How to Boost Remote Team Productivity

Remote teams are becoming increasingly common, and with that, the challenges they face are growing. Employees have to turn their homes into offices. As a result, home is no longer a place to take a break from work. Instead, it's a space where both work and personal life overlap.

Some people claim they've never felt more comfortable working. They sleep more, skip the commute, and can take short breaks to exercise, grab a coffee, or cuddle with a pet. Sounds like a dream, doesn't it?

For some, it really is; for others, it's not.

Why Remote Teams Might Need a Productivity Boost

Maintaining the same level of productivity remotely requires discipline and organizational skills. When you're in a comfortable home environment, able to sit or lie as you please, it's easy to get distracted. And then, when you realize it, you have to return to work and start over.

Lack of social interaction is another growing issue. Employees report feeling lonely and disconnected from the team. Spending too much time at home, they start craving a social circle.

As a result, team productivity and efficiency drop. At this point, employers start worrying and looking for ways to boost their employees' and team's performance. If you're an employer in such a situation, look here to learn how to motivate your staff.

Fortunately, ways to motivate employees are the least of your worries, as there are plenty. We'll help you choose the best one.

Ways to Boost Employee Productivity

Here are several ways to increase employee productivity and motivate them to achieve better results while working from home.

1. Employee Recognition Programs and Platforms

There are various reward options you can choose from. These are employee recognition and reward platforms that offer bonuses, gifts, and many other perks. One example is Bonusly. This platform provides rewards in areas such as sports, beauty and spa, entertainment, electronics, travel, and more.

Taking business and employee care to the next level, a business travel platform offers convenient booking, expense management, and real-time itinerary updates for corporate travelers. If you still decide to create your own reward, you need to calculate your budget and assess team preferences.

If you don't have the budget for an expensive reward, you can still show appreciation to your employees. This can be done with handwritten cards, sweets, or something small. It will definitely make a difference and is better than doing nothing at all.

At the same time, if employee recognition aligns with their personality, it will mean more to them. A personalized reward program is better than a generic one.

2. Personalized Benefits

Don't forget to show your employees that you value their efforts, and do so with rewards. One such reward could be personalized custom awards.

When you want to reward an employee or team, think about what they like. You can send a congratulatory card or letter. If you're feeling generous, you can give them something from their wish list. This could be tickets to sports events for sports fans, concert tickets for music lovers, tours or extreme sports for adventure seekers, spa or facial treatments for self-care enthusiasts, etc.

If you're planning something less expensive, another option is a subscription to their favorite services. TV show lovers can get a Netflix subscription, podcast fans can get Audible, book lovers can get Amazon Kindle, etc. You can even cover employees' travel expenses for vacation.

Remember, happy employees are productive employees, and that's what we all want. If you still can't think of a personalized reward, cash is always a good option.

3. Time Trackers, but Without Screenshots, Please

When working from home, employees may feel out of their element, leading to a sense of hopelessness. To give them a visual representation of their work, you can suggest they use time trackers.

Moreover, these should be trackers that do not take screenshots. The tracker will provide a visual representation of the work done, time spent, and activity level. It should help employees relieve stress and the feeling of being underutilized by showing their daily work results.

The reason we suggest not using screenshots is to give employees a sense of autonomy and not put additional pressure on them.

If you're thinking of using them for surveillance, think twice. You're here for your team's well-being, not for micromanagement.

4. Mutual Trust

Mutual trust naturally follows from the previous point. When employees don't feel tension and instead trust you, they work much better. They know they won't be questioned about every little thing: why they did this or that, how they achieved a result, why they work a certain way, etc.

The magic of trust is that when they feel trusted, they start trusting you back.

To achieve this, start genuinely trusting your employees. Show them that you believe in them. One way to build trust and productivity is to give remote employees the ability to organize their own workload using project management software.

Gather feedback and act on it. Don't collect feedback just for the sake of it. Your employees need to see that their feedback leads to tangible results.

5. Provide Equipment and Other Office Supplies

Remote work is still work for the company, so employees should be provided with necessary equipment: laptops, computers, printers, etc.

Working from home shouldn't mean using personal equipment. After all, why should employees use personal laptops for work when they have company computers in the office?

So why not do the same for remote work?

Companies should ensure employees have everything they need for a home office. Ideally, this would be a full workstation including a computer, organized desk, and chair. If that's not possible, at least provide the necessary minimum, such as a laptop.

Company-provided devices will further boost employees' confidence. They won't have to worry about whether to use their personal device or if it's sufficient for work.

6. Organize Team Events

Depending on the geographical proximity of the team, you can organize meetups to increase social interaction. If some live close to each other, they can arrange a small gathering; others can do it later or somewhere near them.

If your team is spread across the globe, online meetings are best. Your team is already used to Zoom calls, so why not organize another one just to hang out together?

Remote employees often feel a lack of company culture because they sometimes don't even know their colleagues. So such meetings will foster a sense of inclusion and give employees a feeling of belonging, especially those who don't have an active social life. During these meetings, you can play team-building games and share interests.

7. Provide Learning Opportunities

Employees are much more motivated when they know the company wants them to keep learning. When the company provides access to free marketing courses for professional growth, they feel the company cares. These could be courses in their field or any other area of interest. If an employee is unsure of their skills but knows the company is willing to train and support them, they'll be more eager to learn and work for that company.

You can foster a more diverse and inclusive work environment by offering employees the opportunity to expand their language skills, such as mastering Spanish, German, or French. For instance, language courses offered by Lingoda will enable your employees to speak Spanish with the fluency and nuance of a native speaker. This will not only improve their communication skills but also promote cultural understanding and create a more inclusive workplace for everyone.

8. Consider Switching to a Hybrid System

As beneficial as remote work is, hybrid work solves the problems that remote work doesn't. When it comes to monotony and feelings of isolation in remote work, employees may need a change. Hybrid work can change that by allowing them to return to the office and participate in company life.

Consider this if you have the ability to offer office work at least occasionally.

Conclusion

In short, to boost remote team productivity, employers need to keep employees motivated. Fortunately, there are many ways and tools to help them in this effort. In this article, we covered methods such as employee recognition programs, personalized benefits, time trackers, mutual trust, providing company equipment at home, and organizing meetings.