Having to work from home isn’t something that everyone likes but during the COVID-19 pandemic it’s the safest option for your employees. If you’re lucky enough to be in an industry that gives you the ability to work from home then you should take the governments advice and sending your staff home. But how can you keep your employee motivated and working efficiently? Here’s a look at 5 tips to keeping your colleagues morale up during this unfortunate time.
Comfort
If you can a smaller, more manageable team, then checking in on them via video call to see what they’re using as a work station is important. You’ll find some staff’s go-to will be to sit on the sofa and work from their laptop, but this doesn’t encourage the best on-going routine. Regardless of what contemporary furniture your employees are used to from the office, you should always advise them to sit in a home office or dining room so they avoid being hunch over and the and set up with their work essential around them.
It’ll benefit them too, they’ll find after a while they get sick of sitting in the same place as they’re used to relaxing in.
Team Calls
Email and texts can only take your employees so far, and you’ll find setting up weekly video calls will really help boost morale. You can start with the calls being about weekly work updates, and a general chat, but adding in some fun games to keep the team smiling will help any of your staff who might be living alone and have very little engagement. There's plenty of games and quizzes you can look for online so try and make the work from home life feel less like a chore.
Incentives
It’s more than likely you’ll see that your employees work rate decreases at home, being able to get up and procrastinate without anyone watching makes this happen and it’s pretty much unavoidable. Setting up a work incentive is the best way to keep everyone engaged and motivated, it can be as big or as little as you want, but you’ll need to set up guidelines and a way to monitor the competition.
If you’re struggling cashflow wise, even offering a paid day off will work, you may even notice that they work completed during the competition covers the winners day off!
Support
Make sure you’re checking in with your staff on a one to one basis, everything might seem fine during team calls but most people will have some concerns during this time of unknown. You can reassure them that their job is safe, check they have everything they need to work from home and just check in on their general wellbeing. It might seem small, and most employees won’t have much to say, but if you get to one employee and give them peace of mind, it can really help their perspective.
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