When I took on the role as the ‘Outsourcing Queen’, one of the lessons that I had to learn is how to keep VAs motivated.

Psychology tells us that motivation is largely intrinsic and it comes from within. But in business, motivation is affected by both internal and external factors. As a business owner, manager or leader, it is part of your role to ensure that your VAs or team members are motivated and happy in what they do. After all, happy workers are productive workers. And increased productivity means increased profit for the business.

I have listed down several ways to help you motivate your VAs and your team:

Create an atmosphere of trust. People flourish when they are given enough space to show their skills. When VAs know that you trust them and you’re giving them the room to become accountable for their work, they feel motivated and they take ownership of their role.

On the contrary, micro-management is found to be one of the worst demotivators in the workplace. Micromanagement tells your team member that you don’t trust his work or his judgement and it becomes a trigger for him to disengage with the role and the business.

Make them part of the progress. When people feel that they are a part of the business’ progress, they see the importance of their work and they value their contribution to the team and the business. This sense of contribution greatly motivates them to excel at work and do their best every day.

On the other hand, when they don’t feel that they are progressing at work or that they are a part of the progress that’s happening in the business, VAs will easily lose their motivation and passion. Every day they will feel stuck and it will eventually lead to unhappiness at work.

Appreciate their strengths and contribution. Aside from our Employee of the Month recognition, I also take time to thank team members who are doing really well through weekly emails that I send to the whole team. I found out that recognising VAs in a space where their peers can see the recognition is a great motivator for them to continue their good work or do even better next time. When we acknowledge their contribution, no matter how big or small it is, VAs feel that we really care about their work and in return they work had and excel in what they do.

Contrastingly, when VAs don’t feel appreciated, they easily become demotivated at work and it heavily triggers disengagement. When left unchecked, disengagement causes other problems like absenteeism or task mistakes which could cost the business lots of money.

Add fun to your workplace culture. When VAs have fun at work, they become happier and they are able to accomplish even the most daunting tasks without any issue. Adding fun in the workplace creates a positive atmosphere and it binds the team together. Having fun might mean sharing food and eating together or celebrating events like birthdays in the office.

On the other hand, if people are not having fun at work, they tend to focus more on the challenges and this results to increased stress levels and demotivation in the workplace.

Everyone is different and people are motivated by different things. As a business owner or leader, you need to be aware on what motivates your VAs and anchor your rewards system on that. There are a lot of effective and inexpensive ways to do that. You don’t need to be an outsourcing queen to ace them.