Are You Taking Care of Your Employees?

As we go deeper into remote work, how many of your employers have checked in on you? The onus has always been on the employee to do better at home. However, the employer has a part to play too. By asking purposeful questions at the right frequency, you can establish a better team structure and cohesion that helps to turn your imaginary office into something tangible. Below are five questions employers should ask remote workers.

This one may seem obvious, but when everyone works in the same physical space, managers can quickly stop by their employee’s desk and check-in with them. Even non-verbals can give insight into how your people are feeling, but it’s not as easy to pick up on these feeling states and energy levels over a Slack message or email. Fortunately, this can be easily adapted in daily practices, like at the beginning of meetings, and the goal is to be open and honest about how present you are at that moment. You can share your energy level using a scale of 1 to 10. Asking this question often lets your people know that you care about them as humans, not just as employees.

Role clarity paves the way for psychological safety in the workplace. Without this direction, employees will work towards a path they can only assume is correct. Often, these insinuations turn into misalignment, and employee development can be slowed down significantly, especially for remote employees. They are more prone to feeling isolated if they don’t have a strong connection with their manager. Check-in with your employees by asking this question regularly and help them define what success looks like for their role so they can continually strive for it.

Make it a habit of asking what parts of their day they find gives them the most energy and excitement. You can understand what’s driving their performance, what they find difficult or draining, and what type of work they find is most meaningful. This helps you to learn their passion. As remote employees develop in their own career paths, they will naturally be given tasks that they can be trusted to execute well on. Still, the kicker here is that they may not particularly find joy or enjoyment in doing those assignments. A manager may never know this without explicitly asking. This question can help you find out what specific practices are truly driving their overall performance and fueling their motivation so that you can curate more opportunities for them.

If your organization doesn’t offer mediums like conversation forums and company-wide survey prompts to encourage remote employees to give feedback and connect, it may be challenging for them to have open communication. Continuously supporting your employees to get out of their comfort zone can help your teams avoid silos. Some follow-on questions you can ask are: Which apps do you most use in your daily workflow? When do you use Slack, text, Jira, etc.? When do you feel confused about which systems to use? Can you hear and see well? On a scale from 1–10, how easy is it for you to contribute during a meeting? Every person is different, and therefore, prefers different ways of communicating. Learning these preferences of your remote employees can help make your meetings more impactful.

Working remotely comes with many perks, but it also comes with its own set of challenges. Specifically, it can be challenging to separate work and personal time if both happen in the same place. Check-in with your remote employees and help them set boundaries between these moments. By asking this question, you can ensure they are taking these much-needed breaks throughout the day and aren’t overextending themselves, which can quickly lead to burnout.

Everyone has a part to play to make remote working more manageable. Instead of challenging your employees for higher productivity, showing you care and connecting with them could yield better results. After all, we work better when we are happy!