Virtual Employees

An article in yesterday's (1st June 2012) issue of The Economic Times exhorts organizations to find ways to connect with their virtual employees. The author Abhijit Bhaduri, the chief learning officer at Wipro, stresses that virtual workers do not only mean employees working in another country or city and in fact could be people working in an office just across the road. The plight of such employees typify the saying "out of sight, out of mind". There is no emotional connect with the leader, the team and even the organization. This results in a major drop in employee engagement, which may ultimately result in higher attrition levels

Having seen this first-hand in my last company, I cannot help but agree with Mr. Bhaduri. The top bosses of our Business Unit were based in Bangalore and rarely visited Mumbai. Obviously they would interact more often with Bangalore team members, in the hallways and cafeterias, than with employees at other centers. As a result, even the most minor achievements of Bangalore staff got recognized at the highest levels in the organization, whereas their Mumbai counterparts would slave away all year only to receive "average" ratings and infrequent promotions. This resulted in many Mumbai team members attempting to leave the BU, and when that did not work out due to headcount politics, opting to leave the organization itself

The lesson here for all leaders having virtual employees is to try and personally interact with them as often as possible, even if they work at multiple offices across various locations. Making employees feel wanted and appreciated is the best way to keep them engaged. Bhaduri reminds organizations to use technology, process guidelines and informal rewards to ensure that virtual workers have what he calls "a share of mind, voice and wallet"