Creating a great team of professionals who know their job is a difficult task, but what if you have such a team? Congratulations, it’s a lot easier to manage the workload, to explain tasks, and to be successful. But what if you can’t explain everything in person? What if your team members live in different cities or even countries? In that case, you have to remotely motivate your team.
It might seem like an easy task, but on the contrary, motivating people online is not that easy. You have to put a lot more effort into making sure that your team is still working as a team. The research states that people who work from home or have a more flexible workplace are happier than those who don’t have such an opportunity.
But the bad news is that people might feel less motivated. For example, some individuals might feel as if they are not actually part of the team. When team members feel motivated and included, they will reach their full potential which will lead to even better results. So here are some tips on how you might motivate your team.
how to motivate remote employees
1. Have Video Calls
It’s one thing when you contact someone through messenger, but it’s a totally different thing to contact someone via video call. When you see someone’s face, even if it is not in person, it’s as if you make a better point. It is more encouraging and personal than when you contact your team members via messaging.
Set up a schedule for regular meetings, so all the team members will know at what time they have to be at their workplace. This way your employees will be more motivated since they know that at some point they have to switch on the PC and take part in a meeting. Knowing that they will be participating in a meeting, even if online, will encourage employees to make some progress.
This type of communication is especially helpful when you are working on big projects. That way everyone in a team stays tuned, and the workload is better coordinated.
2. Organize Online Training
If you can work remotely, you can train remotely as well. It’s important to stay up-to-date on new technologies, methods, tools, etc., that are related to your industry. You should offer your employees the chance to attend online learning classes to improve their working skills.
You can find various platforms that offer online training so it will be easier for your employees to access these classes. Through this training, employees can improve their skills and produce better results at work.
3. Make Sure to Reward Employees
There is nothing more motivating for employees than to be recognized by leadership. It’s not difficult to show that you notice someone’s progress. You can either do that in the moment during your video conversation, or you can send e-mails via mailbox or social media recognizing someone’s success.
4. Build Trust Within Your Remote Team
Trust is the glue that makes the team stick together. You can’t expect good results when team members don’t trust each other or their leadership. Research shows that people are more motivated and willing to produce better results when they like their leadership and have trust in them. So even though building trust takes time, you shouldn’t ignore this task.
Meeting in person at least once a year is a must. Even if you are working in different cities, you should pick a date for everyone to meet. The best way to build trust within a team is to set up regular meetings, especially at the beginning of the job. You should meet at least once every six months, although once every 3-4 months might give better results.
If there is no way to meet each other in person, you should use video chat as often as possible. Checking current progress and discussing tasks online via video conversation might not replace in-person meetings, but it’s better than nothing. Make sure that in between formal meetings you add some more informal meetings as well to build better interpersonal relationships.
5. Have Only Meaningful Meetings
Sometimes people feel that discussing the same topics over and over lowers their motivation. Sometimes rather than completing a task while you have the energy, you have to participate in a meaningless meeting.
So make sure you either have video conferences once in a while and you discuss meaningful things, or you have daily short meetings when you set up goals. There is nothing less motivating than wasting your time on unimportant things.
6. Always Be Honest
As it was mentioned, you have to notice employees’ progress, but you should also be honest and talk about things that are going wrong. If something is not quite right, or it could get better, you should lightly point that out.
For example, your team member did a good job, but you feel it could have been done better. Praise the team member for the good job, but then ask him or her to think about the ways in which they could improve.
About the Author: Cheryl Hearts is a writer and journalist from Boston, Massachusetts. Her passion for writing started at an early age and evolved during the high school years. She enjoyed creating her own stories, so she decided to make writing her career. After earning a degree in Journalism, Cheryl started running her own blog CherylHearts.com where she’s covering topics of great interest to society.
