6 Best Practices to Improve the Remote Employee Experience

Since the Covid crisis, remote work has become the norm for French managers and professionals. According to Apec, more than half of them now work from home at least once a week, compared to just 22 % before the pandemic. This new reality requires organizations to rethink the employee experience from the ground up.

While some HR professionals have already made it a priority, this is still far from the norm in most companies. According to the 2021 Parlons RH barometer, two-thirds of companies surveyed have yet to implement an employee experience policy. A surprising figure, given the performance and recruitment benefits such a policy can deliver.¹

Yet delivering a quality employee experience is far from easy when staff are working remotely. That's why we've compiled 6 best practices to improve the remote employee experience.

1. Adapt your onboarding processes

For 74 % of HR professionals, onboarding new hires is the top priority when it comes to employee experience.² The first step to improving the remote employee experience is therefore to adapt your onboarding. 

From a logistics standpoint, make sure the new employee has received the IT equipment they need and has all the necessary access to connect remotely.

Also think about announcing your new hire’s arrival before they start (for example, via a dedicated post on your enterprise social network), and adapt your onboarding program accordingly.

You can plan several video call check-ins to introduce the company’s activities, different teams, and internal tools. To keep the new employee engaged, try to include as many visual and/or interactive elements as possible in these presentations (photos, videos, polls, live Q&As, etc.)live, etc.)

Read also: [Ebook] The Future of Work: Embracing the Hybrid Model!

2. Strengthen your internal communication

Internal communication also plays a key role in the employee experience, especially when employees are working remotely. Here are a few best practices to maximize the visibility of your announcements:

• Favor short messages that get straight to the point (bullet points are your friends 😉) and avoid sending too much information at once
• Pay attention to timing (avoid messages after 5pm, during lunch breaks, and over school holidays)
• Vary your formats (for example, why not replace your newsletter with a short video?)
• Centralize all your announcements on a single tool to prevent information from getting scattered (for example, an all-in-one collaborative suite)

Finally, don't forget to regularly gather employee feedback so you can continuously refine your approach.

Read also: Hybrid Work: HR and Internal Communication Best Practices

3. Cut down on meetings

In 2020, French employees reportedly lost 157 hours of work to unnecessary meetings and video calls, according to this Asana study. Beyond its impact on productivity, this meeting overload can generate stress, eye strain, and even increase the risk of burnout.

To avoid this “Zoom fatigue”, it’s essential to reduce both the length and the number of your video calls. To do so, we recommend:

• Limiting the number of participants, inviting only those whose presence is truly necessary
• Preparing an agenda and covering only the items listed on it
• Appointing a note-taker and a timekeeper responsible for writing the meeting summary and ensuring the meeting doesn’t run over

When possible, try to handle as many points asynchronously, for example via a messaging tool. Your team will thank you for it!

4. Respect the right to disconnect

Respecting your remote employees’ right to disconnect is also an essential part of the employee experience. Yet, according to this Ugict-CGT study, it’s still far from guaranteed in many companies. In fact, 80 % of French remote workers feel their right to disconnect is not protected. An alarming figure, especially knowing that constant connectivity can have devastating effects on health.

To improve the work-life balance of your remote employees, we recommend implementing the following:

• Establishing a collective agreement or a right-to-disconnect policy that specifies — among other things — when employees may disconnect and how this right is exercised
• Educating employees and managers about the right to disconnect, and teaching them how to use digital tools responsibly at work
• Communicating the best practices you want to put in place (for example, turning off notifications in the evenings and on weekends)

Read also: [Ebook] The Right to Disconnect: A Survival Guide for Remote Work

5. Rethink management styles

Ensuring a positive remote employee experience also means adapting your management approach. Forget micromanagement: it’s time for a people-first style that puts employee well-being front and center.

Here are some tips for managing remote teams (feel free to share these with your managers 😉):

• Schedule regular one-on-ones with each team member, as well as team-wide check-ins
• Set clear objectives and evaluate each person’s contribution based on results, not time spent on tasks
• Organize informal catch-ups over video (virtual coffee breaks and/or after-work drinks) to maintain connection at a distance
• Regularly give and request feedback from your teams, and celebrate their wins (for example, by highlighting achievements on your enterprise social network)
• Trust your employees
• Make yourself available to answer their questions and support them in their projects

6. Equip your employees properly

Last but not least: make sure your employees have the right hardware and tools to work remotely. For example, do they have a functioning laptop? Do they need an extra monitor or a more comfortable chair?

Also, don't forget to provide employees with the digital tools they need to work, communicate, and stay engaged remotely. We particularly recommend deploying:

• a collaborative platform (such as Talkspirit) to help them communicate and collaborate more effectively from a distance
• HR tools that allow them to manage administrative processes easily (for example, HR software and solutions offered by Lucca)
• project management software, to better organize and track their various tasks
• messaging and chat video conferencing solutions, for real-time communication

Read also: How to Choose the Right Collaborative Platform?

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As you can see, improving the remote employee experience means adapting your HR and management practices, and putting the right remote-work tools in place. The next step? Turning these best practices into concrete action!

Want to discover more best practices for improving the remote employee experience? Check out our practical guide on the subject:

Access the Practical Guide

In our practical guide “10 Best Practices to Improve the Employee Experience”, you’ll find: tips for creating a quality employee experience, examples of initiatives implemented by our clients, and tools to deploy within your organization.

Download

¹ Forrester Workforce Survey (2020)
² Parlons RH Employee Experience Barometer 2021

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Author: Emmanuelle Abensur