How employee engagement tech can keep your remote team motivated

3.) Time tracking

No-one likes to feel underappreciated, and when staff members are working from home they may feel that the hours that they are putting in go unnoticed – especially if they work late to ensure that vital tasks get completed.

Time tracking software can help remote workers stay motivated by logging the hours that they spend on various activities so that charity leaders can see and acknowledge their efforts. Time trackers can also help remote employees improve their time management, work more efficiently, and identify which tasks are taking up too much of their time and which other team members might be able to do more efficiently.

There is a wide range of time tracking software available, ranging from products and services like PomoDone and Tomato Timer – which help employees use their time more efficiently using the Pomodoro time management technique – to more sophisticated ones like Hubstaff and Timedoctor which enable charity leaders to see exactly who is spending how much time on specific activities and applications.

4.) Work-at-home mentors

In many organisations, there will inevitably be a few staff members who already have experience working at home, and these people can be a useful source of advice, tips and morale boosts for colleagues who are struggling to adapt to the reality of service delivery through extended remote working.

There are a number of technologies that work-at-home mentors can take advantage of: a digital newsletter via email for daily or weekly hints and tips, a dedicated "ask me anything" channel on team collaboration software such as Slack, a regular staff podcast, or even a series of YouTube videos.

5.) Give kudos

Staff are far more likely to remain engaged and motivated from an operations and efficiency standpoint when they see that their work is appreciated and recognition is given for their efforts, and according to research by psychologist Paul White people appreciate words of affirmation over gifts or other types of rewards.

Providing these words of affirmation to remote workers can be done using employee engagement tech in a number of ways – in a newsletter sent out by email, as an announcement at the morning meeting video conference (see above), or perhaps by posting a thank you note on the charity’s social media accounts or digital collaboration platform.

6.) Don’t forget to have fun

Remote employees are likely to feel more motivated when they are in a team they enjoy being part of. That means it’s important to continue with team bonding activities like team lunches or Friday evening pizza hours even when team members are all working in different places.

Thanks to the internet it is possible to arrange for pizza to be delivered to remote workers homes, or they can provide it themselves. In either case, a casual end-of-week team video conference where people can catch up while enjoying the food can work wonders for team morale and motivation.

If you don’t think pizza is appropriate for your charity there are many other ways to foster team bonding using video conferencing. A popular example is the "campfire" meeting where one team member each week selects a topic to discuss with other team members. This could be any personal hobby or passion such as metal detecting or vintage pinball machines and the idea is that by learning about the people they work with, remote workers bond and feel they are part of a close team.