How to Keep Staff Motivated When Working From Home
As many businesses are reaching almost a year of working from home, the impact of Covid-19 has taken its toll in many different ways. For some, working from home has been an easy adjustment and made the working day better. However, for others it might have been a huge challenge and made it more difficult to focus and remain productive. In some cases, employees may have experienced a mix of both over the last 12 months or so.
Whatever size or type of business you run, keeping your staff motivated and happy is the very foundation of the success of the company. If you’re looking for ways to keep your staff inspired at home, here are just a few tips to get you started.
Branded products for a home office
If you were all in the office, you would no doubt have branded mugs, notepads or pens for staff to use as they wish. This shouldn’t be any different just because everyone is at home! Promotional products can be used to provide a focused workspace for your employees, helping them to build a home office that features the company logo.
Not only can this help your employees still feel a valuable part of the company, but it can look professional on client video calls too. From water bottles to headphones, you can provide your staff with branded products to help them create a dedicated space for productivity.
Open communication
It’s easy for staff at home to lose focus as the week goes on, and checking in on your teams isn’t quite the same over instant messaging and video calling. Make sure your staff know that communication lines are always open, and make an effort to schedule in regular sessions to see how workloads and projects are coming along.
It can be helpful to start the week with aims and goals, and finish on a Friday with a weekly round-up of what has been completed and what’s in the pipeline. This can give each week some purpose, and create talking points through the week for employees to continue collaborating productively.
Offer flexibility
Many businesses already adopted flexible working hours before the pandemic hit, but with everyone at home this is more important than ever. So many of your employees will now be juggling home-schooling or even looking after vulnerable relatives, as well as trying to work a full day.
Whilst productivity and performance should never be forgotten about, it can be encouraging to your staff if you’re able to make that juggling process easier. Let your staff schedule their working hours around Zoom calls with their children’s teachers or hospital visits, and be wary of tight deadlines in order to support each other where possible.
Recognise the achievements
It’s easy for things to go unnoticed when everyone is working separately. Previously, if someone had achieved something great for the company, news would travel fast through the office. However, with everyone in their own work bubble at home, things can be missed. Introduce prizes and giveaways for those who have achieved something great, whether it’s each week or each month.
Not only can this incentivise staff to continue working hard, but it can remind them that they aren’t forgotten about in the midst of such an uncertain time.
