Remote working and working from home is the flavor of international business these days. Even here at ShoutMeLoud, we have a distributed remote tool. We use tools like Slack, Trello, Todoist, Asana and Zoom for most of our work.
However, one of the biggest challenges which I personally face is rewarding my team once in a while. Since we all are sitting distant, the way we reward has to be different. Is int it?
And, I’m not alone in this. Many startups and businesses are realizing the flexibility of a remote team.
A remote team doesn’t require large infrastructure and doesn’t need in-house perks.
The remote team helps with cost reduction with some teams available at 1/3rd the cost of a normal hire.
There are a lot of positives to take from a remote or work from home team but there are a few negatives as well.
As humans, we are social animals who like social interaction. The bonding experience while working and camaraderie is what drive people to work together and come out with great work.
The biggest problem with a work from home team or a remote team is motivation. How do you keep them motivated in the long term, to make them feel a sense of togetherness and get them to perform at their highest levels while keeping them happy?
The answer is Rewards.
Rewarding people has been the universal action for companies to keep motivation and productivity levels high.
But obviously, as a company far away from your remote team, there are a lot of options that cannot be considered because of the distance.
There are a few things that you can do for your remote team and here they are. Let’s break this down without breaking the budget.
Reward ideas for work from home team:
1. Coupons / Gift Cards
This is an obvious choice and it works. Giving out gift cards and coupons have been the way for a long time to reward work from home teammates. Coupons and Gift cards are something of value and hence it is always considered a great reward.
The coupons can be for clothing, food, a movie ticket, Spa treatment, and more. More or less, these gift cards are simple experiences that can energize a person and give them a much-needed boost. It’s the same feeling as when somebody foots the bill for dinner. It is always a good feeling. You could also give out coupons to a premium restaurants on their birthdays. I find Amazon gift cards to be more appropriate especially when I don’t know about someone’s personal interest.
You can check out Amazon gift card here.
2. Paying for a few days in a premium co-working space
A work from home team member can feel a bit lonely working by themselves at home and it’s a basic human need to be social. Co-working spaces are buzzing with activity and have some of the brightest minds working out of there.
That is not all, co-working spaces host a lot of sessions, events, and parties among other things and it gives your team member opportunities to interact with a lot of like-minded people and gain a lot of knowledge. Co-working spaces also bring in people from all over the world and it can be a cultural experience. The startup community in many countries are open and accepting and it would be a great way to make your team member happy while they are working.
3. Tickets to seminars and events in their cities
Events are the pulse of the city. Events have the best of minds coming together and talking about certain topics. I’m not talking about events that are specific to a niche like Digital Marketing. But, events like Ted Talks, Ink Talks, Josh Talks among others. These events have a host of people from different disciplines who are great at what they do. They are able to open people’s minds with their speeches.
Depending on your teammate’s interest you can choose a particular type of meetup or event. For example
- Book Reading Sessions
- Pottery Classes
- Cookery Classes
- Comedy Shows
- Book Fairs
- Meditation Sessions
- Theater Workshops
4. Accommodation in an Airbnb for a couple of days
Airbnb has really turned out to be a blessing for world travelers on a low budget. There are so many accommodations that have come up, that are much reasonably priced compared to a hotel. Airbnb stays are comfortable and more homely.
They also give you a true experience of the city you are staying at. You could gift a two-night stay to your best performing work from home team member at a nice Airbnb space.
You would think that it is expensive, but it isn’t. There are holiday destinations that are very reasonable and are good places to visit.
Staying via AirB&B is more convenient than Hotel in many cases. You get to live in a Villa, a complete house of your choice & at the same price that you would pay for a room in a hotel. Of course,** condition applies!
Join AirBnB (Get $17 free credits too) [Available for all countries)
5. Premium Courses and Tools
Tools really help. And sometimes work from home teams don’t have the necessary tools that can make them even more productive or optimized. As a token, you could give your teammate a suite of premium tools which would make his or her life better.
For example, Grammarly is a great tool for writers and the premium version of the product is even better. It has features like grammar check, spell check, advanced word suggestion, writing style check(Depending on what you are writing), plagiarism checker etc.
This kind of tool will save a lot of minutes for every article written and lets the writer express themselves.
For developers and designers, there is a host of tools that are incredibly useful and add a lot of value. Another aspect is premium courses. Really motivated Individuals always want to learn more, you could gift them a premium course through which they can expand their skills.
When you gift a premium course to your teammate, they will know that you are looking out for their best interest and will feel a sense of connection with your company. It would benefit them as well as you. Making your teammate’s work life easy is also an important aspect of your relationship.
6. An Inspiration Kit
This is a small kit of different items that could elevate the work of your remote team member. It could be a mug with an inspiring message or a poster of an iconic person and a quote. And other handy products that boost the person’s morale. It’s simple, it has utility, it is inspiring as well.
Ultimately for a remote team, the kind of work they do should be fulfilling, apart from that rewards like the ones mentioned above really help with boosting morale and productivity.
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Well, these are some of ideas that I can think of right now. If you work from home or have a team who is working from home, do let me know few of your own ideas. What are the ways you have inspired your team with rewards? Let us know in the comment section below.
Do share this post on Facebook & Twitter. It might help someone to get a reward soon.