The changing workplace Appreciation and remote workers

The changing workplace Appreciation and remote workersThe changing workplace Appreciation and remote workersThe culture that we live and work in is subject to constant change over time. And in recent years, that change has occurred at a highly accelerated rate. Rows of desks filled withstenographers and secretaries are well in the past. In the 70s, arbeitszimmers looked like cubicle farms, and these, in turn, transformed back up to open office plans, attempting to encourage communication and collaboration.Additionally, rapid technological changes (from the phone, to faxes, to emails, texting and videoconferencing) have created an entirely new category of employee, the remote worker. And their ranks are growing.In 1995, 9% of U.S. workers telecommuted. By 2015, 37% of employees reported in aGallup pollthat that they worked off-site. And in 2016 43% of employees spent at least part of their week working remotely. A recentsurvey of 500 managers and executivesfound that53% of companies i n the U.S. continue to have standard workplaces, with nearly every employee coming into the office four or more days a week.37% have a main office with some people working remotely.10% have no office space at all.These changes in our daily work cultures impact (and create new challenges) in how we relate to those with whom we work. A key question has arisenHow do you effectively communicate appreciation to your team members in the context of long-distance work relationships?Communicating appreciation effectively to remote staff and virtual teams is challenging but the data from our research shows it can be done. Yes. Communicating appreciation has changed due to cultural influences. But the foundational aspects of appreciation (the need to communicate regularly, in ways meaningful to the recipient, and authentically)haventchanged.In the newly released edition ofThe 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace, we devote an entire (new) chapter to address the issue of appreciation w ith remote employees, and virtual teams. We share specific examples of successful (remote) appreciation that both managers and employees have shared with us, and the resulting guiding principles we discovered.Research Differences in Appreciation Desired?Additionally, we began to wonder if those individuals who were in long-distance work relationships desired to be shown appreciation in the same ways as employees who worked on-site. That is,do employees who work remotely have different preferred languages of appreciation than those in the general workforce?To find out,we conducted a research studywhere we compared almost 90,000 individuals who had taken theMBA Inventory. The majority of individuals had completed the general workplace version of theMBAIbut over 2,500 used a version specifically designed for Long Distance workers.We found that employees in long-distance work relationships choseQuality Timeas their primary language of appreciation more frequently (35%) than workers on-s ite (25%). The majority of these switched fromWords of AffirmationtoQuality Timebeing their primary appreciation language (48% in general work settings to 38% for long-distance employees).So it is important for supervisors and colleagues to keep in mind that many remote employees valueQuality Timewith their colleagues more highly than those who work in face-to-face settings. Specifically, using videoconferencing to check in and including them in team meetings virtually can help these team members feel valued.There are more findings than we can report here, and a number of additional practical action steps are described in the books remote employee chapter, butone of the most important lessonswe have learned for effectively communicating appreciation to remote colleagues is thatyou must be more proactivethan in face-to-face relationships. While communicating appreciation in long-distance work relationships takes time and forethought, itcanbe done and it is important to do so.Without ongoing appreciation and support for the work they are doing, employees who work remotely are at risk for becoming discouraged, not producing to their capability, and eventually quitting. Take the time and effort to communicate how much you value your staff who work in a different physical location, and the return on your investment will be well worth the cost.This article was originally published on Appreciation at Work.