The workplace disruption brought upon by the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a higher rate of demotivated employees. Unfortunately, a large majority of employees are struggling with loneliness, isolation, and low-motivating force. The same number also complains about the difficulty to collaborate and communicate online.
As the pandemic continues to spread at a fast pace, we have to admit that this work-from-home setup won’t go away anytime soon. Yet, it is your duty as a team leader to keep your employees inspirited and motivated — one way or another. After all, you are assigned a greater responsibility to look after your team’s productivity and at the same time, their physical and mental health.
From regular team huddles to virtual coffee chats, we’ve come up with a list of productivity tips for your team as you invest your time in this quest. Be sure to implement these tips and talk with your team about it on your next huddle.
1. Maintain a strong remote workplace infrastructure
Essentially, a remote workplace includes many, if not all, of the same elements as the traditional one. This includes workspace, equipment, and collaboration. However, it can take you an arduous amount of effort to ensure that all your employees have the right tools for an effective virtual environment.
Instead of doing all the work by yourself, discuss with your team your expectations during this new work environment. Let them know that you are obliging them to establish an ergonomic and comfortable workplace to help keep their productivity inclined. Make sure that each employee has a desktop or a laptop, a working web camera, a microphone, and a reliable internet service. Additionally, ensure that they have access to their respective accounts. Determine if they will be needing anything else to access them such as VPN access and secure ID token.
2. Be empathetic
The pandemic is thrusting people into situations that they never once expected. Those employees who have never worked remotely before are now struggling to adapt to the new setup. As a team leader, try to be more understanding and expect less from them. Sure, it might be tempting to push them harder. But effective leaders know that it’s more important to put their people first in these trying times.
If the business is slow, assign your employees to work on beneficial tasks like administrative tasks and professional development. Take it easy with the high expectations and don’t attach strict deadlines.
During your regular one-on-one meetings, be sure to tackle the challenges that they are currently facing. Not only will this resolve individual problems, but also teamwide problems.
3. Keep your team members accountable
In this disruptive time, you must recognize your employees’ concerns and questions while adjusting to the new setup. Establishing clear communication and creating structure can help give a sense of normalcy and keep your team members accountable.
You can do this by making yourself available to your employees. Respond to their requests promptly and institute protocols and expectations.
Be consistent with the communication channel you’ll be using to stay connected. Agree with your team about this through a meeting. While you’re at it, take advantage of the time to talk about the security and safety measures that are needed to be practiced, especially data security.
Moreover, be sure that you keep track of their progress. Determine when and how you will check your team for updates on tasks and projects.
4. Keep the meetings short and productive
Meetings can be dreadful, be it the best of times or the contrary. Virtual meetings can be especially dreadful for a lot of individual reasons. If the meeting is purely informative instead of focusing on the solutions, you are not solving problems — you are just delaying it.
To keep your meetings productive, start by streamlining your meetings. Invite only those who need to be there. Most importantly, focus on the problems you can solve together and ideas you can develop.
5. Give practical tips to increase productivity
A compassionate team leader knows to put himself in an employee’s shoes. Before getting mad over their shortcomings and failures, try to understand where they are coming from. Your employees may be disrupted with children who are also studying remotely. Not everyone is granted the privilege to have a big house to accommodate multiple remote workers and students.
The best thing you can do in this situation is to provide practical tips for your employees. Tell them to establish boundaries when working remotely with your housemates so they know that they are unavailable at the moment.
Let them know that they are allowed to discuss with you if they want a more flexible schedule to accommodate their working situation at home.
Above anything else, encourage them to take a break from time to time. Make sure that they also prioritize their well-being while staying productive during work hours.