7 Best Ways HR can Create a Feedback Culture with Remote Teams

Remote working is the new normal and has positive effects on the efficiency and productivity of employees. It is also known to boost their satisfaction with work and overall general well being.

For instance, in a study conducted by a leading research firm, where a call centre staff was provided with the chance to work from home for a particular period. Half the employees worked from home while the other half worked from the office. The study concluded that employees who worked from home or remotely were happier and more productive than the group that worked from the office.

Not only do the employees benefit from remote working, but the company benefits as well.

However, to ensure effective communication with your WFH employees, you need to develop a feedback culture with remote teams. This feedback culture will keep your remote employees connected and allow you to effectively monitor the level of employee engagement so as to prevent any disconnect between the company and its remote workforce.

Let us look at how a company effectively builds a feedback culture with its remote teams:

1. Communicate your feedback culture

While your company may have set its core values to be followed, it is essential to also convey them to your remote employees. The feedback culture should be clear, articulate and inspirational. Only then you will find your employees proactively adopting it in their daily work.

Conveying your message once to every employee is not enough; you need to routinely circulate your company values and culture so that it remains etched in their minds. You must include every detail you want your employees to know.

2. Set a regular time for one-on-ones

Begin by setting up a regular time for one-on-one with each member of your team. Give and receive feedback, tackle progress issues and hold discussions if your team members feel blocked with a problem. This way, you can keep your employees motivated and moving forward in the right direction.

The managers must reach out to remote employees to schedule one-on-ones at the decided time and date, and discuss a wide range of topics related to employee performance and career development. If required, your employees should even take the initiative of conducting such sessions with their managers. Such informal catch-ups must be encouraged among peer groups as well, especially, when your entire staff is working from home.

Regular one-to-one meetings will boost employee engagement, helping to track employee performance on achieving the goals.

3. Create a habit of positive feedback

A positive feedback culture is the best motivator to boost team performance. It is an essential quality that helps to build team spirit, especially when your team is working remotely from different locations. It becomes highly important to create a habit of giving positive feedback to your employees to keep them motivated and focused on their work.

Positive feedback helps you build a positive connection with your team members. Therefore, encourage your peers and team members to celebrate their small successes, even if they do so online. Inspire them to give regular virtual feedback. It has been observed that when an employee receives praise for their work, they are more likely to share it online where others can see it too. This helps create a positive work environment throughout the organization.

4. Keep the employees aligned with the objectives and track their progress

When your staff is working remotely, it is crucial to hold frequent communications between the team and its managers. This helps to pinpoint and clear the bottlenecks, further, allowing the employees to stay focused on their objectives. Frequent communication boosts employee engagement and ensures that every employee is aligned with the collective goals of the organization.

Lack of communication among remote employees builds a disconnect, wherein employees lose their purpose, which greatly impacts the overall performance of the company. Your workers may be working remotely but their professional or career development should not stop. Assure your remote employees to find their purpose within the company and work towards their personal growth and development by communicating frequently and meeting their targets.

5. Create routine 360-degree feedback sessions

When your employees are comfortable with feedback culture and accept it wholly, encourage them to share positive feedback about their coworkers and teammates. If successfully implemented, feedback culture shows better results. But this is only possible when your employees share positive 360-feedback.

Remote working may limit involvement and engagement between the teams. Opening frequent communication channels can help your employees bonding with their coworkers and teammates. A 360-degree feedback mechanism will induce cohesiveness among team members, which boosts efficiency and productivity. Such feedback and review are aimed to help your staff grow within the organization. They can be conducted biweekly or quarterly. Timings could be flexible; you can adjust it as per the work timings of your team.

6. Teach feedback structure

Remote feedback misses the essence of body language and expression. And the problem with written feedback is that it can be perceived differently by different individuals. And if not managed properly, even well-intentioned feedback could appear to be negative. In order to overcome this hiccup, teach your employees to follow a proper structure while providing feedback.

A proper structure would give context to your feedback, which would, in turn, add value and display the right emotions to the employees. Also, the feedback should provide adequate information for your employees to develop concrete steps for improvement. If the feedback lacks proper structure and context, it will be nothing more than an online exchange of irrational comments.

Train your employees to receive and provide feedback constructively, structurally and positively. The language used for written communication is very different from verbal lingo. Teach your employees the right language to be used for online communication and feedback.

7. Employee engagement

Finally, check the level of engagement amongst your employees.

The disconnect between remote employees and the company is a real possibility. Working remotely can affect the bond they share and their engagement with one another. This could affect their productivity and efficiency, which would inadvertently affect the long term objective of the company. Therefore, it is important to keep your employees connected to the company.

Focus on remote employee engagement. Conduct regular engagement surveys and encourage routine check-ins. Remote employee engagement is key to achieving your long term business objective. By initiating a regular feedback culture, you can keep your employees engaged with what is happening in the company, keeping them interested and motivated.

Regardless of whether your entire organization is operating remotely or only some employees work from home, it is essential to plan and create an environment of transparent communication and regular feedback culture between you and the workforce. It should be done so at the peer level too. This will ensure that your remote employees stay connected with the goals of the company and contribute to its overall growth and development.