Before spring of 2020, conversations around optimizing employee engagement were just starting to take off. We were beginning to finally wrap our heads around what it takes to get talent to make their morning commute and walk into the office excited to be a part of the team.

Suddenly, the teams that HR leaders were trying to build engagement strategies around started working from home. With this, strategies have to change in order to engage a team no matter their location. The good news — employees are happier at home and may be more likely to stay in their current position simply because they’re remote. In fact, companies allowing remote work have 25% lower employee turnover than those that don’t. But when so many open job opportunities are remote, you need to stay competitive and pay attention to what employees want in the virtual workplace to really motivate and engage remote workers.

What They Really, Really Want

When social activities and travel came to a standstill, employees craved forward motion. In fact, 70% of US employees are at least somewhat likely to leave their current company and accept an offer with a new company known for investing in employee learning and development.

#EmployeeDevelopment and engagement go hand-in-hand in the virtual workplace. Keep your teams engaged with these tips from @CaliperCorp: Click To Tweet

When teams only see each other over occasional Zoom calls, perks like catered lunches, in-person team-building retreats, and happy hours you depended on for engagement don’t make sense. In a remote work world, employees want their skills developed.

A look at the stats:

  • 80% of employees say learning and development opportunities would help them feel more engaged at work
  • 61% of employees (including those who already received training) said they need more to do their jobs better.
  • Most employees (74%) don’t believe they are reaching their full potential.
  • Since the start of COVID-related remote work,  78% of employees pursued training opportunities on their own, regardless of whether their employers have provided them with any.

This article will explain why employee development and engagement go hand-in-hand in the virtual workplace and how you can move your strategies in the right direction.

Retention Security: Achieved

You already know how valuable employee retention is to your company’s budget. Some studies predict that every time a business replaces a salaried employee, it costs 6 to 9 months’ salary on average. For a manager making $60,000 a year, that’s $30,000 to $45,000 in recruiting and training expenses to fill the position.

When people feel valued and invested in, they are less likely to look at other opportunities. As a company invests in its people’s growth, employees see that they can accomplish their personal growth goals within the organization. They subsequently grow in their commitment to the company and its goals. Some examples of learning and development initiatives that support employee retention include:

  • Identify individual’s strengths with suggestions on how to leverage day-to-day tasks
  • Professional coaching & goal setting
  • Competency-based training & skill development

Leaders Ready at the Helm

When you develop great talent, they’ll see a future for themselves at your organization. If done right, this means effective succession planning and a pipeline of future leaders. The ability to do this lies in your ability to improve organizational readiness and identify successors for critical positions at any given time. Through coaching, goal alignment, and continuous skill development, employees will feel more invested in your company goals and mission regardless of their career stage.

Developed leaders are ready to react to crises and organizational change. Teams look to their leaders in times of crisis and sudden change. With the right training, leaders and future leaders alike can work in real-time with real information and within the context of their day-to-day work to ensure preparedness.

Seeking an engaged team with low #attrition? @CaliperCorp says the secret is #TrainingandDevelopment. See how it’s done: Click To Tweet

Collaboration From Afar

Even from the comfort of their own home, employees want a sense of strong team collaboration to stay engaged. An ADP Research Institute study found that feeling part of a team is a massive factor in employee engagement. It found that employees who felt like they were part of a team were more than twice as likely to be fully engaged. Improving the closeness and collaboration of a team becomes intangible in the virtual workplace, but it’s not impossible.

Individuals on a team can benefit from:

  • Increased self-awareness training
  • Appreciation of diverse personalities and backgrounds
  • Talent audits to identify and leverage strengths
  • Tools to improve communication and group work

Through improved collaboration and training, individuals on teams are likely to acquire new skills and learn from each other, continuously improving future collaboration and boosting engagement levels.

Knowing the connection between development and engagement isn’t enough. You need a clear strategy with context — as employee development is an ongoing process. As you work to motivate and engage your remote workers, lean on training and development. Investing in trustworthy collaborations and development tools brings them together when separated geographically.

With Caliper’s Precision Series, you can maximize employee strengths and develop areas of improvement through practical skills development — resulting in engaged, productive employees.

Reach out to see how Caliper can help improve your remote employee engagement through targeted learning and development.