How to Increase Employee Engagement in Virtual Meetings

Covid-19 struck the world and crippled it in a matter of months. Overnight, we are now expected to operate in different ways of living and working. The crux is HOW ARE YOU COPING as a leader? 
What changes have you made to allow for this new normal that has hit? Are you worried about how you are going to increase employee engagement to increase productivity in the workplace?

It is not an easy time to be steering the ship. With tough decisions ahead to retrench, re-skill and strategise for choppy and uncertain waters ahead, the list has to be reinvented.

For a leader to do a 360 turnaround, attend to communication problems and improve teamwork at the same time, there has to be a high level of behavioural flexibility. Learning tools from an NLP for work course for instance could be a good place to start.

Managing teams to increase productivity in the workplace has become a different ballgame because the workplace has shifted and displaced itself to a different landscape. 

So, what has escalated in importance, booting out old priorities? One resounding voice is EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE. Your ability to relate, communicate and emote has become of paramount importance.

​Employees working from home and at the workplace need to learn a new way of pulling resources together and keep the connection within teams, to improve teamwork. 

Here are some tips to increase employee engagement in virtual meetings; 
•  With the workplace displaced, there is a high chance that communication is not as seamless as it used to be. Operating from a place of honesty and humility is a good place to start. 
•  Have empathy rather than judgment when things go wrong. Allow for employees to be struggling with the current situation too. Everyone takes a different amount of time to come to grips with what has happened. 
•  Be open to ask for ideas as everyone is exposed to different facets of work and may have suggestions and insights into how to do things more efficiently. This also leads to an increase in employee engagement as everyone is given a chance to contribute.
•  Amp up your trust factor and allow for freedom of expression. Assume that everyone has the highest positive intention and is working efficiently to increase productivity in the workplace. 
•  Communicate with updates as soon as the meeting begins. This will give all team members an opportunity to feel like communication is open and transparent. 
•  Engage team members to contribute in the meeting so they feel connected to the objectives of the team and communication problems decline.

These points cited don’t only apply to virtual meetings. They are holy grail for leading in post-Covid times. Calibrating progress more often not only gives the employee a sense that you are there on the project with them, it also keeps them on track.

​This certainly increases employee engagement as the sense of belonging is heightened and an employee will give their all, to improve teamwork. Connection with team mates is fundamental to success today. 

Tools shared at an NLP for work course address precisely this. It teaches leaders and employees how to improve teamwork by deepening their relationship with self.

While it is important to be driven by outcomes, amping up observation skills to know when an employee is struggling also helps in ironing out communication problems in the workplace.

A simple question “how are you?” gives a leader great mileage and opens the door to understanding issues the employee is contending with at the time. Taking a step further, a leader would do well to find out their team members’ reinforcers.

Ask yourself “what is a reward that this employee loves?” Some reinforcers could be: 

• Offering them coaching or mentoring
• Giving them a higher-level piece of work as training for the next level
• Making them a project lead 


This is definitely a surefire way to Increase productivity in the workplace. Employees feel rewarded and that is the first premise of performance management – to reward behaviour that you want.
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There is no doubt that this is one of the toughest times to be a leader and manager. Having experienced that situations can change overnight, the most important skill to have is the need to be flexible and resilient.


Heightening skills as a coach at an NLP for work course, would give tremendous benefit to increase employee engagement. The deeper you go into the mindset of your employees, the more you understand what makes them tick. 


This is the gold nugget that will Increase productivity in the workplace, reduce communication problems and improve teamwork. Leaders need to install strategies for their people to heighten their compassion score and deepen engagement with each other.


Most often, it is about self-change that removes blockages and negative beliefs that start the conversation. These types of courses like NLP for work could Increase productivity in the workplace easily especially when done in the organization, as everyone is on board having learnt the same tools. ​