If you’ve recently started working remotely or on a hybrid basis, you may have heard or read that it can be more difficult to advance your career compared to people working on-site. While you may be okay with the idea that your chances of getting promoted are reduced because of your working arrangement, there are ways to get noticed and advance your career as a remote or hybrid employee.
There are ways to stand out and get noticed, even while working remotely full-time or part-time. To advance your career, you must be proactive in your approach.
1. Be an Excellent Communicator
As a remote or hybrid employee, it’s harder to walk into your supervisor’s or colleague’s office and chat about a problem you’re having. You will need to get comfortable communicating via a messaging platform, email, telephone, and video conference.
If you’ve had experience working with teams, you know how vital good communication is. Productivity and work quality can suffer if communication breaks down, leaving employees detached from their colleagues.
Whether actively participating in conference calls or speaking one-on-one with your supervisor and colleagues, it’s critical to keep yourself visible to everyone you work with. While you may be more comfortable being an observer in group calls, speaking up when you have something to contribute is an excellent way to put yourself on your supervisor’s radar.
Actively communicating with the people you work with can help reduce feelings of isolation as a remote worker and keep you in the loop as a flexible worker. If you’re looking to improve your communication skills, you may want to considerlearning about mindful communication with tech.
2. Find Ways to Make Yourself Visible
Some remote workers don’t have a physical office that they can go to and meet with supervisors and colleagues, while others do. If you have a home office, you should try to visit the office regularly.
Employees with a local home office should schedule meetings with their supervisors and team members. Before any scheduled appointments, ensure you have an agenda of items you want to discuss, so you’re not wasting anyone’s time.
If you’re an introvert and prefer to keep your webcam off during meetings, consider stepping outside your comfort zone and turning on your camera. You can improve your chances of getting noticed when it’s time for promotion by making yourself visible in all meetings.
Team meetings can be productive or a waste of time, depending on how they’re moderated. You may be interested in learning someessential tools you need for your online meetings.
3. Discuss Your Goals With Your Manager
If you want to advance in your career in your current role, it’s essential you let your supervisor or manager know your goals, so they can help you achieve them. When you start laying out your plans, you want them to have clear expectations.
Before you sit down with your supervisor or manager, you need to have a clear idea of what your goals are. You may want to plan your goals using the S.M.A.R.T. method to show your manager that you’ve given your goals serious thought.
Suppose one of your goals involves continuing education; you can ask them if the organization will financially support your pursuit. You may want to exhibit how your pursuit of continuing education can benefit the company to get support.
Once you’ve shared your goals with your manager and started to work on them, you may want to track your progress. You might be interested in themost beautiful habit-tracking apps to stay on top of your goals.
4. Network With Your Colleagues Within the Company and Industry
Networking as a hybrid or remote employee can help you form relationships with colleagues that you may never meet in person. Attending industry networking events allows you to connect with professionals outside your organization, which can be beneficial.
Industry events can inform you of opportunities to build your skills, find a new job, and additional events and groups. Your organization may host virtual events that are a mix of social and team building, which can be an excellent way to get to know your coworkers and increase your visibility.
You can network with your colleagues and team members on work-related and social topics on platforms likeSlack,Discord, orWhatsAppto keep in touch with each other. If you’re using Discord, you may be interested in learningways to optimize Discord on Windows.
5. Develop Your Skills
Treat your remote or hybrid job like an in-office position, and look for ways to upgrade your skills to make yourself a more valuable employee. You can take a time-management course or upgrade your communication skills.
Improving your skills is an excellent way to put yourself on the radar for an upcoming promotion. You may want to take a course to make yourself a better team player or a course in effective leadership to show you want to learn how to contribute to the organization positively.
You have numerous choices when it comes to online learning. Platforms likeCourseraandUdemyoffer courses taught by subject-matter experts. You may be interested ineducational apps for Android that offer smarter ways to learn.
6. Track Your Accomplishments
Keeping track of your professional accomplishments helps you feel good about yourself and is an excellent list for your next performance review. If you worked on-site in previous years, and your remote or hybrid situation is relatively new, you may use it to your advantage.
Suppose you’re confident that your performance as a remote or hybrid employee is more productive than when you were on-site. you may compare statistics to show management how the remote or hybrid arrangement is mutually beneficial.
Coming to your performance review with a list of accomplishments is an excellent way to build a case for a raise or a promotion. If you’re expecting your next review won’t be a positive one, you may be interested in learninghow to respond to a bad performance review.
Advancement Is Possible for Remote and Hybrid Employees
Working remotely or on a hybrid basis isn’t a career killer. There are ways you can ensure your contributions get noticed, whether it’s actively participating in virtual meetings or an occasional office visit.
If you’re hesitating to try remote or hybrid work because you have career goals that require you to advance, you don’t need to worry. There are ways to advance your career regardless of your working arrangement.
Even though remote and hybrid working arrangements have their benefits, they shouldn’t come at the expense of your career advancement. Getting noticed and promoted may take more effort, but it will be worth it.
