Remote Academy
8 min read

Motivation for Employees: 7 Ways to Keep Your Remote Team Engaged

Published on
April 25, 2024
Contributors
Phoenix Baker
Product Manager
Lana Steiner
Product Designer
Drew Cano
Frontend Engineer
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Remote work can have many advantages; whether it has more time to yourself or a more flexible schedule, it grants workers the opportunity to arrange their duties according to their availability. However, if employees lack motivation, the business’ success rate can be affected by their lack of incentives to deliver their tasks.

In fact, one of the biggest drawbacks of businesses is reduced engagement, which is a dealbreaker for employees. It is as simple as this: If a worker feels supported and comfortable in the company they work for, they will respond with their best foot forward.

Though it may seem that remote work is a safe haven for those who juggle multiple responsibilities, it can be overwhelming for those who struggle to remain engaged with their duties and especially, for those who have trouble keeping up their mood.

The truth is that no business comes with a playbook or a set of rules to keep each employee or team member motivated and committed throughout the whole year, workplaces are scrambling to keep good talent as employees leave for greener pastures, with leaders left wondering how to keep employees cheerful.

It is evident that engagement and motivation are two key factors to keep teammates in sync, coordinated and up to date with their duties. But where to start?

We’ll give you seven tips to help your business be a root of motivation for employees:

How to keep motivation for employees high 👀

1. Pay them fairly

Leadership involves many aspects like being engaged with all of the business departments, getting to know who your peers are and managing your company’s budget to perfection. But perhaps one of the main factors that leaders should take care of is the fair treatment of their employees.

Recognizing your peers’ abilities is as important as helping them deliver an excellent product. One of the ways your coworkers can feel seen and appreciated is by being paid fairly for their hard work. When you recognize an employee’s contribution, either individually or in a team, you foster feelings of appreciation and recognition.

A business can demonstrate just how committed they are to its employees by protecting their well-being. Nonetheless, an aspect that is often overlooked when referring to fair payment is equal pay. This means that women and men employees are equally recognized for their efforts, duties and workload; because it means that the business assumes that they are both capable of reaching the same goals.

💡 Pro Tip: Salary doesn’t always come in the form of money. Pay your employees with recognition. Celebrate the wins with DailyBot. Promote a new standard of appreciation and recognition with Kudos.

2. Listen to your team

A good leader is not defined by success, because it comes and goes. On the contrary, they are defined by how they lead their team to reach their goals no matter the obstacles, mishaps or possible changes. Therefore, to keep their team engaged, they must stay committed to them in all aspects.

The first one is: having a great communication system among your peers. When a team gets to know each other and learns how to work collaboratively, then they will work with synchronicity to achieve all of their goals.

But, no work can be done without understanding everyone’s point of view. Sharing opinions and possible questions is just as important as delivering a good result, but no good product is done without understanding the process of how to get to their desired target.

If your peers have doubts about how to supply their abilities to the project, or one of the requirements to complete a task or even deadlines it is important to communicate each aspect as meticulously as possible for them to have a clear vision of what they have to do and what is expected of them.

3. Stop having too many meetings a day

By now, you’re probably familiar with the phrase that meeting should’ve been an email and how it actually affects employees. Approximately, we spend more than eight hours a week on meetings, causing workers to be too fatigued to pay attention to the topics being discussed and overall exhaustion.

Along with the deteriorated morale, wasted time and the loss of productivity, online meetings deviate workers' attention from their tasks into countless hours of sharing screens not working properly, glitchy images and the endless repetition of the words: “Sam, you seem to have turned off your microphone”.

However, with Async Culture progressively attempting to eliminate cluttered inboxes and drive companies to use work software that allows them to be in contact at all times, it is becoming more possible to grant employees the opportunity to have a clearer look at how their work schedule will look like.

With team assistants like DailyBot, that not only helps to set reminders but also aids in the arrangement of asynchronous standups & retro meetings, teams will be able to keep an updated backlog and run multiple reports on a schedule or asynchronously at users’ time zones.

Likewise, their coworkers are able to track progress without having to set up virtual sessions or send multiple emails. On the other hand, this software makes it easier for teams to identify bottlenecks and solve issues with simple messages and guided assistance.

