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Finding it difficult to engage and unify your global workforce? This article may help you.
When it comes to local employee engagement, it isn’t easy. And it may appear unachievable when it comes to engaging and uniting staff in different locations. It doesn’t have to be so difficult, though.
Nowadays, technology has allowed companies to create teams across state lines and even oceans. While establishing a unified team and positive company culture is quite challenging from afar, doing so is mandatory for the success of a business.
Now the question is, how can you create and unify a distributed team and make sure it stays effective year after year? To help you with that, here we’ve put together some tips that will help you to engage and unify your global workforce. Let’s dive in!
1. Promote Constant Communication
Good communication is the cornerstone to understanding and trust. When employees at all levels participate in company discussions and are given the reasoning behind a company decision, they remain much more engaged.
Employees should always be connected in a way that is suitable for them. For example, it might mean introducing push-to-talk tools and applications that provide them rapid access to specialist support for employees in the field. This could mean getting a complete UC environment, equipped with video conferencing, VoIP calling, and more for backend employees.
Nowadays, ever-evolving teams do not just rely on calls or email to share ideas. Distant workers benefit from higher technology that allows for a better context in conversations. Instant messaging and chat is used by professionals who can’t always sit down for a call. Tools for screen and file sharing are used during a discussion to share instant ideas.
If you introduce things like video conferencing and messaging to your employees, ensure they have the proper support and training to take complete advantage of these tools. It is also essential to ensure your cloud solutions are completely protected with the correct encryption and security.
2. Prioritize Face-To-Face Time
In the 1970s, psychology professor Albert Mehrabian concluded that communication is 7 percent verbal, 38 percent tone of voice, and 55 percent body language. This information is important for people who depend on written words for communicating, but it is even more important when you need to communicate with someone who does not share the same first language.
As a result, your business should make significant investments in video communication solutions. Face-to-face communication will allow your worldwide workforce to communicate more frequently and efficiently, regardless of where they are located.
You also should try to find ways for your employees to get to know each other better and still do team-building activities. An internal “get to know your co-worker” video series can work great for this purpose. These videos will help them get to know each other’s personalities, particularly the parts missing from email, like expressions, gestures, and laughter.
3. Invest in Continuous Training
Continuous training goes a long way and benefits both the employees and the company. It helps employees improve their abilities and expand their knowledge and is a great driver of engagement. Failure to provide this may make employees feel insecure about their potential to grow within the company.
Coaching and mentoring employees is crucial. It is how you can keep their attention. More importantly, it is how they can learn what they are doing right or wrong while working on their objectives. When you give your employees advice on everything from their career aspirations to their goals regularly, they will feel like you care about their professional development and futures. And when you care, the feeling will likely be reciprocated.
You can also get external help to look at your team’s strengths and approach to work. Jobsurv helps companies keep their top talent and strategies. Learn more about how to drive proper connectivity, and increase employee engagement.
4. Localized Training and Global Promotion
Local personnel in most firms contribute unique market expertise and understanding to the culture. Simultaneously, introducing your finest professionals to various cultures can help them broaden their knowledge, which they can then pass on to the local staff. This precious experience may ultimately make them ready for future leadership.
5. Remain Flexible on Execution but Rigid on Standards
Maintaining your global standards centrally makes sure that your quality standards meet important benchmarks. But, simultaneously, allowing your local team the flexibility to adapt to local norms and practices while retaining the spirit of the law will motivate and empower them to work to the best of their potential.
6. Reinforce Organizational Values with Recognition
One of the challenges in maintaining a successful global team is ensuring that company values and culture remain strong, despite the distance. Company culture is not simply a buzzword; it refers to your employees’ ideologies and values in mind as they work.
If you want employees to thrive in your company and engage with your values, prioritize what “good” looks like and reinforce it. Treat everyone with kindness, dignity, and respect. Take every chance to show your employees that these values matter, find different ways for employees to practice them from day to day, and reward them for exhibiting them.
Moreover, make sure that your employees know who to turn to if they feel as though other team members aren’t adhering to the standards you set. Be sure all your employees realize what you stand for. This will make them feel more successful, and that success will keep them more engaged.
7. Find Reasons to Celebrate
A celebration helps people feel more listened to, connected, and engaged. For example, you can maintain an internal website for employees and use the newsfeed to celebrate each other’s successes, with weekly shoutouts from/to employees.
From great vacations and cute pets to birthdays, weddings, and traditions, encourage them to celebrate each other’s major life events. While face-to-face communication will break down barriers, these celebrations will maintain the company culture and keep the employees a lot more engaged.
Moreover, creativity, diversity, and gaining global perspectives are some of the most significant benefits of being a part of a global workforce. Encourage them to embrace it all and celebrate it!
8. Learn As You Go
Ultimately, there is no one right way to manage a global team or ensure that your employees are as productive as possible. As the world of work becomes increasingly dispersed and distributed, you will need to be open to learning as they go.
Encourage your team members to experiment with the tools and styles of work that work best for them. Ask for regular feedback and use services to trace things like first-time resolution rates in the contact center. Moreover, keep an eye on your global team members without micromanaging them. Eventually, you will understand what works best for your team.
Bottom Line
Your employees are your greatest resource. A highly profitable, high-growth global team can have highly satisfied clients and highly engaged and happy employees. Take advantage of your employees’ common qualities, such as their professional skills, priorities, and values, while simultaneously acknowledging and appreciating their differences. This will help you create an international competitive culture, inspire your multinational team, and ensure that you continue to attract new business and world-class talent in the future.
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