6 Ways to Really Motivate Your Remote Workers

If you want to maximize the productivity of employees working from home, stop micromanaging them.

Studies show performance improves when workers have a degree of control over where, when and how they do their jobs.

“The key is resisting the temptation to make work tactical only through strict processes, rules, and procedures,” according to the Harvard Business Review. “While some degree of boundaries and guidelines help people move quickly, too many create a vicious spiral of demotivation. In such cases, people tend to stop problem-solving and thinking creatively, and instead, do the bare minimum.”

Another tip: give them a new and challenging assignment.

“The most powerful way to do this is to give people the opportunity to experiment and solve problems that really matter,” says the Harvard Business Review. “These problems won’t be the same for every team. They may not even be easy to identify. Your employees will need your help to do this. Ask them: Where can we deliver amazing service to our customers? What’s broken that our team can fix? What will drive growth even in a time of fear? Why are these problems critical, valuable, and interesting?”

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Six Ways to Motivate Your WFH Team

1. Give them options. “Some people prefer working from home, but others do so because they don’t have another option,” according to this article. “Whether you’ve closed your office for good or never had one to begin with, consider how you might provide employees alternatives to their home office. When people were offered no choice in where they worked, motivation dropped more steeply. When given the choice to work from home, motivation was higher.”
2. Don’t forget the personal touch. A dispersed workforce can erode team unity. Prevent this by scheduling regular face-to-face meetings and team-building events.
3. Make work fun. “Play, the motive that most boosts performance, could decrease if it becomes harder for people to get things done from home,” write business consultants Lindsay McGregor and Neel Dooshi. “People may miss the joy of problem-solving with a colleague, or the ease of making a decision when everyone is in one room. Purpose could also decline with team’s decreasing visibility into their impact on clients or colleagues, especially if no one is there to remind them.”
4. Offer career incentives. “You may not be able to offer promotions, but don’t neglect other ways you can help your team advance their careers,” according to business writer Emily Heaslip for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “Offer training that can be accessed remotely. Consider launching a mentorship program to replace the informal mentoring that can take place in an office setting. Learn what ‘growth’ looks like for each individual and design a remote way for them to work on the next phase in their development.”
5. Solicit continuous feedback. Maintain a communication loop with your remote team. Schedule regular check-ins. Ask what is going well and what needs to be improved.
6. Build trust. “Try showing your employees you have faith in their work,” according to Heaslip. “Delegate—without overburdening someone— to show you trust them to take on more responsibility. Consider ways you can give them more of a leadership role where they may be motivated to take on a new challenge.”

SOURCES: How to Motivate Work-From-Home Employees (uschamber.com) and How to Keep Your Team Motivated, Remotely (hbr.org)

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