In this era, where everyone gets bored so quickly, you may have problems keeping your employees motivated. It’s hard to find new ways to spark interest, even more so when you can’t see them directly in the office. Money is essential, they need to pay food and rent, but believe it or not, sometimes money is not going to be enough.
Motivation is one of the essential functions of management. In your company, motivation is what leads the level of performance.
Imagine half of your organization is surfing the internet for personal interests and postpone doing their job. Especially for small and medium-sized businesses, this is a massive waste of time and resources.
Here are some non-financial ways to motivate employees while working from home:
1.Job security
Employees want to feel needed and indispensable. When they think that you rely on them with certain tasks, they will feel at ease about the stability of their job. Make sure you assign them tasks and maybe message them with instructions and tell them how do you plan on using this and that they can always contact you for any questions. Also, consider involving them in decisions about their work and career.
2. Offer training
What you want is for your team to feel prepared. People hate feeling unprepared or put on the spot. Before installing a new app/software/tool, make sure they know how to use it and start implementing it after you are convinced they know the handle of it. Every time you assign a new task to someone, you should make sure they are qualified for it, and if not, you can give them pointers and proper explanations.
3. No micromanaging
Yes, micromanaging is one of the scariest things for workers nowadays. They don’t want to feel like you are watching their every move. Minimize the number of rules to demonstrate that you trust your employees. Remember, you should track productivity, not only time.
Be sure to leave room for a bit of flexibility in your management. For example, assign them a task and point a due date for it. Try not to ask for updates twice a day when you appointed the time when you want it ready.
4. Give extra leave days
You can offer your employees additional leave days on different occasions. This will make you seem thoughtful, and everyone loves a free day. For example, for their birthday, everyone gets a free day to use whenever during that month. Even flexible hours can be helpful. Make sure your employees are aware that if they have a problem, they can leave work earlier or start later, and compensate that time on another day.
5. Follow performance, stay connected and give feedback
Employees need to feel that you are up to date with their work, and they always welcome feedback. If you take time once a week to check what everyone is working on, then you can maybe even offer tips and directions. Also, one on one discussions are a must. Be sure to take some of your time to talk to them individually. Especially if you usually only talk on the group chat or through e-mails. Plan a video call as often as you can, even if it’s just about updating you on a certain project. Of course, you need to organize this based on the number of people in your company.
These types of discussions are also useful for reviews and constructive criticism if needed. Be sure to have a chat system installed where everyone can write, and maybe if you have more teams, you can make group chats specifically for them.
6. Job titles & team divisions
Nowadays, people really value the name of their job. Try to personalize the titles, make them as accurate as possible. Vague job titles like “PC operator” are less motivating. What you can do is divide them by levels ( entry-level/junior, medium-level, senior-level) or refer to the tasks they do, for example, “Data entry operator,” “Data analyst operator.”
Divide your employees into teams based on their jobs, they will feel better if they know exactly where they fit, and it will be easier to connect and collaborate with their colleagues too. This will make them feel more comfortable, and it’s exactly what you should aim for as a manager.
7. Promotions or career growth
What employees appreciate a lot is being in the clear about promotion possibilities (if they are available for their job and what it takes for them to get promoted). Be sure not to give false hope and inform everyone properly.
I don’t encourage a competition kind of system, because that can cause conflicts. Maybe for their career growth, always make sure that they have saved or monitored all their evolution.
Take into consideration that people crave recognition. It confirms you’re doing the right thing.
8. Offer the possibility of learning new or desired skills
If you hire an employee for a position, but he is interested in learning other stuff too, you should offer this possibility. You can try by giving them teaching materials and explanations when needed. If they didn’t get the chance to learn this, but they want to, you can help them evolve and maybe even change their job in your company at some point.
BENEFITS OF NON-FINANCIAL WAYS TO MOTIVATE EMPLOYEES
The main benefit is lower costs, but increased employee motivation. Especially for a small business, funds for such type of things are limited. During these times, you are probably trying to cut all extra costs. Applying at least some of these non-financial ways to motivate you can ensure a positive work environment.
Motivated employees result in a high level of productivity, which results in your company getting to the top.
In your daily work life, you should not be asking yourself why should I motivate my employees because why would you not do it? You will notice that managing remote teams is a lot like managing those on-location. But even if for you, the process is similar, you should know that remote workers face different challenges. Be considered about their work environment and make sure they have everything they need in order to reach their full potential.
Remember to be open to suggestions from your employees, and most importantly, make sure they see in you someone they can address when they are in need. Even if you are busy, inform them about that and redirect them to someone else instead of just ignoring certain requests for a full working day.
