In this highly uncertain and unpredictable environment, organizations are finding it extremely difficult to keep their employees motivated and that too remotely. Employees differ by nature and also in their ability to perform a specific task. This ‘will’ do so is defined as motivation. The stronger is the will of an employee to perform; the better will be the motivation.

Motivation involves these three main tenets:

Primarily, it is the effort that is input by an employee to a specific task which determines his ability towards his work.

Secondly, how consistently the employee is performing that task with zeal is indeed important for the organization.

Thirdly, the employee needs to keep working in the right direction which gives the maximum output with minimal usage of resources.

During the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the entire work culture and the working life of employees have witnessed a U-turn. While some offices have completely given the work from home option to their employees, at the same time, some companies are asking their employees to report to office 5-7 days in a month and complete the remaining work from home.

It has been extremely difficult in these uncertain times for the organizations to keep their employees motivated. Employees all over the world have now entered an arena of virtual workplace where they are juggling to understand how to maintain work-life balance at the time of working from home and simultaneously keeping their spirits high to achieve their targets and deadlines. Face-to-face conversation has been replaced with phone calls and videoconferencing. In other words, the visibility factor has reduced which has become a major challenge for the organizations at present to handle.

Let us go through some of the ways and methods which organizations can adopt to keep their employees motivated remotely.

1. Use the option of videoconferencing instead of simple making a phone call: Technology, in these unpredictable times has become a boon. WhatsApp, Goggle Duo, Goggle Hangouts, Zoom, Microsoft Team and Skype to name a few are some of the applications which when installed in a smart phone facilitate in making a phone call and conducting videoconference.  Today, your manager sitting in say, United Kingdom can interact with you in India and with other employees as well. Making a video call instead of a phone call is simply better because the body language of the employee is visible to the employer.

The manager while interacting with his subordinate will get to understand from his body language whether he is motivated to work from home or else he is perturbed due to some issue. In this manner, the manager can discuss with his subordinate about the work status and simultaneously, he will get to know about any problem afflicting the subordinate, if there is any. In this way, the employee will also feel happy that the organization is concerned about him.

2. Recognition and Appreciation: The second foremost technique of keeping the employees motivated while working remotely is through recognition and appreciation. For instance, the organization can provide a certificate of appreciation to an employee who has completed a challenging task. Not only this, the company can even publicise this information on their social media page or on their LinkedIn page. This gives immense amount of recognition to the employee and the individual feels motivated to enhance his performance.

Another method of appreciating the employee is by giving him an incentive or a voucher as a token of appreciation. These small gestures on the part of the organization make the employee feel special and motivated.

3. On-time disbursal of salary: An employee feels happy the most when he receives the salary in his bank account and that too on time. In the times of Coronavirus, when most of the offices have been shut down and some of the employees have lost their jobs; it indeed gives peace of mind to receive your salary in your account. The fact that your salary is coming on time on a specific date also gives the notion that the company is functioning as usual as it was before the outbreak of the pandemic.

4. Promotion of skills of your employees: This technique can be another motivation booster for the employees. For instance, if your employee likes writing and has been posting his poems or short stories on the social media platform, it would indeed be a matter of pride and privilege for the organization to promote the skills of the employee. This will also go a long way in motivating the employee.

Therefore, to conclude, organizations undoubtedly, are finding it hard to ensure smooth functioning of the work flow by adopting the work from home option. Nonetheless, the organizations can ensure to keep their employees motivated by adopting various novice techniques which are proving to be successful in these challenging times.