5 Ways to Keep Your Remote Workers Productive

For many of us though, that appreciation we all once had for working from home has begun to wear off. As the idea of working from home became more permanent, it naturally left many of us feeling unmotivated and disconnected, making it far more difficult to be productive and creative.

Employers have a duty to look after and take care of their employees, even while we’re at home and unable to connect face-to-face. Here are some simple yet effective ways to keep your remote workers productive, which will benefit your overall company culture and the wellbeing of your hardworking teams.

1. Promote health and wellbeing

While working from home or remotely, it’s common for people to start slacking with self-care. It’s all too easy for those working from their home offices or even sofas to end up skipping meals, not getting enough exercise and going days without even stepping outside in the fresh air.

As an employer, there are several ways you can make sure to protect the health and wellbeing of your employees, even while you’re not seeing them on a day-to-day basis. For example, encourage your employees to take regular breaks throughout the day, take annual leave and have some time away from work and maintain a healthy work-life balance. Find out what each of your employees enjoys doing outside of work and push them to do more of it if they can, whether that’s going for a run, meeting a friend for a drink, or curling up with a book away from technology.

Hearing positive encouragement to do things that don’t involve work will make your employees feel seen, heard and more motivated to get their job done so they can spend time doing what they love.

2. Provide IT equipment

Another way to keep your remote workers productive is to provide them with everything they need to do their job well. For example, don’t expect your staff to buy their own IT equipment such as desktops, keyboards, laptops or mice - anything they need to perform should be provided if you’re to earn their respect and maintain a happy workforce. Whatever the size of your business, there are IT support companies out there that can step in to offer you and your employees all the advice you need to maintain a productive workforce even while working remotely.

3. Host social events

Remote working can be hugely convenient and rewarding for many reasons; you don’t have to do a daily commute, you can often wear what you want, you save money on buying food each day and much more. However, it has its downfalls, most notably the lack of social interaction among teams. As an employer, it’s important for you to make sure your employees can maintain a healthy work-life balance and one way to do this is by hosting regular company events purely dedicated to socializing and having fun, rather than work.

Whether your team are able to meet up for this or your remote workers are only accessible via Zoom, there are many social events such as quizzes, scavenger hunts, virtual escape rooms, bake-offs and fundraising events you can plan. You could even take the time to identify shared interests among your team and set up mini social clubs such as book clubs, film clubs, foodie clubs and more that can be carried out over video call.

4. Communicate regularly

Leading on from the importance of socialization is communication at work. Although your employees will be busy getting on with their own tasks and managing their own workloads, it’s important that managers are making time to check in with people on a daily basis, whether this is via an online messaging system, over email or to set up a quick morning call to run-through everyone’s plans for the day. It might seem like a chore to have to check in with people regularly, but it can leave your employees feeling far more motivated, valued and part of a team rather than isolated.

5. Show appreciation

Finally, make sure your remote employees feel appreciated. This doesn’t have to be done through monetary rewards - it can be any kind of appreciation from a simple email saying ‘thank you’ to a gift card. Appreciation for your staff can be shown through basic things like making sure they have a suitable working from home setup that’s comfortable, supportive and lets them do their job to the best of their ability. IT systems, technology, desks and stationary are all essential, but making sure your employees have more than this such as coffee machines, fast WiFi, back supports and more can allow you to go the extra mile.