Post-Pandemic Employee Productivity: How to Motivate People Returning to the Office

If you’ve been living under a rock, it’s no surprise that the pandemic has shaken up the workforce like never before. Employees, as well as their employer companies, have seen tremendous shifts in their workflow.

Depending on the situation of lockdown in your country or region, your company might still be embracing work from home — or could be starting in-office work very soon. In both cases, motivating your employees to be more productive is crucial.

In order to make your workforce get the most out of their time and get things done faster, you can take certain steps. To help you out with that, I’ve compiled some tips which you can use to motivate your employees.

Showcase genuine gestures of appreciation

Any employee would love the idea of a kind gesture during these hard times. If you decide to start appreciating your workers for their efforts, every once in a while, they’d stay motivated to perform at their best.

Start by verbal appreciation. If you want to take it to the next level, you can offer a drink or dinner after work. Just remember, be nice and appreciate what they do for your company — and they’ll eventually want to do even more.

Communicate, communicate, and communicate

Communication is the key to a healthy and thriving employee-employer relationship. Be clear and concise with your communication. Provide accurate requirements for the tasks they have to do. Be sure to listen to what they have to say about an assignment.

Moreover, you don’t have to make important decisions entirely on your own. Yes, I understand you’re the brains of your company, but even you can, sometimes, use some bright ideas coming from your employees. Give them the freedom to speak up and showcase their ideas and views. Listen to them carefully and provide feedback accordingly.

Be available and accessible

Employees hate bosses which are hard to reach. Don’t cover yourself under several layers of security and diminished reachability. Don’t ignore their phone calls and emails every time.

I’m not saying you have to attend every employee’s phone call all the time — because you don’t. If you’re busy with something, decline their call and send them a message stating you’ll call them back. When you’re free and ready to talk, call them back and listen to their queries.

Don’t make them wait for long periods outside your office. Call them in as soon as you’re available and ready to talk.

Provide productivity and quality-of-life tools

Believe it or not, the latest tools and pieces of software can boost the performance of your employees by a good bit. Moreover, as upgraded pieces of software come with quality-of-life improvements, it’ll make different tasks easier for your workers.

When they find a task easy and streamlined to perform, they’ll be more interested to finish it off quickly. For example, to help them easily save the format of their documents in PDF, get them a Word to PDF tool that can perform this task seamlessly. It sounds like a simple tool, but it counts and makes things streamlined for your employees.

Take care of their physical and mental health

People are now very aware of their health conditions and want to work in a safe environment to keep their health in shape. To showcase a gesture of care and trust, promote employee programs that revolve around their health. You could even encourage them to visit nurses and do check ups on their health. Certified nurses have completed the NCLEX RN exams and they are qualified to take care of patients, communicate with doctors and check vital signs.

These programs could either grant financial support or could provide physical or mental health awareness. Remember, mental health is as important as physical health. Alongside providing physical health support, never neglect the importance of mental health counseling.

They say “keep your friends close and your enemies closer” — but I say, “keep your employees the closest”. Keeping them happy is the key to making them perform at their best and produce the best possible results.

Final word

Your employees now need your support more than ever. Using the tips mentioned above, you can make sure you’re building a close, meaningful relationship with them. It will keep them motivated and eager to work for you at their best.

Written by Tom Rich