Did you know that in 2018, 70% of people said that they worked remotely at least one day a week? However, due to the recent global coronavirus pandemic, more and more people are working from home. 

There are both advantages and disadvantages when it comes to employees working remotely. One challenge for managers is how to motivate their team and ensure their members of staff are happy. Read on to find out our tips on how to manage and motivate your remote team.

How to Motivate Employees

The usual office perks such as nights out, day trips, team-building exercises, and free food and drinks in the workplace aren't viable right now. COVID-19 has drastically changed the way we work, collaborate, and interact with one another. No matter where you work, your daily work and life will have changed, as will your productivity and motivation levels.

The good news for managers is that there are still several ways you can go about motivating remote workers.

1. Stay Connected and Make Yourself Available

The first thing you need to do when it comes to managing remote workers is to ensure your team stays connected. Create several lines of communication that your team can use. For example, on top of the usual emails, you could also set up Zoom meetings, create a Slack group, and set up a Microsoft Teams group to ensure collaboration.

As a manager of a remote team, it's also important that you make yourself available. Provide your team with hours where they can contact you and set up one-on-one virtual meetings to check-in with employees.

2. Recognise Your Employees

Some employees who work remotely struggle with feeling forgotten and lonely. Adapting the mindset of a talent agency, such as Hunter Talent, may help to motivate your employees. Talent agencies promote the talent of their clients (such as actors or models) to recognise their best skills and then go onto sell these to the media brands. 

Obviously, you don't want to sell your employees, but what you can do is recognise your employee's skills and hard work in the same way that a talent agency promotes its talent. Try setting up a recognition program to ensure employees don't feel alone or forgotten or create a portfolio of their greatest achievements. 

You could also create weekly emails or shoutouts on your Slack group of colleagues who have excelled that week. You could also go one step further and include incentives for employees to perform well, such as weekly bonuses.

3. Encourage Virtual Meetups

You can recreate the water cooler moments virtually. Encouraging your employees to socialise as they would in the office on their breaks is a great way to keep team morale high.

You might decide to have a Friday weekly Zoom call with your team where you all have a little chill and chat. Alternatively, you could set up casual lunch chats for employees who want some virtual company while they have lunch.

4. Ask for Your Team's Input

Feedback is a two-way street, so remember to ask your team about ways you can improve the way you work. Employees may have insight into how you could improve collaboration or they might put forward suggestions about business strategy plans. Asking your team for their input shows you care about what they think and feel and that you trust them.

Manage and Motivate Your Remote Team

Motivating staff can be a challenge, especially in these uncertain and ever-changing times. But it's not impossible to do. Follow our tips on how to motivate your remote team and see how these simple techniques can vastly improve your business.

Discover some of our other business articles. From recruiting to marketing and sustainability to finance, we've got everything you need to know to help your business grow.

Adam Jacobs is the incredibly busy Managing Director of Bubblegum Casting and Hunter Talent. He works with some of Australia’s biggest brands, media properties, and agencies to secure talented individuals to work in Television, Film, and Modelling roles. They’ve recently launched an office in LA too.