How To Maintain A Sense Of Motivation In A Virtual Office Setting

Motivation has been a central focus of business management since the industrial revolution. Theories such as Vroom’s Expectancy, Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, or Herzberg’s two-factor theory have for long been debated. With no consensus in the offing, remote working has become the norm as entities adopt agility strategies to remain competitive. Hence, you need to adopt a complete virtual office setting for your business without losing sight of the importance of fostering a sense of motivation in your team. Although some of the theories of motivation may be effective, you can devise a pragmatic approach that suits your circumstances. To get started, here are some effective techniques that you can adopt.

Facilitate Esprit De Corps (Teamwork) Through Virtual Meetings

By not being able to physically interact with your team, a sense of isolation and alienation may occur hampering work coordination efforts. Therefore, you need to keep your employees engaged by enabling them to work in teams. In a virtual office setting, the meeting space option has features such as day offices, coworking spaces, meeting rooms, conference rooms, and more that can enable you to maintain the esprit de corps principle of motivation.

Create A Perception of Normalcy Through Adopting A Virtual Office

Remote working is a nascent concept and many stakeholders such as employees still perceive the brick and mortar office concept as the correct definition of an office. Since it may no longer be practical to have your entity operating from the traditional office set up, you can change the perceptions by adopting a virtual office that reminisces the conventional space that everyone is used to.

You can go a step further by establishing a virtual office location that your employees can refer to when dealing with your clients. This strategy can not only enable you to maintain workplace motivation, but you can also involve your employees in your business processes reengineering (BPR) journey. Consequently, you will be maintaining motivation by fostering employee loyalty.

Incorporate An Enabling Virtual Environment

Herzberg’s two-factor theory classifies an enabling environment as a hygiene factor that enables employees to carry out their assignments seamlessly. Since remote working is still in its nascent stage, the virtual office may not support key functions that enable team members to dispense their duties as they are accustomed to. However, there are features such as mail receipt and forwarding, lobby directory listing, virtual receptionists, and other robotic support features that can reduce the workloads, promote efficiency, and enable the team players to focus on their core duties. Other support options such as the live web chat services can improve work experiences by facilitating challenging tasks that make the job exciting and worth looking forward to every day.

Maintaining Motivation Is A Perpetual Process

A virtual office setting may lack the human aspect of socialization. However, there are innovative features that you can adopt to keep the employees engaged, excited, and challenged with exciting tasks and experiences. You should also not lose focus of the traditional motivation factors of recognizing achievement, fair reward and remuneration, promotion, soliciting for feedback and opinions, among other considerations that make employees feel appreciated and valued.

About Jackie Edwards

After taking a career sabbatical to become a mother, Jackie now writes full time on finance, business and managing money She has, in the past battled problems with anxiety and panic, and in her spare time she volunteers for a number of local charities that support people with mental health issues.