The business world is changing quickly, with new challenges arising. Even though remote work isn’t new, companies and teams still deal with certain difficulties. Remote work brings various benefits to both companies and employees, but some unexpected problems require adjustments.
The modern workplace has introduced many advantages like flexible work schedules, working at home, using various technologies to make the daily workload easier, online communication, collaboration tools, etc. However, these environments lack some traditional elements that help employees feel motivated, respected, and productive – employee incentives.
Luckily, some of these traditional incentives can still be used if adjusted and implemented correctly. Today, we’ll share some of these ideas with you.
1. Creating a sense of belonging
There are many benefits of employees feeling like valuable team members or part of the bigger picture. It’s crucial to create a sense of belonging where employees think they are worthy, understood, and valued.
Employees who feel they’re in the right place are motivated, productive, and loyal. However, remote teams usually detach employees from their organizations, teams, and their work. They are spending time at home and can’t connect to their work.
Recognize employee contributions and achievements regularly by making public announcements, praising people, giving years of service awards, cherishing employee input, setting shared goals, providing growth opportunities, and encouraging a positive work environment.
2. Free meals
Free meals and snacks are among the most crucial employee incentives in office environments. However, most businesses running remote teams don’t even consider them because employees aren’t working together in an office. You can offer a free meal plan to your remote employees, similar to office catering.
On the other hand, you can send snack boxes once a month with motivating messages. You can also give employees vouchers or points to buy food, necessities, or groceries. Remote employees also appreciate free food, primarily because they work in the digital world, and small incentives like these can help them connect with colleagues and the company.
To expand incentives, you can also send goodie boxes with branded snacks, notebooks, pens, or t-shirts. You can attach free food to some important events. For example, if you’ve made key progress, you can create an online meeting and send everyone food or cakes for birthdays.
3. Social events for remote employees
Even though many people love working remotely, humans are social beings and need to interact with others, chat, share ideas, and connect with their coworkers. Since there are no opportunities for casual interaction in a remote environment, you must be creative to compensate for the lack of social interactions and energize team members.
You should emphasize virtual events to help create and maintain relationships. You can set up various events, including welcoming new employees, team-building events, work meetings, etc. Another idea is to organize birthday celebrations during which people can eat, drink, and talk to each other.
The idea is to create a relaxed atmosphere and let employees create a dynamic on their own while showing them they’re essential, meaningful, and valued. Remind them that they are all a team and that it’s important that their voices are being heard.
4. Family incentives
Traditional employee incentives always included benefits that were attached to employees’ families. Chances are many of your employees have spouses, parents, and children. They are probably involved in taking care of those people, and that’s an integral part of their lives.
Remibrusing them with the costs associated with family matters can help them understand how much you care about them. People love their families, and giving the incentives that affect families will be valued. Many remote employees working from home also have caregiving, cleaning, and cooking responsibilities.
Help them deal with these pressures by allowing them to care for these things and provide flexible work hours. Offer vacations, childcare allowance, or vouchers your employees can use to help their families. For example, Facebook offers hefty maternity grants and generous paternity leave.
5. Equal treatment
Many companies are big on saying they treat employees equally, but in a remote environment, many people are often shut down and isolated from the bigger picture. Remote employees often don’t have the same resources and information they would have in an office.
Of course, not all information should be shared with everyone, but it’s unpleasant knowing you don’t have the same level of access as your peers. When on-site employees get various perks like meals, monitors, launches, or events while remote employees don’t, it could make people feel isolated and left out.
Keep everyone in the loop and provide perks based on role and merit – don’t separate your remote employees and on-site teams.
Conclusion
Modern online businesses can offer all kinds of new benefits and incentives. However, you can still utilize some more traditional strategies and incorporate them into the work environment. Creating a sense of belonging is essential even for remote teams, but at the same time, this doesn’t mean you should hinder their individuality.
