Business

Friday Buzz: Empathy for Remote Workers

Empathy is vital when it comes to managing a team of remote employees. Also: how a change in marketing messaging helped The Guardian’s membership revenue outpace its ad revenue.

Remote working is on the rise in the United States. Despite all of the collaborative technology at our fingertips, remote workers can lose a sense of camaraderie and even footing with their team.

Fast Company delivers a few tips to help leaders who manage remote workers become more sensitive and thoughtful toward the unique needs of their employees.

Start with making sure that your remote employees don’t feel like second-class citizens. All too often, managers host in-person meetings in conference rooms, while remote workers are relegated to the phone or videoconferencing tech. Change it up by having all meeting attendees use the same tech for the meeting.

Remote employees are also more concerned about a lack of career growth than office workers. “All it takes is a little empathy for managers to rectify that,” writes Suzan Bond. “Anticipate your remote team members’ anxieties about not being recognized and schedule a quarterly career-development meeting to check in and talk about their progress and professional goals.”

Membership Works

If you’ve recently read a story on The Guardian’s website, you probably saw the long call to action at the bottom of an article asking you to support the site by contributing money and becoming a member. The Guardian is now raising more money from members than it does from ad revenue, thanks, in part, to those CTAs. How did a request for money become so effective?

Harvard’s Nieman Labdid some digging into how a revamped marketing messaging has helped generate membership.

It’s common practice that CTAs are short and pithy, but The Guardian membership prompts are lengthy and appeal to emotion. “The longer appeal resonates with people more,” says Membership Executive Editor Natalie Hanman. “We need to explain to people why we are pursuing this approach. Even as journalists used to writing snappy headlines, we need to take a bit more time here.”

Other Links of Note

Recurring giving programs provide tremendous value to nonprofits. The Bloomerang blog shares five steps for setting one up.

Cultural organizations are missing out on a lot of visitors. Know Your Own Bone shares data-driven ways to reach new audiences.

#GivingTuesday is nearly here. Check out the recent post from Network for Good that reveals ways to activate your community.

(Martin Barraud/iStock/Getty Images Plus)

Raegan Johnson

By Raegan Johnson

Raegan Johnson is a contributor to Associations Now. MORE

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