Remote work has become a regular practice, with many companies entrusting employees to work from home, managing the same responsibilities outside of the typical office environment. As companies continue to adapt, so do the strategies.
This transition to work from home is only gaining more and more traction, with research showing that 70% of employees globally telecommute at least once a week. While this has been a big perk to employees, it can be a challenge for managers when motivating remote teams, especially during the challenging time of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As employees navigate new remote working situations while balancing the stress that comes with a global pandemic, research from the Harvard Business Review revealed that working from home is less motivating. But what’s the best method for how to keep employees motivated during stressful times?
While there’s no one simple solution for motivating remote employees, our team at Trust Well Network is sharing the 5 simple strategies that can help motivate remote employees for a well-run business. Let’s get started!
The 5 Strategies to Help You with How to Manage and Motivate a Remote Workforce
There are a few essential steps for remote workers to ensure they have success at home. These include surveying employees, creating the right work environment, acknowledging their accomplishments, staying in touch, and fostering a growth mindset.
Using these key strategies when motivating remote workers will improve your organization’s success, supporting employees as they transition to a remote role while maintaining the company culture.
Continue reading to learn more about each of the 5 strategies.
Strategy #1: Survey Your Employees
Understanding and paying attention to your staff’s needs is a key first step in learning how to motivate remote employees.
To do this, we recommend utilizing survey tools to gain an understanding of the current motivation levels of the remote workers. With this survey, it’s essential to ask questions that reveal what your staff thinks about, how they feel about the current work situation, and what you can do to make it better. Gaining their input will make employees feel as though you care about them and their needs are being heard and addressed, improving morale (and simultaneously, motivation) once the survey results are gathered.
With this in mind, it’s important to not just stop with the survey but use the results and implement them to improve the work environment - showing employees that you’re putting their thoughts and feedback into practice.
Strategy #2: Create the Right Work Environment
While a remote staff isn’t in a shared office space, it’s still important to cultivate a work environment conducive to productivity.
When it comes to motivating a remote team, all remote workers must have access to a strong internet connection, email, remote communication tools, video meeting tools, time tracking tools, and project management tools, a messaging platform, including a way to share files. A lack of technical and communication tools can greatly hinder at-home productivity, but with these tools, you can help the team be just as successful at home as they would be in the office.
With all of these tools together, you’re not only allowing for more collaboration, which is often lost in a remote setting but making employees feel like they are cared for with all of the tools they need for success. It’s about going above and beyond what you have to provide with additional resources and tools so employees feel empowered (and actually want) to do their work.
Strategy #3: Acknowledge Your Employees’ Accomplishments
It’s easy to let certain aspects of company culture slide in a remote environment, but maintaining a recognition program is key to retaining employees.
By acknowledging employees’ accomplishments, you make them feel valued and vital to the company, empowering them with the confidence to continue to thrive in their role. This helps you keep valued employees at the company and make them feel productive, happier, and willing to contribute more to continue to gain recognition. This is a simple yet highly effective method for motivating employees during tough times, and you can start today.
Strategy #4: Always Stay in Touch
The transition to work from home isn’t always the most seamless process, but you can make a world of difference with the proper communication.
The first step is creating a work-from-home guide, clearly playing out expectations, and provide any clarity necessary for what’s expected of employees while working remotely. Additionally, keep employees informed on any changes to this guide so they continually stay up-to-speed on expectations.
Once you’ve created a foundation, it’s important to maintain frequent communication regarding how to motivate a remote team. This involves regular video meetings and authentic communication, so employees feel comfortable sharing and providing those employees with feedback to help them thrive in their roles. Giving feedback helps motivate the team while simultaneously keeping them updated on expectations, allowing their performance to improve and match what’s needed. Whether it’s constructive or positive feedback, employees will better understand how to succeed, improving satisfaction.
Strategy #5: Foster a Growth Mindset
A big part of figuring out how to motivate remote workers and retain employees is showing that there’s room to grow. Creating a growth mindset focused on how careers can flourish within a company, you help employees strive to work harder to meet their unique career goals without going elsewhere to do so.
With a growth mindset, you focus not just on the professional but the personal, too. By aiding in your employee’s performance goals, you’re strengthening their personal development and their gratitude for the company culture that cultivates their career. We all have aspirations, and creating room for that growth within the company can do a lot to motivate employees.
What You Can Do to Make the Most of These Strategies
Understanding employees is an essential step in determining how to manage and motivate a remote workforce, and our Core Motivation Analysis can provide just the insights you need for success.
You can make a lot of progress with remote workers using our 5 strategies, but our comprehensive assessment is a must for the best results (while saving time). The Core Motivation Analysis is a 66-question test that dives into 16 different personality traits and their motivations, plus their thinking and behavior styles. This test is excellent if you don’t know where to begin, helping you get started by first understanding the employees you’re hoping to motivate - guiding you towards the best methods to do so.
Use the Core Motivation Analysis System to Get Started
The Core Motivation Analysis System takes just 10 to 12 minutes to complete but provides a whole host of insights.
This dynamic, fully automated assessment helps you better perceive employees for who they are, understand their strengths, as well as what they need from others to succeed. By understanding employees’ unique thinking and behavior, you can make more focused decisions to help the company and each individual thrive.
With this tool, you’ll get a key look at the staff’s motivators, helping you narrow in on what will truly be the best motivation for remote employees at your company. With 16 different personality types and a lot of detail that goes into each, there’s a great deal of information you can yield from this test - all in under 15 minutes.
We Have You Covered All the Way Through
Figuring out how to keep employees motivated during stressful times can be challenging, but it’s one many businesses are looking to solve. However, by finding the right method for your unique staff with the Core Motivation Analysis and by implementing the proper strategies, motivating remote teams will become an inherent part of company culture.
If you’re having trouble understanding the test results, a Trust Well Network expert is happy to help explain the data, ensuring the success of your business with motivated employees. For assistance, contact us at 312-919-1676 today.
