Are you the leader of an organization with a fully remote or hybrid model? If so, your remote workers probably love the flexibility and lack of a commute that go along with working from home.

However, as a leader, you still want to ensure that your remote staff members are as happy as they can be in their roles. This will help you retain them, and they will be more motivated to help the association succeed. It will also help prevent the “Great Resignation” that is plaguing so many other organizations.

Here are six tried-and-true ways I have discovered to boost employees’ everyday morale.

Align Responsibilities With Strengths

All your employees will excel in various tasks, and not so much in other areas. For example, one of your remote staff members may be amazing at data entry, but they struggle with sales outreach calls. Or, one of your employees might do an excellent job on social media marketing initiatives or basic accounting fundamentals, but they don’t do well when it comes to compiling monthly reports for clients. That’s when it’s time to delegate work responsibilities based on employees’ unique strengths.

Avoid assigning projects that will make your employees frustrated or stressed because that will lower their morale. They might even consider looking for a new job at a different company. Alternatively, if you align your staff members’ work responsibilities with their strengths, it will help them stay motivated and help them to continue excelling in their position.

Completing all the tasks on a to-do list every day is satisfying, but rather than just working for a paycheck, many people want to find real meaning in the work they do each day and see how it is making a difference.

Show the Direct Impact of Their Work

Completing all the tasks on to-do list every day is satisfying, but  rather than just working for a paycheck, many people want to find real meaning in the work they do each day and see how it is making a difference. That’s why it’s a good idea to show staff members exactly how their work is having a direct impact on the organization and the community it serves.

There are many ways to do this. You can put together a graph that illustrates how much their specific marketing efforts bolstered revenue for the month. Or, create a PowerPoint presentation that shows all the positive testimonials the association has gotten because of your employee’s customer service excellence. If your organization donates a portion of proceeds to a charitable cause, you can also show your employees how much money is generated for the charity based on their hard work.

Allow Flexible Work Schedules

Some of your remote employees may be early birds, while others may prefer to start work later in the day. To bolster morale, let your remote staff members choose what time they want to start working each day. That way, they will work in the way that works best for them, and it will enable them to schedule the day that best fits their needs. They will be happy that they will finally be able to schedule work around exercise, school drop-offs, and other real facets of life that are important to people. Allowing flexible work schedules will help your remote employees have a better work-life balance.

Avoid Micromanaging

Sometimes, remote managers overcompensate for the fact that they don't have their team in the same office by micromanaging. However, doing that gives employees the impression you don’t trust their judgment.

In contrast, allowing autonomy and clear goal setting is a better way to manage remote teams. Provide a roadmap of what good performance and bad performance is and institute employee key performance indicators (KPIs) so everyone is aware of how they are being measured.

Create Opportunities to Bond

In an in-office work environment, employees connect and bond at the water cooler and in break rooms. These bonds are important for overall work morale because it helps staff members develop better relationships with each other.

As the leader of a remote team, you can also help your employees bond by organizing a monthly happy or social hour where staff can connect on a video platform to have “water cooler talk.” You could also break up the video bonding sessions into themes or departments to bring people closer based on affinities or interests.

Help Staff Live Healthier, Happier Lives

Great mental health starts with a healthy body. One way you can help your remote employees foster a healthy lifestyle is by sponsoring memberships to gyms or yoga studios in their areas. The regular dose of endorphins will help them stay uplifted each day. You can also treat them to a monthly massage at a local spa. These small efforts will really show your remote employees that you care about their wellbeing and value them, which will help boost their morale.

Even if you don’t regularly see your remote employees, they do so much to help your organization succeed each day. By taking these six steps, you can help amplify your remote staff’s everyday morale.