If you shared an office, chances are you had procedures in place to maintain an acceptable level of employee performance. However, the transition to a remote workforce also means you need to tackle new challenges, and those strategies may be out of date.

Let’s explore some common reasons for poor performance in distributed teams and how you can leverage technology to address them and ensure higher productivity.

The 5 Best Tools to Overcome Poor Performance in Your Remote Workplace

It’s important to note that underperformance is relative and doesn’t always indicate rebelliousness, laziness, or incompetence.

As we indicated above, due to the many changes that come with remote working, some members of your remote team may be performing below their potential or expected levels (while others may be more productive).

That said, being attentive to the needs of your people and finding the right digital solutions to address their challenges can help you build a positive and productive remote workforce.

Here are some effective tools to help you address the common causes of poor performance in a remote workforce:

1. Sloth to make up for lack of communication

Since most of your workforce is spread across different parts of the world, you need to make sure that they communicate well with each other. Effective communication is a cornerstone in any workplace, and it becomes more relevant when you’re not confined to a single physical location.

When everyone is talking in circles and doesn’t really know what is happening or who is doing what, you cannot expect good results. This type of environment will inevitably lead to frustration and ultimately poor performance.

Slack is a practical internal communication tool that can help you overcome the challenges of communicating with a distributed workforce. This messaging app lets you stay in touch with your people through messages and audio and video calls. You can use Slack to create channels (groups) based on projects, departments, or other specific tasks.

Plus, Slack lets you integrate a wide range of third-party apps like Asana, Trello, Google Drive, and more, so you can avoid context switching and increase productivity.

2. Donut to manage connection loss

Isolation can be a significant challenge for some members of your distributed team. While introverts generally work better on their own, their more extroverted colleagues may find this type of environment frustrating and become less productive as a result.

Although you won’t be able to recreate the energy and camaraderie typically associated with a physical office, you can use tools like Donut to maintain a healthy degree of social interaction within your remote team that can help boost productivity. Can do.

Donut is a Slack app that enables your distributed teams to connect around a virtual water cooler for casual conversations that help build meaningful relationships. After you add Donut to your Slack workspace, it will automatically add coworkers for virtual coffee, connect new hires with onboarding friends, and start learning partnerships, to name a few.

While we’re still on the fun Slack app for your remote team, you can also add Kona to help you recover from burnout. This tool enables you to make it a habit for your people to check in, know the pulse of the team, create a safe space for meaningful conversations, and more.

3. Elixir to deal with lack of recognition

Another possible reason for poor performance in your remote workplace is a lack of motivation and recognition. It’s natural to crave appreciation for a job well done, and your people are more likely to be productive when they feel motivated, valued, appreciated and rewarded for their hard work.

So, how can you access it when you are thousands of miles away? You can take advantage of employee recognition tools like Nectar to develop a culture of appreciation within your remote workforce.

Nectar is an employee recognition tool that lets you celebrate milestones, set up rewards like Amazon items and digital gift cards, and recognize top performers. You can also use Nectar to incentivize initiatives that drive teams to work harder and increase productivity.

4. OfficeVibe to address the lack of feedback

Since you don’t share the same physical location, it’s usually more challenging how your team responds to the changes that come with remote working. If you haven’t established a system for understanding your team’s needs and how to respond to them, you could find yourself with an underperforming workforce.