At Public Practice Recruitment Ltd, we continue to champion remote working.
In an industry like ours, it’s transforming problems created by a skills shortage and is offering candidates the possibility to achieve their career goals and live the lifestyles they want to. And the most forward thinking firms are definitely benefitting from that.
But we know it doesn’t come without its challenges. It’s unsurprising really that ‘remote’ working carries the risk of making employees feel isolated and outside of the organisation.
However we firmly believe that that’s a risk that great practice employers can easily mitigate.
A recent report published by global employee engagement specialists O.C.Tanner highlighted that there are six key areas of employee engagement that impact whether people feel part of the team. So today we thought we’d look at these in turn and consider how they can be prioritised in public practice.
PURPOSE
Make sure your staff understand your organisation’s purpose beyond the basic level of profit. If all staff, regardless of where they work or what their position is, buy in to purpose of the organisation you’ll be on your way to a welcoming and inclusive culture.
And from a wider perspective how can you allow your employees to boost their sense of personal purpose by working with you. This will tie in to your reward system as well as corporate responsibility and sustainability.
OPPORTUNITY
Do your employees have opportunities to work towards? Do they feel excited to better themselves, their teams and the greater organisation? Professional development needs to be accessible to all and your firm will benefit from processes such as appraisals and development reviews where staff can understand and be inspired by opportunity to progress.
And once again from a wider perspective is your firm’s diversity and inclusion approach up to scratch – do you truly offer equal opportunities?
SUCCESS
What does success look like for every employee on a cellular level and how is it celebrated? Do you have internal communications that are an opportunity for staff to congratulate one another on all that they’ve achieved?
And on a group level, what do successful outcomes create for your teams? If everyone celebrates on their own you can expect staff to feel isolated. If success is celebrated together (even if that’s virtually) you’ll have group buy in.
APPRECIATION
A great package of rewards and a generous salary will only get you so far. For remote employees to truly feel like part of the bones of the organisation, they need to know that they are appreciated.
This comes down to your line management structure. Does everyone get personal feedback and does someone take the time to thank them for their loyalty, hard work and commitment? The Partners doing the rounds with a big box of chocolates and chatting to staff once a month, a hand written card and a token gift at Christmas, and just taking the time to acknowledge and appreciate a piece of work via an email all make a big difference.
WELLBEING
Mentally or physically unwell staff will withdraw from your teams and will distance themselves from the crux of your organisation. But the good news is that there are so many ways to boost your staff wellbeing.
Offering as much flexibility as you can will enable your team to prioritise their wellbeing and will avoid burnout due to juggling the pressures of external stresses such as parenting or caring roles.
And of course if you can stretch to additional wellbeing benefits (gym discounts, ergonomic assessments, healthcare plans etc) you will reap the rewards when it comes to the togetherness of your team.
LEADERSHIP
Your firm’s hierarchy needs to be clear and your leaders need to be accessible from a distance. This is no mean feat when your teams are often hundreds of miles apart. But having clear cut mechanisms for asking for help or escalating issues will make workers feel supported even though they aren’t in the office.
At Public Practice Recruitment Ltd we’re really keen to explore these six pillars of workforce happiness and togetherness in more depth and will do so over the coming weeks and months.
But for now we hope you can use this article as a helpful guide to support you to consider remote working wherever you can. We honestly can’t tell you how transformative its been for many of our clients.
To chat in more depth about how this modern transition to a different way of running a business could work for your firm, we’re always at the end of an email or phone call so contact us today.
