5 Tips for Taking Care of Expat Employees Working Remotely

Top 5 Tips to Care for Your Remote Workforce

The recent pandemic has proved that remote working is possible and, most importantly, quite efficient. Numerous companies are now comfortable encouraging expats and full-time employees to work from home. Some people will choose to become digital nomads while still working for an employer in their home country. Remote staffing is beneficial for both the employer as well as the staff. However, you should take care of your remote workforce to ensure productivity and engagement do not plummet.

You must take care of your remote employees who may be operating from the other side of the globe. There are some best practices that you can employ for the greater good of your organization and remote workers. If you don’t have these remote-work policies in place, here are five tips that will assist you in making remote-work a considerable success.

Check Out for Signs of Distress in Global Employees

Knowing the challenges and concerns of your remote workers should be your top priority. Direct communication and indirect observations can help you in assessing the stress levels of your staff that may also include expats who are far away from home. Let your employees know that you care for their wellbeing whenever you get an opportunity.

Encourage your team managers to come up with alternate operational processes to help employees deal with personal issues arising from the COVID-19 situation. For instance, flexible working hours can be a great alternative to keep employees motivated in the current scenario.

Take Advantage of Apps

Messaging apps like Slack and Microsoft Teams are popular in a corporate environment. Such apps can be beneficial for your remote workforce too. Despite the time zone differences between your remote staff and inhouse employees, these tools are significantly helpful in encouraging interaction among the teams. The business and work will keep moving, and your virtual employees will get to know your on-site staff better through these apps.

Promote Two-way Communication

For effective business operation, two-way communication between team managers and peers is a must. All your staff, including your remote workers, must know if you are implementing any changes in the business processes. Knowing about your company’s decisions and their implications will make your employees feel comfortable in accepting the challenges. Global mobility managers should encourage team members to express and share their opinion about any particular process change freely.

Promote Strategies for Employee Well-Being

Another way to take care of your remote workforce is to place importance on the physical and mental health of employees. Employee wellbeing should be given prime importance even though stigmas are surrounding personal problems at the workplace.

Employers engaging remote employees often face hurdles while addressing issues related to employee welfare or wellbeing. The main challenge is because they don’t get to see them regularly. Having one-on-one Skype or Zoom meetings weekly can be a great way to address concerns that your virtual or remote employees may be facing.

Naturally, employees are worried about their wellbeing and job security during this COVID-19 situation. So, try to do whatever possible to make them feel relaxed. Light-hearted conversations during a weekly group Zoom call can be a great stress buster for everyone. Make it compulsory for everyone to attend these Zoom meetings wearing their most casual outfits.

Build Trust in Your Remote Staff

Leaving all your apprehensions aside, as a manager or employer, you should first try to put utmost trust and confidence in your in-house and remote employees. If you can build that confidence in them, you won’t have a reason to lament later.

Employees will slog to ensure that they are doing the right thing no matter how tough it is to meet the expectations. Stop being fixated on performance issues. Instead, give enough time and opportunities to employees to prove themselves in the work front. It will pay off in due time.

Taking the Utmost Care of Your Employees

You may have taken up various initiatives to take good care of your remote workforce. However, don’t be complacent by thinking that everything is excellent as your staff interacts with you over emails every day. The modern-day remote workforce is growing at a rapid pace, so you can’t take things for granted, especially during these uncertain times. We encourage global mobility managers to make sure that they meet their duty of care requirements for their global workforce – be they working remotely or in an office – by providing adequate global health insurance, life and disability coverage on a group or individual basis.

Global employers and individual expatriates can obtain a quote and purchase a plan from our website from one of our premier insurance providers. We can also obtain quotes from the market for a global benefit plan. You need a sound strategic approach to ensure that every employee gets the desired importance at the workplace. Half the battle is won if you can keep them engaged and motivated to work for you.