The number of companies that rely on hiring remote engineering teams to fulfill development needs is rapidly growing. The advantages of remote work are countless: access to a global pool of talent, the ability to hire on a per-project basis (if required), working across time zones, and more.
However, working remotely also comes with its own set of challenges.
Yes, you may have established a remote-friendly culture, but you still need to make sure you motivate and engage your remote employees. This is because when you can’t supervise your team face-to-face, you can’t see the traditional cues that let you know an employee is struggling or not engaging.
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Why Employee Engagement & Retention Matter
If managers are not careful, formerly productive remote employees can lose their motivation and become unproductive. Unmotivated employees translate into higher employee turnover and lower productivity — all very costly for companies.
That’s why engagement matters so much. It’s one of the main factors that help you retain your best employees and grow your business. Despite its importance, more than 50% of companies worldwide struggle with employee retention.
The top four reasons why employees end up quitting include:
- Poor pay or benefits
- Lack of fit with the company’s culture
- Inadequate management style
- Poor career advancement opportunities
Moreover, losing employees is very expensive — and this is just as true for remote employees. According to recent studies, an employee can cost you anywhere from 16% to 213% of their annual salary to replace, depending on their position.
So, if you want to scale your business and maintain your competitive advantage, you need to keep your best employees. And employee recognition is one of the key ways to do it. Let’s start!
Read More: 25+ Best Tech Gifts for Programmers, Software Developers & Engineers
How to Recognize and Reward Your Remote Team
Especially when dealing with remote teams, visible rewards and recognition are essential. In an office environment, recognition can almost happen by itself, due to day-to-day interaction and accidental face time. But through an online environment, you require additional steps to ensure your team feels valued.
Implement an Employee Recognition Program
The first step you can take is to implement an employee recognition program that suits your organization.
According to a study by Teem, roughly 48% of workers feel underappreciated in their roles. The upside: creating employee recognition programs is one answer to counter this situation. With an appropriate employee recognition program, remote developers will feel more appreciated. The result? Higher productivity and lower turnover for your company!
Consequently, that’s why software startup InVision has created an employee recognition program for its remote employees through Bonusly. Avi Posluns from InVision explains that their employee recognition program helps remote employees feel valued and appreciated.
Apart from Bonusly, other great software programs allow you to set up and manage an employee recognition program under one roof. Top organizations tend to use one of the following: 15 Five, Motivosity, Kudos, or Fond.
You can have a look at each one and see which one is the best fit for your organization.
Read More: How to Create a Remote Work Culture That’s Supportive, Positive & Fun
Offer Remote Career Development Opportunities
As mentioned previously, remote developers often quit their jobs when they don’t have access to additional career opportunities.
When it comes to in-house employees, they typically know that if they perform well, they’ll get a promotion. This will bring about greater prestige, a bigger salary, and more benefits. Naturally, this motivates them to work harder and do better for the company.
If you’re running a remote team, the aim is to offer similar exposure to career development opportunities. Your remote team members should know that they’re not second-class employees in comparison with in-house staff. They should know they’re on the same level, and that management is actively interested in helping them plan their career growth.
This is why Jared Atchinson, the co-founder of WPForms, advises other companies that run remote teams to offer promotions to the best employees. You should notice what excites and motivates each team member, and — if they’re excelling — offer them a promotion. In all likelihood, the higher position will motivate them to work harder and do better. This is an excellent way to increase the performance of the entire team.
Aside from promotions, there are other career development opportunities you can consider, such as:
- Send your remote team members to relevant industry conferences
- Provide upskilling opportunities within the company, including through mentoring or regular sharing of knowledge
- Have your team attend boot camps dedicated to developing their skills
Take Your Remote Team on Retreats
Yearly retreats are another way to provide an incentive to your remote team and make your company a fun place to work. These are especially powerful for remote teams, since team members usually never get another chance to see each other outside of video calls. It tends to be a memorable and inspiring moment when everyone can finally get together and learn more about each other in person.
Most of the top companies running remote teams organize yearly retreats. For example, GitLab’s CEO, Sid Sijbrandij, ensures his teams meet yearly on annual retreats. Aside from an event for everyone to look forward to, it’s a great way to bring the team together and develop common goals.
And what are the results of this? Greater bonding, motivation, and productivity among the team members!
Read More: How to Integrate Freelance Software Developers Into Your Current Team
You can also try Arc, your shortcut to the world’s best remote talent:
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Use the Right Tools to Help You Recognize Outstanding Performance
Your remote team is used to using project management tools and other collaboration tools actively as part of their day-to-day work. Another benefit is that this makes you more capable of tracking and recognizing your top performers.
