With a rise in employees working from home following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s important to do all that you can as a business owner to keep your team both motivated and on-task. While this can be incredibly difficult when you’re not able to oversee everything they’re doing, there are lots of tips and tricks you can pick up to ensure they have a health level of motivation. 

From establishing routines and encouraging open communication, you may be surprised at the difference a few small changes can make to your remote workforce. With that in mind, here are some tips to help keep your team motivated and on-task: 

Encourage and Enable Open Communication

Now that your employees may be working from home, you may find that there is a lack of communication between everyone. 

Communication is an integral part of any business, and if you don’t have a way to facilitate open and quick communication between team members now that they’re no longer working in the same vicinity, your business will begin to manifest a negative impact. From a lack of communication with clients to misunderstandings between employees, you will start to realize just how important communication can be. 

To help ensure a strong level of communication between your remote teams, consider setting up regular team meetings for them to collaborate together. Whether it’s a quick catch-up at the end of the day or a weekly get-together to share your progress, having a virtual meeting can really help.

Having the right communication tools in place will also help facilitate collaboration. Consider using solutions such as Microsoft Teams or Slack to give your employees video chat, instant messaging, and file-sharing capabilities. A managed IT provider can help your team get set up with the solutions that best fit your needs.

Establish Routines

Everyone has their normal routine interrupted when they start to work from home. Whether it’s the kids asking for something to eat, someone at the door, or the spouse asking for help since they’re there, getting into a decent working pattern is difficult when there are so many distractions around. 

To help, consider establishing a routine for employees to follow; from meetings, to dedicated lunch breaks, it helps to delegate the necessary mental power towards a task when there are timelines and meetings throughout the day.

Help Employees Create a Focused Environment

Finally, you need to ensure you’re helping your employees create a focused work environment. From giving them the equipment they need to work to ensure they have desk space to work from, it’s going to be hard for your employees to stay focused if they’re not in the right environment. 

If you’re worried about where they’re working, you may want to consider arranging a one-on-one call to discuss how you can help them feel comfortable in the environment they’re in. Not everyone will be used to remote working, and as a business you want to be aware of how difficult the transition can be for some. 

As employees continue to work remotely, it’s important you review the steps above to help keep them motivated and on-task.