Remote workers need to be given the right tools and trust for success

Prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the employment of remote workers was generally relegated to freelance writers, IT specialists, visual artists, and a variety of consultants. Most traditional companies required you to show up for work inside an office space where you would not only be monitored and encouraged by your company superiors, but you could enjoy the motivational benefits of interacting with your colleagues. But due to the pandemic, remote work has become a necessity.

Today, more than 70 percent of the world’s employees are now telecommuting at least once per week. While some of these remote workers enjoy the relative freedom of working at their kitchen table in their pajamas, many more find it a struggle to get motivated to do their job when not working in a disciplinedoffice environment.

So then, the obvious question is, how is it possible to motivate remote workers? The experts will tell you that in order to properly motivate remote workers, you need to provide them with the right tools not only to function at their jobs, but to develop a “culture of trust.” It’s also imperative to have open and free communication with remote workers.

After all, just because an employee is working at home in relative isolation, they still enjoy belonging to a successful team and they also crave the personal satisfaction of knowing their job performance is highly valued by their company boss orbosses.  

That said, here are some ways to encourage motivation for your remote workers.

Growth Mindset is Key

Essentially, growth mindset means you can still reach for improvement in your job performance, no matter where you are working from and no matter what point you’ve reached in your career. Even when working remotely, employers should encourage their employees to engage in new training opportunities that will improve them both professionally and on an individual basis.

A strong growth mindset can be motivating since it concentrates on job performance and overall personal strength development that contributes to the overall company climate, even on a remote basis.  

Create a New Employee Recognition Program

The backbone of any successful company is its people. This means they must be recognized for their achievements whether working on-site or at home. Establishing a brand new employee recognition program specifically for remote workers will provide significant motivation for employees since they will feel like team players. They will also have the satisfaction of knowing their work matters to the entire company.

Remote worker accomplishments should be recognized by something tangible like certificates, plaques, or glass awards engraved with the remote worker’s name along with his or her specific achievement. If weekly and/or daily business meetings can be achieved via Zoom call, so then can a brief awards ceremony.

When remote employees are rewarded for their service in a public setting, they are more likely to remain with the company. They are also happier, highly productive, and will think of new and unique ways to contribute more to their company and their company team.  

Remote Worker Communication

The obvious problem with remote work is that employers don’tget to physically interact with their employees on a day-to-day basis, making the need for remote worker communication via video conference an essential component of everyday business.

Specialists report that more than half of human communication does not involve conversation. This is why it’s considered critical to pick up on visual signs even when teleconferencing to gain a full understanding of what might be going on inside a worker’s head.    

Simply talking on the phone is not a good enough communication technique when attempting to get a thorough picture of what your remote employee is thinking. You can solve this by using any number of remote meeting software solutions such as Zoom, Skype, Google Duo video calls, and more. Forget a quick phone call or the even more impersonal text message. Virtual meetings with multiple employees are said to not only make a remote worker feel connected to a team, it provides significant motivation.

At the End of the Work Day

Working remotely has is advantages for employees who dread the morning and evening commutes or have never felt comfortable in a business suit. But working in isolation can be demoralizing at times, which means employers must shift their employee motivational strategies accordingly to meet the needs of this new world order.

It’s quite possible that even when the pandemic ends, remote work might be here to stay since it significantly reduces an employer’s overhead when it comes to renting an office space and all the added expenses that go along with it. Keeping a remote worker motivated not only involves new digital visual communication tools, it also involves good old fashioned recognition programs like award ceremonies.