Motivating Employees

•  Welspun is encouraging its employees to look out for themselves and their families. They have spent time explaining to managers to be tolerant of mistakes during this time, due to people having other things on their minds.
•  Vedanta is having regular online team huddles. They are also offering psychological and counseling helplines to assist those employees that are suffering anxiety or stress related issues.
•  Axis Bank has encouraged its managers to maintain regular contact with its staff, with 88% of its staff working from home. They are asking their managers to show empathy, when trying to keep staff motivated.
•  Google has encouraged its employees to stay motivated during the pandemic. In emails, the company has said that the world is relying on it to maintain the infrastructure during this time.
• One of the issues facing companies is that remote workers are more likely to become disengaged and quit, if they do not feel supported at this time. Working remotely often means that there are distractions that are not present in an office environment, meaning it is easier for the employee to disengage.
•  Face to face engagement is vital, and programs like Zoom or Skype can assist in maintaining this face to face contact with employees.
• Cryptocurrency firm, Coinbase has open sourced their plan for employees working remotely. They hope by sharing their information other companies will get ideas as to how they can manage their staff at this time. They have ensured their staff are provided with information about transmission and links to resources about COVID-19 to make sure their staff are fully informed.
•  Zapier provides a guide for developing the best remote practices for companies that do not have experience with remote employees. Nobl Academy and Gitlab offer similar guides.
• Adam Gerhart, CEO of Mindshare said, The truth is that it’s not about motivation. It’s about support, empowerment, and empathy. People want to know that we’re in their corner, and that we’re in it together. Everything else—motivation, smart ideas for clients, provocative thinking—it all comes out of that.

Summary

• There is a wealth of information available publicly on motivating and engaging remote employees. Unfortunately, metrics regarding the success of specific companies during the COVID-19 crisis are not generally available. This is likely due to the fact it is too early to determine if different approaches have been successful.
• Approaching this question in a general way, using data collected regarding the motivation and engagement of remote employees prior to COVID-19 does yield some valuable data.