While hands-on experience is the best teacher to help employees learn essential skills easily and understand the industry-standard practices, it is essential for managers to provide training to the employees to improve their skillsets.

As per Monster Job Index July 2021 report, around 80% of employees think that their current employer do not given them growth opportunities. 54% of employees do not have competent skills to thrive in their workplace, especially when it comes to collaboration with technology.

With more work-from-home opportunities, employees prefer to live in their comfort zone, which affects the workplace productivity. That’s why, managers should motivate their employees to develop new skills. Learning and development is one of the best benefits that employers can give to their employees. Besides, it is something that encourages the applicants to apply for the vacant position in your company. Let’s understand how you can help your team build new skills.

How to Help the Remote Team to Learn New Skills? 

As a team leader, you want your team to be polished with new skills so they can help in catering different and evolving needs of your clients easily. Here’s how you can implement this with your team: 

Step 1. Assess their Needs

As a manager, it is your responsibility to track your team member’s performance across different aspects. You need to understand where a particular team member is lacking the skills that affects the performance or productivity. Evaluate the talents and weakness of every team member and give them feedback. If they are still finding it difficult to work on their weaknesses, then it is something they need to be trained on. 

Also, you need to consider your team member’s desires to understand if there are any skills they want to develop. Conducting a 1:1 call will help you understand their views, and accordingly you will get an idea where to get started with.

Step 2. Offer Resources 

As a team lead, you have to support your team and take a stand for them. You can support their skill development by providing them required resources and opportunities to learn. You can provide them access to online courses, workshops, conferences, online training sessions, and mentorship programs as per their learning styles.

You will have to adjust their work schedules, so they focus on completing their course. To monitor their progress, you can conduct calls with them to get a report on what they have learned and how it can implemented in real-life situations. 

Step 3. Give them Tasks

The best way to test new skills is to utilize them in solving problems and challenges. While employees can complete the test at the end of the course and provide you results, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they have learned the skills. You will have to give them a real-life task, so they can use their knowledge and skills to complete it. Then, only you can understand whether the learning was worth your and your employees’ time or not. 

Strategies to Build Employee Motivation for a Remote Team

Maintaining motivation for remote workers is more challenging than for office teams due to the lack of in-person interactions. Using proactive strategies can boost motivation in remote workers.  This can help retain workers and support your business goals.

1. Establish Clear Communication Channels

Establishing effective communication methods is very important. Clarifying expectations helps the team stay connected, even if members are separated around the world. Enhancing your communication skills can help maintain project timelines, ensure that employees are clear about their responsibilities, and foster collaboration toward shared objectives. Here are some essential tips to set up clear ways to communicate:

• Use common communication tools throughout the company, like Gmail for emails, Slack for messages, Asana for managing projects, and Zoom for video calls and meetings. 
• Make it clear when to use different ways to communicate. Use direct messages for quick questions, emails for team news, and meetings for starting projects or brainstorming ideas.  
• Share simple rules for communication, like replying to emails within 24 hours if they are sent after work hours and adding updates to project management tools at the end of each day.  
• Send a written message, like an email, with any important updates talked about in meetings to prevent any misunderstandings.  
• Ask workers for their thoughts about how the team communicates with each other. 

2. Set Achievable Goals

All employees, whether they work remotely or in person, can succeed and contribute positively to the company by setting clear, attainable goals. However, employees can become anxious and demotivated as a result of unclear goals.

The goal-setting theory of motivation was created by psychologist Edwin Locke in 1968. It states that employees are more motivated by precise, challenging, and particular goals than by general, ambiguous ones.

Think about using the SMART framework to help each employee develop attainable goals that are time-bound, relevant, quantifiable, and detailed. The following techniques can assist you in monitoring your progress over time once you have established attainable goals:

• Setting objectives in a performance management program or talent management platform.
• Communicating objectives to the executive team and human resources.
• Talking about goal progress in regular one-on-ones.
• Assessing advancement and overall achievement of goals in employee assessments.
• Reviewing and modifying objectives when business priorities change.

3. Recognize and Reward Achievements

A study by Harvard Business Review found that 40% of workers would do a better job if their employers noticed their hard work more often. Team leaders should try hard to notice and appreciate the work and achievements of each person and the whole team. Acknowledging team members not only boosts their motivation but also fosters their loyalty and dedication to the team. To enhance motivation through recognition, it is essential to:

• Showcase positive feedback received from customers, managers, colleagues, or other individuals regarding a specific project or assignment.
• Share stories of staff members’ successes and notable experiences during team sessions, including goal completions and work anniversary celebrations. 
• Plan online team parties to celebrate achievements in a department. 
• Establish awards for teams or the organization to recognize individuals who embody the company’s values.
• Motivate employees to suggest their coworkers for team or company awards.  
• Strike a balance between positive feedback and constructive advice to motivate employees while maintaining their high performance.

4. Build a Sense of Community

Remote work can make some people feel lonely and isolated. This may influence their motivation, job retention, and overall productivity. A study by the American Psychological Association with 2,515 working adults showed that 94% of them think it is important to feel like they belong at their jobs. People who work in the office can easily meet for lunch or coffee and connect with their coworkers. But to help remote workers feel included and part of the company, it takes a special effort. 

Here are some ideas to help remote workers feel like they belong and are part of the team at your organization: 

• Planning team-building activities that take place both face-to-face and in a virtual setting. 
• Pairing each new hire with a supportive teammate to guide them through their onboarding process as they start their position at the company.
• Encourage team members to set up online coffee chats to learn more about each other.  
• Giving projects that need teamwork and cooperation between different departments.  
• Helping employee groups so that all team members, whether they work from home or in the office, can connect over common interests, communities, or identities.

Bottom line,

Effective remote team management requires taking proactive steps, such as building motivation among the remote team, leveraging technology effectively, and maintaining a strong and supportive team culture. Regularly providing them feedback and being adaptive to the evolving needs of the team is important for effectively addressing challenges in remote work. Keep in mind that creating a successful hybrid or fully remote team is a valuable investment in your company’s future.

By thoughtfully choosing a specialized remote team of engineers or architects that meets your project’s requirements, you can keep your business ahead and competitive. Contact Hyqoo to hire experienced software architects and engineers who work remotely and are dedicated to transforming your projects for outstanding excellence.

FAQs

• What problems arise if remote employees aren’t constantly motivated?

One factor that is closely associated with low employee motivation is poor employee performance. Your employees will soon lose interest in working if you don’t regularly motivate them, especially when they feel complete isolation.

• What questions should you ask remote employees to motivate them?

You can ask the following questions to help attract motivation among your remote team:

• Are you feeling productive while working remotely? 
• What challenges do you face while working remotely? 
• Have you gained any new skills while working from home? 
• What’s your daily routine? 
• How can we prepare and enable managers to manage employees remotely? 

You can manage your employees in the following ways:

• Maintain regular check-ins.
• Communicate effectively.
• Conduct brainstorming sessions. 
• Provide one-on-one personal interactions.