Keeping Creativity & Innovation In Check In Remote Work!

Even though remote workers are often more inspired, enthused, and happy than their competitors in their offices, they don’t have the same varied choice of colleagues or atmosphere to get their insights or be inspired which can lead to a downward spike in the innovativeness and creativity in their work. The good news, however, is that there are various ways team leaders can encourage mobile and remote staff to foster innovation.

• Foster regular communication

One of the key reasons for the lack of creativity is that people feel lonely when they work remotely. If your team member is someplace remote from the rest of the team, you cannot bounce ideas on your colleagues or look at projects from a new viewpoint.

As a team leader, you will have to solve this situation with constant communication amongst the team members. Fortunately, communication in the digital environment may encompass anything from prompt messaging of tools, online coaching tools, to comprehensive mentoring programs.

• Designate someone to spearhead home-based innovation

When you work alone at your kitchen table, it is all too easy to lose your motivation. A devoted leader can assist in developing a virtual office community with the many available digital workspace solutions like zoom and google hangouts to ensure that the communication and flow of office communications function easily.

Ensure that your staff can have access to any tools that they might require from a distance so that they are not stuck to a desk or office. Introduce cloud storage systems in which employees can exchange data and thoughts. Tools such as slack online management can be used to monitor progress and manage projects and deadlines. 

• Help create better places of work

While the surroundings that your employees operate from remotely cannot always be controlled, you may encourage them to establish more inspirational workplaces. A Mindspace research indicated that about 33% of workers say their workstations are uncomfortable.

Design your own office in such a way that it reminds your team members what a creative environment looks like. This will help them gain inspiration and insight into how their home office space should look like. You may also advise them about how to refurbish and improve their home office spaces. The correct workplace space can make a major impact on employee performance – even if it isn’t within your business building.

• Promote unexpected meetings

The break time chatter and mingling with coworkers is indeed a big aspect that remote employees miss out on. A firm needs to develop an active community center (even if virtual) for its scattered personnel so that they may connect with one other in a relaxed atmosphere to guarantee that the creative cogs continue to switch on at work.

While a flexible workspace is a perfect approach to promote unplanned encounters, there are methods to remotely communicate with other workers even with virtual restraints. Arrange virtual coffee/tea breaks every day with your teams so people may come and say “hello” to just unwind without thinking too much.

• Acknowledge & celebrate achievements

In the typical working environment, business leaders are aware of the performance of their team members and acknowledge their achievements so that they remain motivated and inspired. But it is easy to forget that when you don’t see these employees every day. 

Monitoring your employees’ development, wherever they are, is a terrific approach to make sure you don’t ignore their success. The SHRM Group has discovered that appreciation programs for employees encourage innovative thinking and a corporate foundation. 90% of managers who practice employee appreciation obtained more commitment, the study showed.

• Train employees about Innovation’s economic importance

Innovation is a key driver of every business’s economic prosperity. All managers are aware that new ideas are always the golden ticket for the development of a company. But what they must also know is how to teach the talent to maintain the machinery of ideas in good condition. The best approach to achieve this is to promote an atmosphere based on ideas. Hire individuals from different backgrounds. Allow your team to work flexibly and allow them to breathe, reflect and develop. Your firm will be propelled by a rush of fresh ideas.