them in your book and promotional materials.

14) Make Friends in the Community

A great way to promote your book is to make friends and connections in the author community. Before you release your book, gain connections with other authors. You can help to promote their books, write reviews, engage with their social media, etc. You can also find online groups for authors that you can make connections with.

If you are willing to lend a hand to others, they will likely provide the same support to you when you release your book.

15) Start A Blog

If you already have a blog, that’s great, but if not you might want to consider starting one. A blog can be a long-lasting promotional tool if it is used right.

Starting a blog provides you an outlet to share all your thoughts that didn’t make it into your book. Especially for non-fiction authors, you can establish a stronger reputation and expertise in your field by releasing more content related to it. For example, if you wrote a cookbook, you might also have a blog that allows you to share more tips and recipes in the meantime while you write your next book.

Also, it’s a great way to stay connected with your readers and keep them up to date on your work, your life, etc. Readers tend to become very loyal to certain authors when they find one that they like. They start to love their work and are always eagerly waiting for the next thing. A blog will allow you to build a stronger connection and community with your readers and is a great way to continue promoting yourself and your work.

Frequent and regular posting is important so take the time to create a posting schedule that works for you. Remember to keep the content relevant to your space to ensure consistent messaging and marketing.

16) Create an Audiobook

It’s no secret that audiobooks are an increasingly popular way to enjoy a book. With the global audiobook market valued at USD 3.3B and an expected CAGR of 24.4% between 2022 and 2027, there’s an opportunity for authors to capitalize on.

Audiobooks allow people to listen to your book when they are on the go, have short breaks, are cooking dinner, etc. It’s also a great way to reach potential readers who just prefer audio or have a harder time reading a physical book. There is an uncaptured market if you don’t present this option to potential readers. Having an audiobook option is a great feature to promote in your marketing materials.

Creating an audiobook does take time, but once created, it presents a great opportunity to increase the popularity of your book. You might consider using an audiobook production service that helps you with everything from the beginning to the final product. Using an audiobook service will not only allow you to save time but also expand your audience, grow your brand, and benefit from external expertise.

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17) Giveaways and Contests

People love free stuff! Running giveaways and contests is a great way to engage with current fans and even those who might not know who you are.

For a giveaway, you can offer something like a free copy of your book in exchange for engagement such as a like or a follow. By doing this, you either gain a good review from a current fan or you can gain a new follower. Once they are introduced to your page through the giveaway, they will now have the opportunity to read some of your work. If they like it, you have now gained a new fan. Although it might cost some money at the start to host these contests, it can pay off in the long run.

18) Create a GoodReads Author Page

Many readers will check GoodReads when they want to learn more about a book or an author. Signing up for the GoodReads Author Program can provide many benefits.

Through this page, readers can find more information about you, your book, your blog, your events, etc. An author page also allows you to take questions from readers, it allows for reviews and is a great way to develop a social network for your fans.

As a GoodReads author, you can also link GoodReads reviews to your author website. GoodReads also allows you to hose giveaways through it, advertise your book, and access other marketing tools.

All this together contributes to your promotional plan to create more exposure for your book.

19) Be a Guest on a Podcast

Podcasts have risen in popularity and are a great way to gain exposure. Podcast hosts are always looking for guests to keep their shows interesting and to bring new perspectives.

Do your research. Find a podcast that aligns with your brand and audience. If you are writing a book about business, you might want to go on a podcast that also talks about business. This will give you a chance to have real conversations about your book with the hosts and their audience. It acts as a tool for promotion because you’re not just selling your book but yourself as an author.

Also, if you’re a company owner/leader and want to start your own B2B podcast to meet top decision-makers in your industry to grow your business, while at the same time gaining an audience in your niche for your book, you can work with a podcasting partner. They can handle the entire process, all you would need to do is have one conversation weekly or bi-weekly, fully remote.

Also, use this as an opportunity to share a free copy of your book with the host. This might just lead to another positive review you can use.

20) Start Early

It might seem early to promote your book while writing it, but it can prove to be advantageous. Delaying promotion until the book is finished will deprive you of sufficient time to generate buzz. By starting early, you can cultivate interest in your book ahead of its release. Once it is out, fans will be eager to purchase your book.

Early promotion involves showcasing your expertise in the field for non-fiction authors or teasing exclusive insights or spoilers for your fiction book. This approach prepares your audience for the launch, fostering excitement and anticipation.

Conclusion

You put all this time into creating a great book so making sure it is seen is so important. It will take time but every step you take to market your book is another chance for people to see it. Now that we’ve covered 20 different ways for you to promote your book, it is time for you to start your book promotion journey.

Written by Kaitlin Duong

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Jony Studios is a client-focused media production studio offering audio/video production, B2B podcasting, and audiobook services. They have worked with a wide range of clients from small businesses to larger organizations such as Penguin Random House, Amazon, University of Waterloo, Freakonomics Radio and many others.

