Sometimes working from home can be difficult. Without the environment of an office, the mindset has to work harder to focus. In addition to resisting the urge to do house chores and nap all day, it is hard to complete a work load with lack of colleagues to socialize and bounce ideas off to. As a business owner, it can be challenging to keep your employees motivated when they are all not under the same roof.

How do you motivate your employees to fight the work from home funk?

Offer incentives.

There’s no bigger motivator than giving someone a reason to work hard. One way to motivate them would be to make announcements for milestones met during weekly check in meetings. Provide gift cards for free coffee or lunch. Give them a shout out on social media, highlighting an employee each week/month. If your business works on sales, it may ideal to offer bonuses for the highest amount of sales.

Be encouraging.

Everybody is going through right now. That’s why it is important to encourage your team at all times. While this can often be hard, it can be done. Stay in contact with your team by using communication software like Slack. Using these types of chat options, you can stay in constant communication with your team by posting good news, milestone announcements, encouraging quotes and positive feedback on projects. It can also be a platform to lighten the mood by sharing funny and appropriate videos or memes.

Stop micromanaging.

Especially when being new to the remote working lifestyle, it may be hard not to fall into the world of micromanagement. However, do the best that you can to give your employees the space that they need to succeed or fail. Be sure to tackle this situation the way you would if you were in the office together. Chances are, you wouldn’t be checking in with them as often as you want to when working remotely. Do your best not to check on them every few minutes.

Share routine tips.

Everyone working remotely have their own way of coping. During remote meetings and check ins, it would be a great idea to encourage them to share their routines with each other. Here are some topics to you can share tips on:

• How do you avoid or handle distractions?
• How do you stay focused on work?
• When do you take your lunch or short breaks?
• How do you shift from work mode to at home mode?

Always remember to be kind to your employees, especially during these hards times of the pandemic. They will work harder for you when they know they are trusted with the responsibility to get the job done the best way they can.