Even though many employees have started going back to the office, it’s clear that all staff being there all day, every day, is simply no longer the default for many organisations. The big question now becomes: “how to maintain the morale and motivation of a remote workforce?”
There are obvious advantages to remote work — avoiding commutes, flexibility, smaller overheads from costs like office rental, and for some disabled workers, it was always more practical. Very often, there’s reportedly no loss to productivity. It’s not without its challenges, of course, and one of the victims can be morale. Low morale is generally an expression of other factors — it’s not just an inevitable consequence of being outside the office. When we seek to understand and acknowledge that team members may develop a lower morale over time and loose motivation, it makes sense to find ingredients that can improve motivation among those who are spending countless hours still not moving from their home.
Let’s take a look at 5 ways to maintain the morale and motivation:
#1 Keep Connected
Maintaining consistent communication with team members, is really the basis of all further points in this article. Simply staying in touch on a one-to-one basis as well as in a group context — by video conference, not just messaging — makes clear your approachability and responsiveness. In addition, staff can use a support group to communicate with one another about non-task-related subjects. It’s about being human rather than always talking about deadlines and targets.
#2 Help Employees Find a Healthy Work-Life Balance
Work-life balance is the most commonly cited reason for remote work in the long term. But there’s a sense of stress and anxiety that we’ve all become far too familiar with thanks to the blurring of work and play environments. Distractions and ‘not being able to unplug’ can suck the enjoyment and productivity out of work, making it a frustrating grind. We’ve a number of tips for those wanting to reduce stress when working from home such as creating separate spaces where possible and making time to do things you enjoy. Even if they are familiar with some or all of them, sometimes a gentle reminder to check in with these aids to well-being will do wonders for a team member who has fallen into a rut. Mental health is to a large extent about habits, as with other aspects of health.
#3 Exhibit Leadership
Proper leadership sets the tone for employees. It’s not easy — Gallup recently found that companies fail to choose suitable managers 82% of the time. A good leader trained in the principles of management leadership, with skills like critical thinking, team-building, communication, and problem-solving ultimately bring out intangibles like confidence in the organisation. Applying these skills to engender a culture of transparency, accountability and drive creates a better working environment for remote workers.
#4 Discuss Scheduling and Capacities with Employees
The word ‘with’ here is important for this practical step, because while the ship has sailed on one-size-fits-all schedules, issues can arise from de-synchronisation. The tech giants have all come to different overarching policies, for instance, but case by case concerns complicate things. If Stephanie has recently had a child, for instance, she may be able to remotely complete her work during different hours but not make it to certain physical or even remote project meetings, leading to some coworkers thinking she is ‘not pulling her weight.’ Improving Stephanie’s morale might simply require a conversation with her project team to raise awareness and work out how to keep her in the loop.
#5 Minimise distractions and interruptions
Studies suggest frequent interruptions at work correlate with decreased job satisfaction and wellbeing. Thus, by providing employees with tools designed to minimize those distractions (such as noise-canceling earbuds), employers may make a big difference in workers’ productivity—and happiness.
It’s clear by now that remote work is not a magic wand, and that its long term integration requires meeting its particular challenges to avoid dislocated, burned out and incohesive teams.