How to Motivate Remote Employees

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Steve Thompson

January 29, 2022

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The age of remote workers is far from over and has become a norm for various industries. Understanding how to motivate remote employees is crucial to keeping your workforce productive. Since working remotely can be a lonely experience for some individuals, it's vital for teleworkers to feel they're part of a team. Here are some of the most effective ways to motivate remote employees.

Create a Team Atmosphere

Man in a videocall with team member

It's not a mystery to motivate remote employees if you start with the premise that each member is an essential component of a virtual team. From there, you can come up with a variety of fun or exciting activities to motivate your remote workforce. If team members have never met each other before in person, it's helpful to use photos in communications such as email. Proprietary or private social media networks create the feel of meaningful team activity.

For each member to feel part of a team, you have to treat each individual as a unique individual chosen for a particular reason. Giving individuals special projects based on their skills can reinforce the idea that each member brings something unique to the company. Fostering a loyal remote workforce is similar to developing an online community for a blog or website.

Make Growth a Central Theme

One of the main messages a successful organization consistently sends to its members revolves around company growth. An innovative market leader or disruptive startup already carries a mystique that helps attract, motivate and retain workers. If your company is neither, visualize a pathway to growth that you can express with the team. That doesn't mean pretending you're number one. It means maximizing your strengths as a plan for development.

The road to company growth is paved with the right people and technology working together. Time management is critical for staying on track with meeting company projections. So you need to be careful not to waste time on irrelevant problems while ensuring the people and technology are suitable for the organization.

More significant profits tend to be the focus of company growth, but you should also put value into developing employee knowledge and skills. The more your workers learn about their field and gain expertise, the more they will want to pursue it further rather than jump to another career. One of the significant lessons of the "great resignation" of 2020-2021 was that employees don't like being trapped in dead-end jobs. A light must guide them at the end of the tunnel that signals future growth.

One way to showcase your company's growth is to create colorful charts and graphs that show where your firm has been and where it's going. If you never give the impression that change is on the horizon, it can lead to employee burnout. But if you show your team that career advancement and better pay are possible, they are more likely to stay and grow with the company than look for ways out.

Build Trust Among Your Staff

Staff holding hands and building trust

Trust is an important virtue to embrace and promote in team building. One of the best ways to build trust with remote workers is to consider their well-being vital to work environments. Think about creative office break room ideas that inspire employee motivation and participation.

Give remote employees a certain amount of project autonomy to make their own decisions, so they feel more like contributors. An HBR study on worker motivation of 9,700 U.S. workers found that allowing workers to experiment and solve important problems raises motivation. Let remote workers feel they are explorers and builders on an entire journey.

Another way to boost staff loyalty and trust is to send care packages in the mail to team members. Care packages may include a variety of gifts, including company attire, mugs, and stationery. This gesture sends a clear and memorable message that your company looks after its employees and appreciates their loyalty.

Provide Empowerment Tools

Clear and consistent communication is what holds a team together. That's why video conferencing tools are excellent for building company culture. Your staff meetings can be video calls with visual demonstrations, accelerating learning curves. Organizing virtual team collaboration activities is another way to connect and unify employees toward company goals. You can even use video streaming to throw virtual office parties.

Employee engagement software automates employee recognition with rewards and bonuses for good performance. Software features include digital badges and scoreboards. You can motivate your staff through a point system and create games out of work, awarding prizes to workers who convert the most leads to sales. Whatever the key metrics measure your firm's productivity, you can make an exciting competition out of it. Get your team members to interact with each other through online team-building events.

Since some remote workers have difficulty practicing self-discipline, it's advantageous to use employee monitoring software to identify which employees need help structuring and scheduling their activities. Tracker boards can publish employee productivity stats, motivating team members who want to prove their value to the company.

Another way to strengthen your remote workforce is to offer free online training sessions to improve your skills for the job. You can build a more knowledgeable workforce through virtual meetings and e-Learning platforms such as Udemy and Coursera. Providing access to valuable knowledge and learning tools while working from home can make employees feel more connected with the company.

Maintain Regular Communication

Video call

Communication is an essential part of any operation. When you have multiple people working from home, it's crucial to create the image of active work in each worker's mind. This perception can eclipse the notion of isolation. Management should give each worker regular feedback from time to time to let them know they are recognized and appreciated.

Various communication tools exist to facilitate online interaction with individuals or a group. Tools such as Slack, Zoom, and FaceTime make online one-on-one or group communication easy. One of the keys to team building is getting to know each team member personally. You can increase engagement and motivation by finding out the interests of individual employees and why they work in your field.

Consider daily check-ins as a way to stay in touch with team members. Some of the tools you can use for seamless check-ins are Slack or Zoom. This concept adds accountability to remote jobs, which helps you manage productivity.

Be sure to share company achievements with workers regularly to have a sense of working for a winning organization. It's vital to reiterate company goals regularly to work with a clear vision of moving forward. Remember that two-way communication is more powerful than one-way communication regarding how an organization functions and evolves.

Conclusion

Learning how to motivate remote employees is essential to a modern digital enterprise. You can do it by making sure work is meaningful to your workers. Staging online awards shows, or other fun presentations that portray a worthwhile work environment can do wonders. Make sure you have a compelling online presence you can be proud of crafted by a creative and analytical person who designs websites.

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