A Seismic Shift to Remote and Flexible Work and Its Challenges for Different Personality Types
The shift to remote and flexible work has been a huge change for many employees. Rather than slow down after the world opened up after the pandemic, this work trend has only advanced. According to LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends Report, remote jobs grew by more than 1100% between March 2020 and the end of 2021.
Companies that were once hesitant to embrace remote work must now adapt to the changing work environment. Many of them are now considering making remote work a permanent part of their operations. However, for introverted employees, the transition to remote work can be especially challenging, even if welcomed. Without the social cues and interactions of a physical office, introverted employees may feel isolated, or struggle to engage with their colleagues.
What Is An Introvert, Really?
It’s perfectly normal to be introverted. In any group of people, there are usually a few who lean towards introversion. I want to emphasize: Introversion is not a recognized mental health diagnosis. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) does not include introversion as a diagnosis (DSM-5 is the standard reference manual used by mental health professionals).
Rather, introversion is a personality trait, or several. Some introverts may experience social anxiety and distraction around larger groups of people (where extroverts shine), but perform well alone or in smaller groups of people. So it makes sense to craft a workplace that works to engage and focus both introverts and extroverts. And with the new era of hybrid work, implementing remote employee engagement ideas specifically for the introverts on your team becomes mission-critical.
10 Great Remote Employee Engagement Ideas for Introverts, The List
Are you ensuring that all employees, including introverts, feel engaged and connected while working remotely? Here are 10 great remote employee engagement ideas specifically for introverts. We have organized them into different focus areas:
Introductions
Introducing yourself to a new group of people can be stressful. Why not take the edge off it? You know it’s got to be done eventually, so we can make it enjoyable and revealing in an earnest way.
Human-troductions
Adding new people to your collaborative system fun and encouraging. You can make that intro fun by allowing people to bond over common interests. To do this, send new hires a short “About You” survey, and use the results to craft a custom welcome message.
Nudge people to acknowledge them and welcome them to the team by being the first one. You will start to see your other team members engage the post with their likes and similarities. We call these “Human-troductions” at Poprouser. We post them in our Slack #general channel to notify the whole team about new arrivals.
Team Profiles
Another idea is to ask new hires to complete a knowledge, skills, and abilities survey. With the results, you create a profile including details which were not collected during the candidate experience. It’s like baseball cards with your team members on it. It can be used to learn more about colleagues’ more nuanced traits, ones which don’t generally come up in conversation.
At Poprouser, we use our team member profiles to introduce team members to a new project or client. We use them when employees prefer not to introduce themselves orally in a meeting, or aren’t available.
Hosting Creating Meetings
Offer Virtual Coffee Breaks
Schedule virtual coffee breaks where introverted employees can have one-on-one conversations with colleagues in a relaxed and informal settings. Send beverages to their location before their one-on-one meetings with their manager. Mix it up with a nice coffee, smoothie, or tea, whichever they prefer.
Video-Optional Meetings
Host virtual meetings where introverted employees can meet and connect with colleagues either with the camera off or with an avatar. Sometimes, people are more willing to actively participate when they don’t feel like they are being watched and judged for their appearance or the appearance of their work/living space.
Virtual Town Hall Meetings/AMAs
Host virtual town hall meetings where introverted employees can ask questions or share anonymous feedback, allowing them to express their opinions in a safe and comfortable way. The “Ask me anything” format has been popular for people to contribute actively to virtual town hall events incognito. It’s especially true in webinars and forum-based social media platforms such as Reddit (a big introvert hang out spot online).
Development Opportunities
Provide Access to Online Learning
While some employees respond to direct training and oversight, others learn and apply best on their own and with minimal supervision. Offer online learning opportunities for introverted employees to develop new skills or learn about industry trends, at their own pace. The work is minimal on your end – provide the learning objectives, and direct links to the online training resources – videos, exams, simulations, and case studies.
Record How-To Content
Provide micro learning opportunities on the fly, recording the training in short 5 minute or less bursts and posting them to the firm’s internal channel. Record and post content instead of delivering it live. There are several software options available, such as Loom, Microsoft Teams, OBS, Slack video clips. This also allows you to replicate a “how-to” video as many times as you like, by simply resharing across the org.
Provide Online Resources for Personal Growth
Provide introverted employees with interesting online resources for personal growth. Examples include podcasts, audiobooks, and book recommendations. Remote team members in particular tend to have something in their ear as they focus for blocks at a time on one specific task. Share your book recommendations and select blog posts which are timely and relevant.
Make it an organizational habit to share things that you find personally interesting, and before no time, others will start doing it as well! Don’t assume that your less vocal team members are not paying attention. Measure employee engagement so you know if it’s working, and follow up with them to learn what they’d like to see more of.
Provide Opportunities for Mentorship
Mentoring provides a more in-depth and personal opportunity to grow. However, people who are not social butterflies may find asking for mentors unnerving. Provide formal mentorship programs, which introverted employees can use to receive mentorship from more experienced colleagues. This helps them to develop their skills and career paths in a one-on-one relationship.
Or, you can offer subscriptions to mentoring opportunities from online platforms which are already established.
Encourage Online Networking
Encourage introverted employees to network with colleagues and industry professionals through online platforms like LinkedIn. Many employees can’t find time to accommodate the awkward weekday evening schedules that many in person networking opportunities require. Online networking allows introverted employees to get out of their shell and start developing professional social abilities remotely.
Once you learn what they are trying to master, who they’d like to meet, or where their interests lie, serve them with more of these opportunities. You can find them via sites like Meetups and professional associations, or by subscribing to newsletters of orgs that tend to hold virtual networking opportunities. As usual, follow up afterwards to see if they enjoyed it and got anything out of it.
Why Focus on Introverts, Specifically?
These remote employee engagement ideas are designed to get employees engaged with their colleagues and remind them how much you appreciate their contributions. Too often, introverted employees go unnoticed, and work under the radar, without much meaningful interaction with their fellow team members.
We as employers desire to be inclusive of different personalities that we encounter in our team makeup. If the idea of inclusion is to allow our employees feel like they can be themselves and work optimally with the same level of access to the org and recognition as others, these concepts are a nudge in the right direction.
Develop Your Company Culture with Intent.
With Poprouser, you don’t just get experts. You get people who understand business, who ask the right questions and set the right goals. A Chief People Officer on-demand.
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