According to a recent poll conducted by Gartner, 90 percent of HR leaders said employees would be allowed to work remotely once COVID-19 vaccines were widely available. For leaders in the workforce, it’s essential to remember to keep employees motivated and engaged. It’s easy to get distracted when working from home, but it’s also just as easy to be productive or even more so than when working at the office.
There are few things to remember when motivating your remote team.
- Always lead by example. It seems simple enough, but during the age of a pandemic, it is important to model how to be an effective worker from home. A simple step in the right direction is crafting and sharing a routine that combines a healthy work ethic and personal life balance.
- Communicate effectively. Decipher the methods of communication that work best for your team. Aside from bombarding them with emails, give them a call or set up a video call to keep them engaged. Video calls tend to feel more personal.
- Equip employees with the tools they need to succeed. Technology is what employees and companies are relying upon while working remotely and it’s vital employees are equipped with the necessary tools to optimize their work performance, such as laptops, adequate cameras, even an ergonomic chair or desk.
- Create a company culture that reinforces their wellbeing. Some remote employees are juggling working with childcare, so it’s important to figure out what schedules work best for them when it comes to meetings, setting deadlines, and breaks to be most effective. Building a sense of teamwork and personal investment can help motivate and engage remote employees.
- Trust your employees. It’s easy as a manager to become frustrated that there is less visibility on your workforce, but micromanaging can become a terrible symptom of this distrust. Micromanaging will only disengage employees and lead to fatigue. This is the time to create a supportive structure and build trust in your team to ensure productivity and results.
Working remotely can be unchartered waters for some teams and it’s essential to ensure they are supported by the company’s mission and values. In this day and age, we are all learning to adapt and work together more fluidly in order to be productive and successful.
If you’d like to know more about how KRESS can help your business navigate the effects COVID-19 has on your business, contact us today. We have the expertise your business needs to create and implement a policy that works for everyone.