Tips to Keep Your Staff Motivated Working from Home

With home-working more available that ever before, it’s never been more important to keep your staff motivated and productive.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, we saw an explosion in remote working and, as a result, it showed employers and workers just how flexible they were capable of being.

Indeed, given the positive feedback from both employers and employees about working from home, many companies did not rush to return to traditional office-based working practices.

Here are just a few tips to keep your employees motivated despite not being directly part of your office team and environment.

Share feedback

Feedback is vital for several different reasons, not least of which is to let staff know they’re doing a good job and working in the right direction. Positive feedback is essential to keep motivational levels high, but even constructive feedback can be useful if things aren’t quite going to plan. As with so many aspects of life, the key is in the delivery.

Also, remember to share more than just personal feedback. If an employee has performed well and a customer has made complimentary remarks, be sure to pass on their comments. Customer praise can make all the difference to your staff. For many employees, knowing they’ve done a good job is the most rewarding part of their work.

Give rewards for working hard / productively

Many would argue the greatest reward for hard work is cold hard cash, but anything that serves as an extra incentive will help motivate your staff and increase their engagement.

One very effective way to boost employee productivity is to offer profit-sharing or other similar incentive schemes for meeting targets. By offering results-based rewards, employees feel they are contributing to the overall success of a company while also being rewarded directly for their input to that success.

Make staff feel involved and part of a bigger picture

Remote working can be, by definition, lonelier than being part of an office environment. Indeed, one of the biggest challenges of having staff working from home is finding ways to keep them feeling involved and part of a bigger process.

Offer staff support and advice on how to work from home and give extra encouragement where needed. Remember, all staff members are different so be prepared to tailor your approach to each individual.

There are numerous ways you can reduce the feeling of isolation – mostly by improving your communication with employees. Arrange regular video conferences, even just short ones, to keep everyone on track and install project management platforms to help employees feel part of a bigger team.

Be responsive to your employees’ needs

Listen carefully to your employees' wants and needs. Not only will you make them feel more valued within the company structure, but you’ll also increase their sense of satisfaction in performing their job. Listening to employees is a great way to also identify potential problem areas within your company structure, so take some time to get in touch with your staff and listen to their particular grievances or suggestions.

Offer staff a framework for development

Central to staff motivation is letting employees feel they have a structured route for development. Workers are far more likely to be motivated and productive if they feel they are progressing towards a goal.

By offering employees additional training or giving them extra responsibilities, you can make them feel they are furthering their career rather than whittling away time in a dead-end job.

Be respectful, honest and approachable

One of the most important attributes you need as a manager is approachability. Staff should feel comfortable coming to you with problems or to air grievances. If your employees are confident in coming to you and speaking to you honestly, you’ll find the general work atmosphere improves considerably.

Be respectful and attentive to your staff’s needs and make changes where appropriate. A significant reason that staff members leave companies is bad management. Bottom line? If you’re the sort of boss you would appreciate working for, you’ll go a long way to retaining your team and getting the best from them.