COVID-19 has changed our daily lives radically. According to the statistics, 42% of employees had to start working remotely. Yet, many people still find it hard to work while staying at home due to a number of personal factors. For example, some employees can’t focus on their tasks because their kids and pets demand constant attention. Others don’t feel confident about their future in a company because of the lack of live feedback and communication. Besides, people feel anxious about the pandemic overall, starting from web designers and ending with writers at an essay writing service. That’s why employees demonstrate low productivity while working from home.
But how to motivate remote workers then? We’ve prepared a few fun ways to motivate employees during these uncertain times, so keep on reading our guide. 

1. Consider the well-being of your employees

Recent studies show that  41 % of remote workers are afraid to go to work because of the pandemic. That’s why you have to prioritize your workers’ health and well-being as a leader of your team. Besides, we all are in the same boat, so we have to take care of each other during tough times. You can recommend or provide your employees with access to some healthcare apps, such as:

  • Aaptiv
  • Headspace
  • Meal Planner
  • Medisafe
  • Talkspace

Encourage your remote workers to use teletherapy and communicate with a medical assistant on the phone or online. You can even hire a therapist and create a group chat for your therapy sessions. Also, show that you really care about your employees by organizing healthy food delivery to their homes and sending them health packages every month. Such packages can include masks, sanitizers, and vitamins. Another way to show that you care is to offer insurance  covering Coronavirus for your workers and their families. 

2. Offer learning opportunities

Since employees don’t have an opportunity to visit most offline educational events nowadays, you have to organize online learning to help them grow professionally. You can pay for online courses so that your workers could enhance their skills and learn something new. For example, you could give them access to the following popular online study platforms:

  • A Cloud Guru
  • UDEMY
  • EdX
  • Coursera
  • SkillShare

3. Communicate regularly

Communication is a big deal as it helps your employees bring together as a team. When working remotely, an employee may feel as if they are cut off from the world. Lack of communication brings uncertainty and disturbing thoughts because workers don’t know what happens inside the company. You should regularly organize online meetings to improve employee engagement, discuss tasks, and solve different problems. You can even organize one-on-one meetings with your workers. Don’t forget to ask questions about their well-being. 

Use the following tools to communicate with your team online:

  • Slack
  •  Zoom
  • FaceTime

Here are a few topics for meetings with employees:

  • Productivity improvement
  • Monthly or weekly reports
  • Goal setting
  • Discussing plans

Organize virtual events to keep your remote workers united as a team. You can’t meet in person with your employees, but you can still offer online team-building solutions. Here are fun ways to improve the connection between your employees:

  • Virtual home tours. Every employee will show a short video guide featuring their house or apartment.
  • Virtual themed parties. You can organize a cocktail hour, wine tasting, movie night, or disco night.
  • Friendly competitions. Set up challenges for your employees to have fun together. There are so many options for team building – a choreography challenge, fitness competition, reading contests, etc. Choose a few workers who will be responsible for social committee ideas.

4. Provide feedback

Regular feedback is essential if you want to keep your team motivated. Comment on your workers’ performance, ideas and achievements to show that you care about their work and contribution. You should also praise your employees to encourage them to take risks and think outside the box. If a worker offers a new idea or shows enthusiasm, encourage them to advance this initiative further. You can offer a bonus system to reward proactive employees as well. 
Discuss plans with your remote employees to keep them motivated. Set long-term goals to help them refocus and believe that better times will come. Remind your co-workers of the importance of your activity. Even if you’re involved in international tourism, you can motivate your employees by discussing your business transformation and offering new opportunities.

The Bottom Line

Although it may be a complicated task to motivate remote workers, you still can make an effort and succeed. Support your employees, offer them online learning opportunities, communicate regularly, and provide feedback to encourage your team. If you show your workers that you really care, they will give you so much instead. 

Photo by Prateek Katyal from Pexels