How to Keep Agents Motivated During Lockdown

Great customer experiences depend on happy, motivated, and engaged employees. The happier and more committed your team members are, the more likely it is that they’ll generate unforgettable experiences for your target audience.

Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to keep teams motivated – particularly in a lockdown situation. As the UK and other countries around the world continue to “shut down” to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, distributed employees are beginning to feel isolated. It’s easy to forget that you’re part of the team when you’re not interacting with people on a consistent basis.

Here are some ways that business leaders, managers, and supervisors can help team members to stay motivated – even during lockdown.

Offer Self-Care Advice

First, make sure that your team members know how to look after themselves, both mentally and physically during this time. Your staff wants to know that you value them, so look for ways you can help to reduce things like stress and burnout by:

• Asking them to keep up with non-work commitments
• Showing them how to take regular breaks
• Allowing them to change their status at the end of the workday
• Helping them to set up dedicated workstations at home
• Offering advice on exercise, nutrition, and healthcare
• Establishing clear routines

Support Regular Communication

When your team members are regularly communicating with other employees and managers, they’re less likely to feel alone and isolated. Good communication also ensures that everyone stays on the same page and prioritizes consistent values.

Using a shared calendar, set times for regular group meetings on your preferred video conferencing tool. Video will allow you to replicate the feeling of being face-to-face with other team members. You can use it to share information with extra visual context, or just to allow your employees to communicate more intimately with each other.

Ensure that there are various other lines of communication available too, such as access to phone call conversations, instant messaging, and social media.