If you’re running a team, you know how important it is to keep your employees motivated and focused. In fact, businesses with high employee engagement average 27% higher profits, 50% higher sales, 50% higher customer loyalty levels, and 38% higher productivity.
Clearly, keeping your team motivated is a big deal.
Unfortunately, building and maintaining momentum can be tricky—even under the best of circumstances. When your team has to work from home because of a global pandemic, things get even harder.
So, what can you do about it? With your team fragmented and distracted, how do you keep your work-from-home employees motivated? Here are a few ideas.
Take the Initiative
When it comes to momentum, there’s one fact that can’t be ignored: it’s easier to maintain momentum than it is to rebuild it. As your employees transition to working from home, now is the time to set the tone for their work-from-home experience.
Will it be a disorganized, chaotic waste of time? Will they spend most of their work hours distracted by friends, family, and reading the latest chatter about COVID-19? Or will they stay focused on closing sales, making your customers happy, and following through on their projects?
The answer depends on you.
If you want your employees to stay focused at home, their team needs to be as big of a part of their work-at-home lives as it is when they have to commute to work. Establishing consistent meetings, goals, and expectations from the beginning will be a big part of that.
In addition, though, you’ll want to create a shared vision for your team. Give them something bigger than themselves to work on. Come up with programs and incentives that will keep them excited about their job and they’ll stay focused—whether they’re working from home or the office.
Run an Incentive Program
One of the easiest ways to keep people focused and motivated is to run an incentive program. Well-designed incentive programs increase employee performance by 20-44%—and that’s in a normal workplace environment.
When your employees are at home worrying about job stability and the future of the economy, a good incentive program has the potential to be even more motivating.
In these stressful and difficult times, people are looking for something positive. They want assurance that everything is going to be all right. Incentive programs offer people a much-needed “win”—something they can control and work towards when the rest of the world has gone crazy.
There are a lot of different incentives you can offer. For example, here are just a few ideas:
- Backpacks
- Jackets
- Socks
- Hats
- Sweatshirts
- Duffle Bags
- Battery Pack
- Tote Bag
- Journal
- Blankets
Alone or in combination, these incentives give your employees something to work towards. Yes, investing in incentives will cost you a bit extra, but it’s a small price to pay for maintaining productivity and motivation while your team is working from home.
To make things even better, you don’t have to have your actual incentive in place to get your program up and running.
If you work with a sourcing partner like VOX MG, we can help you get set up and ensure that you get your products in time. In fact, we’ll even deliver it directly to your employees’ doorsteps so that they can stay safe and sound in their homes.
So, if you already have an incentive program in place, don’t pull the plug just because your employees are telecommuting. If anything, now is the time to make your programs even more exciting.
If you don’t have an incentive program in place yet, now is the time to set one up. Think about your employees and what sort of incentive program would motivate them to keep working hard from home.
Conclusion
With the country on lockdown, it’s a tricky time for many businesses. There’s a lot of uncertainty for employers and employees alike.
In the midst of this crisis, your team is looking to you for leadership, direction, and a reason to feel positive and optimistic. It’s time to take the bull by the horns. Don’t wait for productivity and motivation to plummet—give your employees something to get excited about and work towards.
A distracted and demotivated team costs your business a lot more than you’ll spend on an incentive program. So, if you want your team to thrive, you need to figure out how to incentivize them.
If you need help sourcing your incentives or coming up with a program, reach out here and let us know. We’ve helped dozens of companies with their incentive programs and we’d be happy to help you keep your employees focused and working hard in the coming weeks and months.
