5 simple ways to boost morale of remote workers

The Great Resignation continues to affect businesses around the country. Aside from salary, employees are looking for remote work opportunities and more flexibility. 

Many business owners are putting their best foot forward to offer their employees what they need and want. Retaining a workforce is challenging in these days of uncertainty. The company culture you’ve established plays a big part in your staff’s desire to stay and attracting talent if you wish to expand. 

If you’re a small business owner in a position to offer remote or hybrid work, here are some tips on keeping team morale up and infusing your company culture into everyday virtual interactions. 

1. Stay connected

Your staff wants to hear from you and know they’re still part of a team. Arrange for a weekly catch-up with the team and one-on-one meetings for each team member. This provides time to sync up with the team on group projects and share what everyone is working on. Taking just a few minutes each week to speak with your staff is a great way to get feedback and keep the team feeling united.

2. Training and development

When working in the office and seeing each other daily, there may be conferences and expos, training seminars, and the like posted and mentioned on the fly. Don’t leave your remote team out of these discussions. Be sure to spread the word about employee development opportunities. Nurturing the desires of your staff to want to grow and learn more benefits them as well as the business. The more they know, the more they can bring to help your business grow.

Related: 5 Best ways to reinvest your business’s profits

3. Share highs and lows

During weekly meetings, carve out some time to review the good, the bad, and all in between. Sharing the status of the business’s health with your staff drives home the point that they are part of something larger than their individual tasks in the company. 

Exchanging metrics and statistics shows transparency, employees appreciate this now more than ever. Hearing the not-so-good stats creates a chance to brainstorm and research ideas that can help swing the pendulum the other way. Hearing the good news invokes a sense of pride among the team; it relays that their efforts are working.

This is also an excellent opportunity to call out those who have gone above and beyond to reach a particular goal. Again, showing appreciation towards your workers speaks volumes and goes a long way.

Related: 6 Non-financial ways to reward employees for great work

4. Teambuilding while having fun

One of the best ways to keep morale up is to turn up the fun. There are many ways to incorporate the element of fun into a workday – or even after-hours. Team lunches are always a staff favorite, whether you offer to buy lunch or hop on a Zoom call during lunch – keep work out of it and spend some time catching up.

Try beginning a meeting with an icebreaker question. It can be something simple – like what shows everyone is currently watching, the worst movie they’ve ever seen, the TV family they identify most with, etc. Each member gets the chance to answer, and it just builds the team up, allowing another side of each member to reveal itself. 

There are many ways to incorporate teambuilding activities, and there’s no wrong or right way to go about it. It all depends on the size of your team, the size of your budget (if you have one), and the outcome you’re looking to walk away with. Teambuilding.com recently published an article offering great virtual teambuilding activities – the tiny campfire one is most intriguing!

5. Encourage breaks and time off

Your employees may be prone to burnout and stress regularly, depending on your business. Encourage them to take some time for themselves, a day off here and there to relax. A survey of 2,000 U.S. workers conducted by SWNS digital, late last year found that 60% of employees working from home often feel guilty about taking breaks during work hours. Further, it found that more than a quarter of those surveyed don’t take a lunch break at all while working from home. And lastly, two-thirds are frequently worried about their productivity while working remotely.

This is where break encouragement is necessary, as well as staying in touch with your workers. Let them know that they’re doing an excellent job to relieve some of that worry and stress they’re holding on to.

Final thoughts on boosting morale

Remote working has been around for some time; it certainly gained much notoriety during the early days of the pandemic and has been growing more and more ever since. Use some of the tips in this post to help keep your remote staff feeling like they’re still part of the team. And for those who may have been added to the team during the pandemic whom you may have not yet met in person, this is the first impression of your company. The more time and effort you put into making your business feel welcoming, inviting, and energetic, the better connected a new starter will feel.

Whether working from home is a permanent shift in your workforce strategy or temporary, boosting the overall morale of your staff will significantly increase the odds that your team will stick around.

Related: 4 Ways to hire top talent – even now