REMOTE TEAM MOTIVATION: IN CURRENT SCENARIO

In the era of constant entrepreneurial and technological advancement, Motivation is a great tool to keep your workforce highly motivated, no matter what the time zone. In the current scenario of the COVID-19 pandemic maximum percentage of the workforce is working from home and also the least motivated.

So, the question which arises is that, how to keep your workforce, working remotely, motivated?

In the current situation of COVID-19, this has emerged to be an Imperative question as employees working remotely have made a habit of focusing more on doing calculated work instead of familiarising themselves in deciphering the bigger and new problem. Through various studies, it is been noted that working from home is more prone to the reduction of motivation among the workforce. Even the education sector has been shifted to taking student’s classes remotely, which in turn has made it very difficult to manage students remotely and keep them motivated. Top MBA colleges in India and their faculty staff are now being faced with the same problem.

Even though in times of such chaos and instability, few of the employers manage to step ahead and perform their best, keeping their productivity at the highest level. Even after the research upon this is in mixed variables, the only way to succeed is to adapt.

In the ongoing scenario of the maximum workforce working remotely either from home or from the office, with very few staff, there can be ways which can be adopted by employers, to keep their staff fully motivated and driven towards the bigger goal of achievement. Some of these steps are discussed herein below:

Opaque Expectations: The most important advantage of working remotely is that the employee can work according to his schedule, in other words, they have a flexible schedule in performing their task. The employer should timely check upon their employees in order to make sure that the schedule is been followed accordingly and is in line with the different time zone and client needs, as this is a major issue in working remotely.
Strong Interaction and Association: Team Work is an important ingredient of being a productive team, but communicating effectively with employees who aren’t connected is hard. Having the right tools for the job, which includes internet connectivity and a mobile phone for employees whose responsiveness is of utmost important for your organization. Establish regular check-in calls to help your remote workforce feel included, but also encourage the use of platforms for instant messaging and chat that allow informal conversations between colleagues to flourish.

Cultivate Growth Mindset: Growth should always be the front runner among one’s employees, whether or not, you have highly talented staff, one should always remain challenged. Team Managers can induce motivation among their employees by making them focused on personal development as well as performance goals of their own as well as of their company. Always having room for more development should always be one’s mindset, even though where is one in his or her career or at which post he or she is in the hierarchy.

Appreciation: In order to succeed in totality, recognizing the efforts and achievements of your workforce is an essential component. By recognition, an employee feels accomplished and stays engaged in the work, and tries to give his or her 100 percent. Working from a remote workplace or home has nowadays inculcated a sense of isolation among the employees and they feel less connected. Therefore, it has become more important for employers to recognize each and every effort of their employees so that they feel a sense of accomplishment, which in turn maintains their productivity and motivates them to keep on working in the same way.

Continuous Feedback: In order to thrive and succeed, constant inputs in the form of feedback is an essential task. Likewise, in order to grow and improve your workforce, the employer needs to provide concurrent and continuous feedback. Developing an ethos of open and honest feedback for your employees working remotely will not only make them more progressive in their approach but also motivate them to be more involved in their work.

Trust: After displaying and defining the duties and responsibilities to your workforce according to your expectations, you must have trust in your team to get the job done. While working remotely it is impossible to check upon your employee on what they are working on. The only option you have left with after motivating them in the correct direction is to Trust them that they will do the task accordingly.

Thus, there is hardly any difference in managing and motivating a remote workforce than a traditional office environment. Just upgraded tools and strategies are required to establish a connection with your team and to keep them motivated throughout to keep up with the challenges of working with a remote team.

Ms. Rupakshi Gaur
Assistant Professor, RDIAS