5 Ways to manage and Motivate Your Remote team

The Covid-19 pandemic has taken the entire world by storm. Companies and businesses all around the world are suffering. One of the challenges companies are facing is how to manage and motivate a remote workforce. Employees are also finding it difficult to work as a remote team and are seen struggling with their productivity levels and getting work done when they have to switch from working from offices to working from home. There are several ideas for remote team building and remote team management strategies that can be deployed in this regard. You can work to improve the motivation of your employees and workers when they are working from home. However, given the current situation, make sure that you are empathetic towards your team and give them some space. It is a tough situation that the world is facing these days and companies should set rightful expectations from their workers and employees.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the entire world. It has been a year since the virus made its first appearance but unfortunately, there has been no success in the efforts of devising a vaccine for the virus. Due to the rise in the number of cases on a regular basis and the severity of the virus attacks, schools and offices have been instructed to shut down. As a result, every company has now been forced to opt for remote working practices.

Shifting from working from office to managing remote employees has not been a smooth transition for most companies. The biggest challenge that companies had to face was ensuring productivity even when the employees were working in the form of a remote team.

Reasons Behind Demotivation:

Almost all companies reported that their employees were facing trouble concentrating and staying motivated to work. Queries like how to keep team motivated working from home and how to keep your team motivated remotely were being put forward by companies from all around the world. The companies are already going through a financial crisis given the situation. Therefore, losing more assets due to demotivated employees is not a risk any company can afford to take at the moment.

Before diving into the different effective ways and strategies through which you can learn how to motivate employees during lockdown and ensure that the company is able to achieve its goals, it is important to shed light on why the employees have been feeling this way.

The Covid situation is full of uncertainty. Things are changing at a rapid rate and unfortunately, most of the changes are contributing to making things even worse than before. Given this time, most of us feel anxious. Our lifestyles have changed drastically and we have started to practice unusual things like social distancing and wearing a mask etc. while calling them as the ‘new normal’. Therefore, it is natural for your employees to also feel under pressure and anxious. Bear in mind that their mental health would also be going through a lot that will surely have an adverse effect on their productivity and the motivation to work.

Moreover, all companies have now been forced to switch and now will be managing work from home employees. This has disrupted the normal routine. Before the virus struck, everyone had a proper schedule and routine. Waking up in the morning, getting ready and then going to the office. But now everyone has been confined to their homes. This change has surely affected employees' motivation to work and companies have reported a decrease in their worker’s productivity.

Motivating Employees During Remote Working Practices:

Now that you are aware of the reasons which have led to a decrease in the employees’ productivity and motivation during this lockdown situation, let’s go over five powerful, efficient, tried and tested practices that are the answer to the most asked question i.e. how to manage and motivate a remote workforce.

1. Prioritize Tasks:

A company is always working on multiple projects and tasks at the same time. But given the tough situation and decrease in the motivation of the workers, it is important that the companies prioritize the tasks.

Rather than assigning the tasks in bigger chunks and asking the employees to do all the tasks at once, it is advised that you assign the tasks in small lists. When breaking down the tasks, prioritize the items that need to be done urgently and ask the workers to accomplish those tasks first. Then you can move on to the other tasks.

Breaking the task down and dividing the work into smaller portions is a strategy that will prove beneficial and helpful for both the company as well as the workers. Prioritizing tasks would allow companies to keep track of all the workthat needs to be done. Dividing tasks into simpler tasks would make it easy for them to be completed on target.

At the same time, the employees will not feel overburdened when the tasks are assigned in bits and pieces. They will be able to work on smaller tasks with ease rather than feeling that the company is expecting too much from them.

2. Ensure Regular Communication:

Communication is a very important element that every company has to be vigilant about. Lack of communication is the key reason behind eighty percent problems that companies face and come across.

Now that everyone is working from their homes and companies are worried about how to motivate employees working from home, it is important to stress upon the significance of communication. Although you might not be able to meet your workers physically, but make sure that you utilize the virtual means of communication. Hold meetings on a regular basis. Other than work related meetings, feel free to use emails, messages and calls to check up on your employees to ask them about their health and wellbeing.

This is a tough situation that the world is facing right now. People are losing hope and anxiety and stress is on the rise. Therefore, it is important for us to be empathetic towards one another and check up on each other to assure the team that we all are in this together and things will get better soon.

3. Team Building Activities:

Working remotely is a new practice. For the majority of the workers as well as the companies, they are facing this situation for the first time. Therefore, employees are finding it a bit hard to adjust to this change and remote team management is an issue.

Setting up some time and looking for an interesting remote team building activity and conduct it with your employees. There are several team building activities that can be arranged online. Each activity has its own goal. Some skills that can be taught to the employees through these activities to boost the morale of the workers and motivate them to work include:

• Time management
• Effective communication
• Team building
• Cooperation and co-working
• Leadership

These activities bring the team together and promote an overall culture of cooperation and working together for the employees. This promotes a sense of togetherness and thus motivates the employees to do well. The employees will also feel empowered and this practice will also portray a positive company culture.

4. Set Rewards:

If you are looking for the answer to how to motivate employees during covid-19, one amazing way can be through rewards. It is human nature that we feel motivated to work and push through when we are offered any type of incentive or award.

Try doing the same for your employees. Set goals and targets, and set the teams to work. When the targets are achieved and the goals are met, make sure to praise the employees and reward them for their efforts. Your small words of encouragement will push the employees and serve as a motivating force to help them overcome any hurdles that are becoming the reason for demotivation. The rewards you offer can be encouragement and applause, monetary incentives or even other company benefits that the employees may be interested in. You will be amazed to see what a few words of encouragement can lead to and how they impact the employee productivity and motivation!

5. Allow Breaks:

The Covid virus pandemic is surely an unprecedented time. Everyone is facing a severe situation they never even imagined they would ever be stuck in. Therefore, bear in mind that things will get tough for your employees.

Everyone is struggling with not only ensuring their physical well-being but also to maintain a stable mental health. There are days where one is feeling extremely low and cannot get the energy to do anything. But at the same time, there are some days where the productivity is skyrocketed and a lot can be accomplished within the same day.

Give your employees some space and understand their situation. Set a flexible work routine and expect breaks. Companies cannot expect remote teams to work as productively as in-house teams, especially given the current situation and level of stress and uncertainty.

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