Best Practices for Mobile Employee Communication and Engagement

If there is one thing in business that is becoming more and more commonplace of late; it is mobile workers. There are an increased number of employees who are trying to balance their working life with their family life and there are also an increased number of employers who are happy to work with them to achieve this.

Add into this the fact that connecting to your work from your home (or anywhere that you might be based) is even easier and you can see why mobile workers are on the rise.

There are a variety of positives to having mobile workers within your business, but one thing that can be incredibly difficult is ensuring that they are engaged with the rest of the employees and the business. Not only this, but you can also find that communicating with them can be incredibly difficult too.

So, with this in mind, we have put together our guide to ensuring that you effectively communicate with your mobile employees and have them as involved with your business as possible.

Always ensure that your communications are real-time

Company intranet is a great way to stay in touch with mobile employees; it allows them to not only access key information whilst they are on the go, but also gives them the chance to send and receive messages to their other colleagues too.

Communicating with your mobile workers through the company intranet is a great way to keep them updated, but this might mean that they are not seeing communications in real-time. A way to combat this is to perhaps email them or send them a message to alert them to news and information that relates to the business and their role within it. Especially if that information is in any way time critical.

Ask for feedback from them

As your mobile employees are the ones who are having to see whether or not your communication methods are working, it makes sense to ask them for feedback. They can tell you what things you are doing well, what things are working for them and then also what things might need improvement.

Not only can their feedback prove to be incredibly useful for you, but it also makes them feel that their input is valued and that they are an important member of the team. This is crucial for employee retention and it will ensure that they feel more engaged as a whole.

Share success stories with every staff member

Just because a staff member within your business is remote, that doesn’t mean that they are any less a member of the team as those that are office-based. This means that they should definitely be a part of positive communications that are sent around the business. They might not be sharing the same physical space with your other employees, but they can still share in their successes and feel motivated by them.

Equally, when it comes to those mobile employees having their own breakthroughs or success, this should be shared with your wider employee base. In doing this you are going to show that you value those out of the office as much as those within the office and ensure that they all feel as engaged and recognised as their office based colleagues do.

Manage them effectively

One huge challenge with mobile workers is knowing how to manage them effectively. There is a huge amount of trust that is going to go along with having mobile workers within your business. After all, you are leaving them to work at home or out and about meeting clients and you are not going to be able to see exactly what they are doing on a daily basis.

Some managers find difficult avoiding micromanagement; checking in on their mobile employees too much and making them feel that they cannot be trusted to do the work that they need to do. Not exactly a way that you are going to want them to feel.

It is a hard balance to achieve, but it is possible. You need to make sure that you find the best approach that fits with your employee and you. It can be a learning curve and you might need to try a few different approaches to get it right, but there are plenty of things that you can do to make sure that your remote employees feel that they are being managed properly.

Having mobile employees is a great addition to any business. However, they can also be difficult to manage due to their remote location—a challenge worth conquering for any progressive business. Try out these top tips for managing remote workers and let us know how you get on!