Reminders optimize their productivity while allowing your peers to stay updated on important data.

4. Let them take decisions

Great leaders understand the importance of trusting their teams to be independent and make decisions in their absence. Just like Project Managers, team leaders or CEOs are aware of the work that all of their peers do but recognize that, even though they must be up to date with all of the duties, they just guide the team to achieve their goals, meet their respective deadlines and overcome obstacles.

Tough leaders must have an open door policy to listen to their teams, solve their doubts and hear their complaints, that welcoming environment must be met with acknowledging their capacity to resolve conflicts and trust their judgement.

Trust is essential to an effective team because it provides a sense of security and freedom. When your team members feel safe with each other, they feel comfortable to open up, take appropriate risks, and expose vulnerabilities; therefore, more faith is instilled in their peers, their fellow coworkers and their respective abilities.

Related: 3 strategies to manage poor work performance in your remote team.

5. Keep an eye on health and wellness

Even though remote staff can skip the time-consuming and stress-inducing daily commute or save costs by working from home and have the advantage of added flexibility to their schedules, they can struggle with other areas in their life, for example with their health.

The truth is that no matter where they’re based, it’s an employer’s responsibility to ensure the well-being of their employees.

Healthy workers not only are able to meet all of the company’s expectations, but they also strive to do their best in each project and maintain a motivated workflow. Motivation for employees is not just a monetary incentive, on the contrary, it can also be reflected in how supported and cared for they feel.

Remote work can make workers find themselves feeling isolated, lonely or on the verge of burnout. For this reason, it is crucial to establish a ‘health first policy’ that understands the priority this matter has within a business and its productivity standard.

Setting boundaries between their work life and personal life should be a priority among businesses, and most importantly, between technology and their outside time. While remote work allows their duties to be done from wherever in the world they find themselves, it can also trigger their overall well-being.

Bearing these factors in mind will be a great advantage for your company because employees will feel supported, heard and most of all, cared for.

💡 Pro Tip: Understand and improve your team's mood with DailyBot. Wellness follow-ups give the insights you need. Start here.

6. Give your team productive time

Working with a team can sometimes be overwhelming. Repetitive questions, no clear plan structure and hundreds of bottlenecks. The stress-filled atmosphere does not only affect the work environment but also how productive an organisation can be.

If your goal is to stay on top of all your tasks and keep a productive workflow, then it is necessary to set a schedule that makes workers feel comfortable in which they understand how, progressively, the workload will increase.

For team members to be productive, they need to focus most of their energy on high-priority tasks, something they would be unable to do if they were trying to comply with each comment made by their peers who happen to pass by their desks.

If you belong to the 14% of employees in the world who opted for flexible schedules and comfort, you might agree that working remotely can play a major role in boosting productivity. Nonetheless, managing to coordinate individual and collective tasks while meeting project deadlines is tough.

It is essential to prioritize productivity, time management and a pleasant work environment; but also allows teams to make decisions more quickly without waiting for a formal response from their superiors or discussing every minute aspect of the choice taken.

With hectic schedules such as the ones, most businesses manage today, being able to provide quick solutions to bottlenecks or give the green light to small aspects regarding upcoming projects is necessary to keep businesses running.

Related: Daily Standups: The complete guide to productive meetings.

7. Recognize your team in public

Tracking your employees' progress is just as important as keeping them motivated. But building an individual and collective recognition culture could make the difference when it comes to boosting your coworker’s stimulus and confidence.

Why? Simply because engaged employees are 20% more productive. Workers who are engaged show involvement not only because they are getting paid, but because they truly believe in their team and company. When a worker identifies with their business values and vision they are able to row their boat all the way through high tides.

When employees are recognized for their victories and right choices they will strive to continue to overcome barriers and exceed limits.

Recognizing small and big achievements is equally important. In one way or another, the team ‘saves the day on a daily basis by keeping the company going and the clients happy. Small wins are an opportunity to reinforce individual qualities and create a company culture.

Ready to start increasing your team’s motivation? Start here with DailyBot.

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