What Motivates Remote Workers?

According to a recent survey from institutions including Stanford University and the University of Chicago, more than 25% of work hours during the month of February 2023 were clocked by someone working remotely.

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Despite many widely publicized, company-led pushes to get employees back in the office, remote work clearly has a strong foothold in the workforce mix that seems unlikely to change significantly any time in the near future. 

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It's also worth noting that the workers who are avoiding commutes, saving on gas expenses, and spending more time in the places where they’re most comfortable as a result of remote work are not the only beneficiaries of the rise of off-site and hybrid working arrangements, with the same study finding that working remotely increased productivity by 13%.

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With the proportional balance of employees shifting away from in-office workers, some managers across a number of industries are finding themselves on relatively unfamiliar ground when it comes to integrating remote workers into their traditional management workflow and aligning everyone’s goals and incentives. 

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To those ends, these are 5 potential ways to better motivate remote workers in order to keep your company operations running smoothly regardless of where employees do most of their work:

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1. Set goals that are achievable. The fastest way to burn out your remote employees is to ask too much of their time, which can be more difficult to gauge when those employees are off-site - especially with new hires who may not yet feel comfortable raising the issue even if they are overloaded with work. 
2. Establish a clear incentive program. Not only can well-constructed incentive programs help make expectations clear for remote workers and better align priorities among a spatially disconnected working unit, it can also further encourage remote employees to keep up the good work via financial rewards and/or other earned perks that coincide with work-related progress.
3. Enable transparent feedback in both directions. In order for remote workers to grow within their roles, they not only need regular check-ins and evaluations of their work product as it progresses and evolves, but they also need regular outlets through which they can raise issues, concerns, and address questions they have that might not be obvious from an office-centric perspective. 
4. Include praise and recognition among regular feedback. Out-of-office employees don’t always experience reward for quality work the same way their in-office counterparts might via social recognition or personal expressions of gratitude from teammates for making their jobs easier, so it’s especially important to provide platforms to recognize achievements and contributions made by remote employees that incorporate in-office employees as well, and vice versa. 
5. Encourage physical health and mental well being. Performance on the job is directly linked to health - both of the body and mind - so employers are well served by actively building the environment and creating the necessary conditions to best enable employees to tend to these needs as they see fit, including arranging regular mental health activities as well as expressing clear support for employees to utilize their sick leave and mental health days afforded by the stated company policies. 

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Putting into practice strategies like these can significantly help managers and HR professionals better integrate remote employees both into their respective teams and the larger company as a whole. Setting goals that are in line with employee time and ability expectations as well as initiating incentive programs, providing feedback that’s transparent and includes both praise and identifies areas for improvement, and prioritizing health across the organization will benefit not just your remote workers, but also everyone else who relies on the quality and timeliness of their work. 

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You can read more about how to motivate remote workers here.