How to help your employees become pro remote workers?

Today, remote work has become a part of the work culture. So, it’s a must to set your employees up for success to improve your company’s growth. But how? Here are five tips to help your remote workers do their best work and stay motivated:

1. Communicate work expectations from day 1

While it sounds obvious (and it is), many employers don’t brief employees about their to-do’s and 30/60/90 days goals. The result is a lack of direction in achieving the right goals that sync with the company’s vision.

To avoid this, set up a 1:1 online meeting with your new hire on day one and communicate what you want them to focus on and achieve in the first 30/60/90 days. Avoid being vague; instead, be specific.

For example, don’t tell your writer, “I want you to write persuasive blogs and increase our readership.” It serves no purpose and only adds to the confusion. Rather, say, “I want you to increase our blog readers by 10% in the first 30 days.”

Also, explain what’s good quality work (show examples)—so they have a benchmark while working. Plus, mention the metrics you’ll use to judge the output. Maybe you’ll use blog traffic, time spent on site, or any other metric—telling the employee helps them to tailor their work accordingly.

2. Provide the right resources/tools

If you don’t give your employees the right tools to do their work, you’re setting them up for failure. No matter the talent, each hire needs the necessary software, courses, and more to improve their work efficiency. So, provide them.

a) Provide them with the right work-from-home equipment (laptop, table, chair, software, and more).

b) Give them an annual learning/growth fee to buy courses, paid access to peer community, books, or any material they need for upskilling.

c) Host online/offline sessions with industry leaders—so they can learn from experience and clarify doubts to get ahead.

3. Maintain a consistent communication

Two-way communication is the backbone of employees and the company’s growth. Encourage your workers to communicate with managers to set the right expectations, solve work-related issues, and collaborate.

Ensure managers:

a) Ask for weekly updates to stay updated on employee progress. The employee only needs to answer two questions to send the update: 1) What did I do this week? and 2) What will I do next week?

b) Provide monthly 1:1 feedback. Managers must tell employees what employees are doing good (that they can double down on) and what needs improving (so they work on it).

4. Trust your team to get the work done

The best thing you can give your employees is your complete trust and confidence to get the job done. Of course, losing the visibility of your employee is frustrating, but never resort to micromanaging. It will only cause them unnecessary tension and fatigue.

“But what if they don’t reciprocate the trust and cheat with their work?” I can hear you saying. Fire them. You don’t want such employees who can affect the morale of others.

Trusting your employees also means giving them room to experiment and make mistakes. They likely will make errors when coming up with solutions, but that’s a part of the process.

You must never ridicule/shame them for that because, if you do, your company’s innovation and growth trajectory will compound downwards. Of course, have a culture where employees learn from their mistakes fast and don’t commit them next time.

5. Recognize and reward achievements

Recognition motivates employees to continue their excellent work—so do it. It shouldn’t necessarily be monetary rewards; gestures like public acknowledgment, low-cost gifts, rest, or a chance to take up more work are rewarding, too.

This behavior signals to others that your company values excellency, which will incentivize them to achieve it.