While there are numerous advantages to working remotely, managing a remote team and motivating the employees presents a wealth of challenges. Managers need to communicate openly and create trust to make work relationships successful and motivate remote employees.
With companies across the world that are adapting to new working styles, it’s essential for managers to provide employees with the necessary tools to help them do their job. This article outlines the best secrets to motivating remote employees and building team morale remotely.
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1. Communicate frequently and provide positive feedback
Regular communication is vital for successful management, and it’s also one of the main ways to motivate employees. As a remote team manager, make sure you take steps to implement a culture of strong communication.
This enables all team members to have access to all the necessary information about procedures, projects, and tasks, making it easy for them to be on top of their game.
It’s also essential to offer praise and recognition to team members and employees. Don’t keep team members out of the loop because this can be extremely demotivating.
One of the biggest mistakes managers remote teams make is assigning tasks to remote workers and only getting back to them when they need more, without providing any positive feedback. Even worse, some managers only contact employees when something goes wrong, which is indeed the fastest way to crush morale.
To keep your employees motivated, it’s crucial to give everyone consistent praise and mission for every project well done.
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2. Implement an employee recognition program
All employees want to be recognized for the working value they bring to the team and the company.
As a project manager, take steps to implement an employee recognition program that not only offers praise to employees for a job well done but also provides team members with gift cards, cash incentives, and similar.
It’s always a good idea to implement some fixed criteria for leaving out the rewards in order to avoid subjectivity and favouritism in the employee recognition program. Make sure you specify who can earn the rewards, how long a team member must have been with the company to be eligible, whether part-time staff can earn it, and more.
Setting out clear rules will keep employees motivated because they’ll know anyone can get rewarded and what they have to do to earn it.
3. Gamify the work
Gamification is growing in popularity in workplaces around the world, mostly because it makes work more fun and competitive. Employees tend to feel more motivated when tangible rewards are attached to reaching objectives and milestones. Moreover, gamification allows team members to feel closer and more engaged with each other.
Some common team challenges that may be solved with the help of gamification include communication, trust and productivity and company culture. Gamifying productivity can make it fun and rewarding and has the opposite effect of micromanaging. Managers can use gamifying to keep team members accountable without them feeling that they are constantly being spied on.
4. Cultivate a culture of trust
At some point, once you’ve defined expectations, responsibilities, and deadlines, you need to trust your team to follow through. As a remote team manager, you need to make an effort to have check-in sessions once a month to get an idea about everyone’s level of progress and happiness. Trust your employees to do their jobs in the meantime, but don’t forget to get that often to reassess motivation, discuss rewards, and set new goals.
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5. Get personal
One of the main differences between working in a traditional office environment vs. remote working is that it takes quite a bit of effort to make the workforce feel seen as individuals.
Your team members don’t run into each other on the way to grab a cup of coffee, and they don’t hang out by the watercooler, which means that you need to be intentional about creating opportunities for online interaction.
Consider making announcements about recognition and achievements and celebrating milestones a part of your daily managerial approach. Take the time to get to know each team member on a personal level, especially if you’re interacting with them every day. You can also use emojis or fun GIFs in the chats to create a feeling of camaraderie within your team.
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6. Use surveys to gauge motivation levels
Create questionnaires to gauge the motivation levels in your remote workforce regularly. You can ask questions that allow the team to let you know what is working out for them in the current setup and what they would change if given a choice.
By sending out surveys, you give out a strong signal to your employees that you care about their inputs. This will make them feel appreciated and more likely to open up about the things that affect their morale and motivation.
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7. Offer growth opportunities
In order for employees to remain motivated, they need to see opportunities for promotion and development. Otherwise, they will stagnate and won’t become high performers.
As a manager, it’s essential to make sure that employees are constantly advancing and growing. You can implement ongoing performance reviews and consistently look for hidden skills some of your team members may have that would be beneficial to your organization.
Remote working is the future of the modern workplace, and managers need to find the best solutions to keep motivating their employees to help them become high performers.
This is especially important if your team is making the transition from a traditional working environment to working remotely.
Employee motivation always plays a vital role in doing such transitions, and it’s important to remember that motivating the team is a long-term investment that requires consistency to deliver the best results.
Search Remotely is leading the international remote work revolution and we help employers to recruit outstanding high performers across a multitude of industries. 
