Employee motivation has a direct impact on the success of your business. Engaged employees lead to an efficient workforce that helps you reach your organizational goals. Highly engaged teams show 21% more profitability, so it goes to show that rewarding and recognizing your employees pays off.
It isn’t just about the occasional free cookie, but about the overall intrinsic company culture. Regular rewards and recognition in different formats are important to keep the workplace culture positive, your employees motivated and for keeping staff retention rates high.
When rewarding your employees, there are a number of factors to consider, such as time, cost, reason and location. It’s important rewards don’t only recognize the employees’ hard work, but also aligns with the business strategy, purpose and performance.
So how do you ensure your team is motivated and engaged, particularly if they work remotely? Keeping your employees inspired and driven when they aren’t all in one location can be a challenge, but there are ways you can achieve this. We look at some of the main ideas for rewarding your remote employees below.
Post-pandemic, employees are looking for greater flexibility so their jobs fit in with their daily lives. Whether it be location, working hours or having the ability to bank hours, flexibility and understanding of other life needs are important.
For example, if remote workers don’t have a commute to factor in, they might be incentivized by flexible starting and finishing times that work better for them and ultimately, their productivity levels.
It’s about giving employees the choice to decide what works best for them. Involving employees in key decisions makes them feel as though their voices are heard and their opinions are valued, making them more motivated and engaged with the wider business goals.
Celebrating successes is important, particularly when remote workers are unable to discuss their triumphs through face-to-face interactions.
Ongoing, regular and constant feedback is vital to ensure employees, particularly those who are remote, know whether they’re doing well or if there’s any room for improvement. Without feedback, employees may be unaware of their progress, leaving them feeling unmotivated or unsure.
Make your feedback company-wide. Celebrate your successes together or share learnings that everyone could benefit from knowing. Schemes such as employee of the month can incentivize employees to succeed and feel recognized when receiving positive feedback.
If nothing else, a simple ‘thank you’ goes a long way towards making employees feel appreciated, valued and successful.
A strong sense of teamwork helps employees build highly effective and efficient communication, inspire innovation and foster an atmosphere of mutual trust and respect your organization will only benefit from.
Building a strong sense of team morale can be more difficult if you employ remote workers, but it’s essential to make sure everybody feels part of the same team, even if they aren’t in the same location.
Regular in-person meetups and events help foster positive team morale, whether in your local office, at a social event or a networking event. If this isn’t possible due to location, organize team catch-ups and social activities via video call.
People feel empowered through learning, giving them new skills and knowledge to use. Allowing employees to learn will make them feel as though you’re invested in their development at your company.
Learning together also offers the opportunity to connect with members of their team or the wider industry. Encouraging peer knowledge sharing through learning lunches and training sessions increases contact between team members while they also learn new skills.
Staying connected is important, especially with remote workers. Keeping remote workers in the loop of what’s happening is essential to help them stay engaged and involved with company activities and goals.
Communication is critical. Regular check-ins to discuss progress, tasks, concerns or anything else they wish to discuss lets employees feel as though they’re heard.
Who doesn’t love a gift to appreciate their hard work? Gifts are one of the quickest and easiest ways to give your employees a boost, no matter where they’re located.
This can be something small that everybody receives as a thank you or something bigger to celebrate winning an award or completing years of service. A little can still go a long way and these gestures are things employees remember in the long-term.
Finally, the most traditional reward forms are career progression and financial rewards. When appropriate, these can be some of the most effective ways to acknowledge your employees’ hard work, as it’s what their roles, responsibilities and goals are geared towards.
Whether it’s a progression plan, promotion, pay rise or bonus, targets provide incentives that employees naturally want to achieve.
Career progression shouldn’t be any less visible with remote workers. As the employer or senior figure, it’s up to you to make sure you regularly track their progression and reward where appropriate to foster employee motivation and retention.
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