Tools such as GitHub, ProofHub, Asana, Google Docs, Notion, Trello, Toggl, and many more can help you keep track of performance. You’ll be able to identify which employees complete which tasks, who put in the most effort, who collaborates the most, and more.
If you want to learn more about these tools, you can read our previous article about setting up the perfect workflow with your remote team.
GitLab’s remote team advises others considering remote work to document everything. This will help employees take credit for their work and feel a sense of achievement for their contributions. That’s also why GitLab has offered a “Top Team Member” award. It provides an opportunity for everyone on the team to improve and get recognition, particularly for cross-functional collaboration.
Besides, GitLab also uses a “thank you” channel on Slack. This is a place where other team members can send thank you notes to others. It promotes camaraderie and keeps everyone engaged.
By using the tools we recommend above, you’ll be able to track and reward performance accordingly. You will boost the morale and motivation of your team, increase retention, and reward your top producers.
Read More: Diversity & Inclusion in Remote Work: 12 Things You Need to Know
Watch Out For Signs of Isolation and Take Action
Finally, as a manager, it’s your duty to check in with remote employees if you suspect anything is wrong. This will help you identify problems early as you learn how to motivate a remote engineering team best. You’ll also be in a better position to prevent losing a valuable employee.
There are several warning signs that you should consider, and these are no different for a remote employee than a co-located employee. You can suspect something is wrong if a particular employee:
- Starts missing deadlines
- Stops offering input
- Changes their personality toward colleagues
- Frequently changes work hours (or changes the length of breaks)
- Takes lots of sick breaks
- Stops interacting with others
- Changes their communication techniques (e.g., disengages from disagreements instead of advocating their opinion)
- Becomes non-committal towards the future or long projects
- Skips meetings without warning or a good excuse
- Suddenly changes behavior without other reasons
When you notice some of the warning signs above, it’s a good idea to schedule a 1-on-1 session with the respective employee. It will help you uncover any hidden issues and prevent this from snowballing into a more significant problem.
In fact, Lighthouse lists one-on-one sessions as the most effective way to uncover & solve hidden issues. Engaging your employees in these sessions will help you uncover issues early and maintain motivation and productivity.
Read More: Developer Retention: How to Keep Your Software Developers Happy
Benefits and Perks That You Can Offer to Remote Workers
As part of your employee recognition strategy, you should consider a variety of benefits that you can offer to your remote workers. These perks help create a friendly culture where everyone feels part of the organization.
Research shows that popular perks (in addition to standard bonuses) include:
- Surprise gift or snack deliveries
- Insurance (if available)
- Productivity-enhancing gifts (technology, subscription services, office furniture, headphones, etc.)
- Public acknowledgments
- Paid vacations (not just the time off, but e.g. assistance with tickets)
- Upskilling/growth opportunities (conference tickets, paid boot camps, and more)
- Birthday gift cards
- Gym memberships or other wellness initiatives
But there are also many other benefits you can consider. For example, Jody Grunden, CEO of distributed accounting firm Summit CPA, gives $325 each month to his employees (split between a $125 education stipend and a $200 technology stipend). Each employee must spend this sum to increase their expertise or invest in the technology and office equipment they need.
Aside from making the company an attractive place to work, this also helps employees maintain their autonomy. For remote workers, where autonomy is usually the top priority, this is a huge plus. At the same time, it can contribute to increased productivity.
We encourage you to be creative — but also thoughtful — about the perks that you offer for your employees. Think of anything that can make a wonderful gift and something that your employees would love and use.
Also, feel free to use some of the tools we previously mentioned to set up an employee recognition program. Many of these software tools enable you to send gifts and similar surprises. They can be part of the right solution for your business.
Read More: 5 Reasons Why Your Engineering Management Style Isn’t Working
Wrapping Up Our Guide on How to Motivate a Remote Engineering Team
So that’s it. Now you understand the importance of employee motivation and recognition to retention and productivity. And what’s more, you also understand the best practices that enable you to recognize your best employees, maximize your productivity, and decrease turnover.
As you finish reading, remember some of the benefits and perks we’ve recommended and try to put them into practice. All in all, you will start seeing phenomenal results in terms of your employees’ motivation and your team’s productivity.
If you have tried some great perks, why not share them with us in the comments section down below?
You can also try Arc, your shortcut to the world’s best remote talent:
⚡️ Access 350,000 top developers, designers, and marketers
⚡️ Vetted and ready to interview
⚡️ Freelance or full-time
