Are you one of the many businesses that are embracing working from home, or maybe a hybrid working format? You might be looking into the idea, which is very beneficial to your business and your staff, but perhaps you are worried that motivation to work will drop? That’s the biggest worry for middle managers across the country right now, but what might make them feel better is a range of tips that are designed to help you instil motivation in your staff members. 

 

These are no run of the mill team building exercises either. A Zoom pop quiz isn’t going to motivate staff if they are already feeling unmotivated. You will take precious time out of their day that they would really rather spend working, so that they don’t have to work more in the evening. Distracting your team members will just result in even less productivity and even more demotivation. Instead, take a look at our ideas for how to motivate your team when they are working from home.

 

A great motivator is a bonus. Your staff members can be rewarded at the end of the year, quarterly or month for their hard work so far. Give them incentives, like a target to reach in a certain amount of time and they can work harder towards it. Not only will it motivate the winner, who’ll be glad they did so well, but it will motivate the others in your team to do better next time. 

 

You can decide to hand out one bonus for a competitive edge or a few to anyone who met their targets. Keep them all organised and keep track of who won what with the Zest app. From this app you can keep track of your entire team’s benefits and bonuses. Distribute bonuses from the app and have them be notified through an app on their phone, complete with a congratulatory message via the chat room.

 

The resounding noise from people reporting from their remote working roles is obvious when you’re listening: video meetings are a pain. They are often used wrongly, resulting in the same complaint of “This could have been an email”. 

 

You might be “checking in”, making sure that your staff really are at their desk, but you’re punishing the herd for the actions of a few, and in turn lowering their productivity. They’re not saying “That could have been an email” because they don’t want to talk to you, they’re saying it because an email is quick, where a videocall can take time out of their day that they either don’t have or don’t want to give up. 

 

If you’re still feeling anxious that you can’t actually see for yourself that your team are working, you can have them all sign up for a project management platform like Trello. This will allow you to delegate and oversee all the tasks that need done. Your staff members can create a checklist of tasks and feel their productivity go up as they check them off. Meanwhile, you can see for yourself what is getting done and what isn’t. It’s useful for understanding just how much time tasks actually take and better establishing realistic goals and timetables. 

 

Staff members will feel demotivated if they feel stuck. Make sure there are ways for them to improve in the workplace. That can be with promotions or with skill development. Offer them training opportunities, which your business can then use to great effect, either internally or even with courses they can take online, like LinkedIn Learning. You can even set up your entire team with a LinkedIn Learning course and oversee the work online.