 
 

14 Key Elements of Employee Engagement

Employee engagement plays a crucial role in an organization’s success. Every business leader aims to ensure their employees are dedicated to the organization and putting in their best efforts. However, this is not always an easy task. Encouraging employees to be engaged in their work and remain committed to the organization requires addressing various factors.

A high level of employee engagement can drive prosperity and serve as a tool to attract top talent. So, you might wonder, how do I enhance employee engagement in my workplace? Before we dive into that, let’s look at what employee engagement is and why it’s so important.

What is Employee Engagement and Why Is It Important?

Employee engagement is a measure of an individual’s mental and emotional connection towards the organization they work for, their team, and their work. Employees who are engaged usually exhibit a high degree of commitment, productivity, and positive impact on the organization’s culture.

The levels of employee engagement are:

  • Highly engaged employees

  • Moderately engaged employees

  • Barely engaged employees

  • Disengaged employees

Reaching a highly engaged employee level is important as this indicates an organization is thriving, successful, and a great workplace. Maintaining a high level of engagement is crucial as it lowers absenteeism and turnover, boosts productivity and customer satisfaction, and promotes employee well-being. With that in mind, we have highlighted 14 key elements of employee engagement below.

1) Organizational Commitment

Organizational commitment is the level of loyalty an individual feels towards their job and organization. A highly committed employee has a strong connection to their team and firm and will contribute more to the organization’s success. These individuals possess a strong inclination to help their organization succeed.

The level of organizational commitment is influenced by multiple factors including job satisfaction, culture, management, and more. We will further outline some of these factors below.

2) Company Culture

Company culture reflects the norms, values, beliefs, attitudes, and standards of an organization. A company’s culture is key to employee happiness and motivates them to come to work every day. Employees are more engaged in their work when they are surrounded by a welcoming and positive environment as opposed to one that causes stress. Moreover, employees are even more engaged when their personal beliefs and values align with the company culture.

It’s imperative to recognize that ensuring cultural diversity is a key element in company culture. This underscores the company’s commitment and values towards diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). A diverse and inclusive workplace impacts employee recruitment and loyalty. With the rise of DEI, incorporating this into your company culture will foster trust, enhance reputation, nurture empowerment, and stimulate innovation.

If you find your company culture is not conducive to fostering employee engagement, it might be time to conduct a thorough analysis to pinpoint the underlying issues. Are there specific aspects missing, or is there something inherent in the culture that’s reducing employee engagement? Sometimes minor corrections to company culture might suffice and other times a complete change in culture is necessary.

3) Meaning and Purpose

As most of us can understand, finding purpose and meaning in what we do makes a tremendous difference in our careers. Thus, ensuring you provide meaningful work for your employees is a key to employee engagement. Employees who perceive their contributions as impactful are more likely to be committed to the work they do.

Demonstrating to employees the meaningfulness of their work requires communicating how their efforts contribute to the larger picture. How does their work make a positive impact on the company? It’s important to provide employees with opportunities to grow within their roles and expand the impact of their work. This will contribute to a stronger sense of purpose in the workplace.

4) Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is one of the biggest factors contributing to employee engagement. It’s evident that an employee who isn’t happy with their job is unlikely to stay in it for long. Multiple factors contribute to job satisfaction including the work itself, the company, management, coworkers, opportunities, etc. Ensuring all of these aspects are providing sufficient benefits to the employee will help to increase satisfaction and thus the commitment to the role. We will outline some of these factors later in this blog.

5) Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the belief that businesses have a greater responsibility to society than just generating profits. CSR goes hand in hand with a company’s culture as it aligns with its values. Employees who feel strongly about CSR and its effect on the community are inclined to be more engaged if their workplace shares similar values. Conversely, if you are not engaged in CSR, you will likely see your employees exhibit a low level of engagement. Employees care about what their company is doing and value opportunities to contribute to the community in their work, whether directly or through supplementary opportunities like volunteering. Employees who can participate in CSR at their workplace are twice as engaged compared to those who can not.

6) Management/Leadership

The management and leadership in an organization is very important. Employees seek to form meaningful relationships with leadership. Those who hold their leaders in esteem are more likely to listen to them, take direction, and thus be more engaged in their work. Additionally, management plays a pivotal role in shaping company culture, promoting CSR, and other crucial aspects. Thus, ensuring a strong leadership team is very important.

A leadership team that demonstrates care for their employees, treats them with respect and values their opinion, contributes to strong employee engagement. It’s important to take a look and examine your leadership team to spot anyone who may hinder employee engagement.

7) Career Advancement Opportunities

Engaged employees place importance on learning new skills and expanding their knowledge. A company’s high-performing employees are interested in progressing within the company and finding opportunities for career advancement. If employees perceive a lack of opportunities for career advancement, they may not be motivated to invest efforts in their role. Thus, it is important to make career opportunities clear from the start. If an employee does not feel like the company will provide them with opportunities to move up, they will easily find another company that will.

