Motivating agents during lockdown

Great customer experiences depend on happy, motivated, and engaged employees. The happier and more committed your team members are, the more likely it is that they’ll generate unforgettable experiences for your target audience.

Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to keep teams motivated – particularly in a lockdown situation. As the UK and other countries around the world continue to “shut down” to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, distributed employees are beginning to feel isolated. It’s easy to forget that you’re part of the team when you’re not interacting with people on a consistent basis.

Here are some ways that business leaders, managers, and supervisors can help team members to stay motivated – even during lockdown.

Offer Self-Care Advice

First, make sure that your team members know how to look after themselves, both mentally and physically during this time. Your staff wants to know that you value them, so look for ways you can help to reduce things like stress and burnout by:

Asking them to keep up with non-work commitments
Showing them how to take regular breaks
Allowing them to change their status at the end of the workday
Helping them to set up dedicated workstations at home
Offering advice on exercise, nutrition, and healthcare
Establishing clear routines

Support Regular Communication

When your team members are regularly communicating with other employees and managers, they’re less likely to feel alone and isolated. Good communication also ensures that everyone stays on the same page and prioritizes consistent values.

Using a shared calendar, set times for regular group meetings on your preferred video conferencing tool. Video will allow you to replicate the feeling of being face-to-face with other team members. You can use it to share information with extra visual context, or just to allow your employees to communicate more intimately with each other.

Ensure that there are various other lines of communication available too, such as access to phone call conversations, instant messaging, and social media.

Celebrate Success and Offer Feedback

Just because you’re not working in the same office right now doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be paying attention to your top performers. Remote employees in lockdown will benefit from feedback even more than your standard employees. These team members need to see that there’s a reason for them to go above and beyond the call of duty when no-one is watching.

Celebrate success and create a positive working environment by mentioning top performers in staff meetings, congratulating team members on social media, or even just sending surprise gifts in the post. Remember, everyone loves to feel appreciated.

Prioritise Continued Development

Finally, if you think your employees are starting to feel a little down during lockdown, remind them that there’s a positive future ahead. Giving staff members opportunities for professional and personal growth is an excellent way to keep their sights set on the future.

Conduct interviews with your agents and find out which skills they want to work on, and what kind of projects they’d like to undertake going forward. You can deliver training through videos, webinars, or assign a mentor to work with someone virtually on a regular basis.

Don’t let lockdown disrupt your team’s motivation.

Source: CX Today