Building connections between team members is crucial for a good work-from-home quality of life. If your employees feel good about where they work, their work will be much more enjoyable; they will be more productive and more committed to you.
We’ve put together a list of 7 spirit-boosting tips to help keep your remote workforce motivated and in a good mood.
1. Organize Virtual Parties
When you work from home, it’s very easy to slip into a pattern of just work and no fun. However, if you are a manager or business owner, you don’t want that to be your team culture. So, consider celebrating not only the big holidays and major milestones but also the little things such as the end of the workweek.
Use any occasion as an excuse for your team members to get together online and shake up the routine. Why not organize a virtual party every last Friday of the month and maybe add an early finish as a bonus? Virtual parties are a great way to beat loneliness, improve mood, and provide team members with a sense of purpose.
2. Promote Healthy Habits
Unhealthy habits like lack of physical activity, skipping lunch, consumption of unhealthy food, and lack of breaks throughout the day can easily creep in when you and your team are working from home. These habits can have a significant influence on your employees’ work quality.
As a business owner, you are responsible for promoting your team’s well-being. Although you might not be able to offer free healthy snacks as you would in a physical office, you can begin by providing virtual exercise sessions or set up weekly competitions, such as steps tracking. Set up a weekly goal, and the team that achieves it first wins. You can also send out healthy food recipes, as well as tips on how to stay healthy.
3. Keep the Conversation Going
When working in an office, we usually talk to our coworkers, regardless of whether it is just a quick hello or a more meaningful conversation. That is why it’s important to make sure there’s regular communication when working remotely as well.
For instance, you can set up email chains that bring different teams together to discuss off-work topics such as sports or pets. Another option is to set up intranets or private social media groups that allow team members to share videos, photos, and comments on their everyday life, as well as their opinions and tips related to remote work.
4. Regular Employee Training
Regular employee training is important, regardless of whether it’s general character training, compliance training such as on sexual harassment training, specific remote working training, or product training. Training offers team members an opportunity to polish their skills and focus on something a bit different than the everyday work routine. Be sure to share the progress your team members are making to boost morale.
5. Push for Video Calls
Audio calls and chats might be easier as you don’t need to get out of your pajamas, put on makeup, and make sure your living room looks decent, but regular video calls are very important for remote teams because they are much more engaging.
Seeing your coworkers will not only feel a bit more normal, but it will also allow you to collaborate easily and share ideas as if you were in the same room.
Use video calls whenever possible – for team meetings, one-on-one meetings, general catch-ups, virtual happy hours, and so on.
6. Get Your Team’s Opinions and Feedback
Every team and every team member is likely to have a different opinion on remote working. Consider conducting internal surveys regularly to find out what’s working for your remote workforce and identify where changes need to be made.
In addition, make sure you do regular check-ins with all members of your team to understand if there are any concerns or challenges your employees are facing.
7. Provide Regular Performance Reviews
As you might already be aware, most people don’t like being micromanaged. On the contrary, employees appreciate being guided and recognized for their efforts. This can be easily achieved by providing regular performance reviews. These reviews show that you care for your staff and value their contributions.
Use the performance reviews to suggest subtle corrections and improvements. This is a great way to boost your employees’ confidence while still allowing them to be independent.
Final Thoughts
The list of team spirit-boosting ideas is endless. Give these 7 activities a try, and in time, you’ll see how much they can help productivity and improve the quality of life among your remote team members.