Hence, it’s important to talk about promotions, learning opportunities, and more early on when hiring new employees. Demonstrating your commitment to professional development can be achieved through programs, opportunities for mentorship, conferences, courses, and more. Providing avenues for career advancement will foster commitment to the organization.

8) Flexibility

Nowadays, workplace stress is a big factor influencing an individual’s job satisfaction and commitment. Work-family conflict is a big contributor to workplace stress. With many individuals having children, parents to take care of, or other commitments, balancing work and family life can be a difficult task. Workplaces must make this easier for their employees by providing flexible options. This includes flextime and flexplace work arrangements that allow employees to work from home or to have flexible hours.

These initiatives demonstrate an organization’s concern for its employees, reflecting its values and culture which ultimately influences an employee’s satisfaction on the job and consequently their engagement.

9) Communication and Honesty

Effective communication is a key element of employee engagement. Employees crave an environment where they can communicate openly with their managers, feeling valued, involved, trusted, and listened to. If there isn’t strong communication between employees and management, there will be a lack of engagement. Communication allows employees to feel included in the firm and thus deepen their organizational commitment.

A key to communication is honesty and transparency. Employees don’t want to hear about company news through the grapevine. It is important that they can hear what is going on, good or bad, from leadership. If they feel like things are being hidden from them, they won’t feel like they are a true part of the company and this can ultimately affect how engaged and committed they are to the firm.

10) Equitable Pay

Salaries can be a very sensitive topic but it is a very important one to most employees. It’s important that employees feel fairly compensated for their work, and know what the company is looking for when considering promotions. This is important for employees looking for career advancement opportunities.

Transparency is very important when it comes to salary. Companies can achieve this by sharing salary ranges for job postings. This reinforces a culture of open communication and transparency which we have established as a key to employee engagement.

11) Recognition & Rewards

Employees are unlikely to demonstrate high levels of motivation and engagement if they aren’t recognized for the work they put in. 86% of workers admit that recognition in the workplace is a major driver of motivation.

Recognition can take various forms including thank you cards, employee of the month awards, verbal recognition, and tangible rewards or gifts. Having these positive consequences to an employee’s hard work will set a standard for what is recognized within the organization. This will act as positive reinforcement and encourage the behaviour to continue.

Developing a good rewards and recognition system allows employees to differentiate what behaviour is considered “good” and “bad” in the eyes of management.

12) Encourage Learning

It’s easy to stay stagnant in your role but there’s always so much more to learn. Employees that are committed to learning more, are likely more engaged in the work they do. A key to learning is an organization that encourages learning and provides employees with the resources to do so. Starting a B2B podcast for your company can be beneficial for employees to learn more from industry experts in your niche, while at the same time growing your business to allow for more opportunities.

This can be through offering courses, and certifications, deploying a virtual knowledge base for all employees, and simply creating a culture that promotes learning and growth. Employees who continue to learn can do their jobs more effectively. It will also demonstrate the company’s commitment to the individual’s development and not just the bottom line of the firm.

13) Digital Experience

As new technologies evolve, it becomes increasingly imperative for companies to integrate them into the workplace. Enhancing technology infrastructure facilitates a smoother and more seamless experience for employees, enabling them to focus more on their core tasks and thereby enhancing productivity.

Moreover, a robust digital experience facilitates improved digital onboarding and training functions. It also opens up opportunities for remote work, enabling employees to connect with the company from any location easily. As previously mentioned, this flexibility improves employee engagement.

Adoption of tech broadens the possibilities for a firm allowing them to make their processes more efficient and provide better resources to their employees. Especially with the younger workforce, acknowledging and incorporating modern technology will help to attract new talent and demonstrate a firm’s commitment to innovation.

14) Feedback

Feedback is crucial in any organization. For an employee to improve, they need to know what they are doing well and what can be improved on. It can be hard to give and receive constructive criticism but it is important.

Employees that actively seek feedback, are naturally more engaged in the work they do. Moreover, when firms provide effective feedback, it enables employees to refine their skills and make meaningful contributions to the organization.

Conclusion

Commitment to the organization is the end goal. A committed employee not only finds satisfaction in their job but also resonates with the values of the firm, fosters strong relationships with management, and embodies various other positive attributes. However, reaching this point will not happen overnight. It takes time and effort to solidify employee engagement across a firm. Now that we have outlined these key elements, it’s time to ask yourself, what next steps will you take to increase employee engagement in your firm?

Written by Kaitlin Duong

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Jony Studios is a client-focused media production studio offering audio/video production, B2B podcasting, and audiobook services. They have worked with a wide range of clients from small businesses to larger organizations such as Penguin Random House, Amazon, University of Waterloo, Freakonomics Radio and many others.