Competition enables employees to develop, admit failures, and be humble. It also inspires others which often translates to a chain reaction of innovation in other teams. All these traits are extremely necessary to improve company culture and motivation during the tense times of Coronavirus, as employees are prone to mental stress and low productivity. Therefore, certain strategies and tips must come into play if leaders want to be efficient at fostering healthy competitiveness remotely. However, if done the wrong way, it can put too much stress on your staff or drive rivalry in the wrong direction. This is difficult for remote employees as it conventionally calls for a face-to-face approach to avoid confusion or miscommunication.

Therefore, it is essential to carefully stimulate a constructive and productive competition as it will foster a team-first attitude rather than an individualistic one. Leaders should make colleagues assess and mentor each other’s work. This will scale back aggressive attitudes, while creating room to improve from everybody. To initiate a dialogue between all the concerned parties, organising a joint video-conference may be beneficial in understanding each perspective in contrast to pointing fingers. This can also be done through the creation of an online platform where they can connect, share, comment, and evaluate ideas. Leaders must be available every step of the way and monitor the employees’ behaviours to ensure that the nature of the competition is still healthy and is not creating animosity.

Adding employee engagement programmes and virtual team bonding exercises like Happy Hours, After-works, and games will further improve the quality of the competitions. This ensures the workforce has a chance get to know everybody. Additionally, it helps avoid prejudices and assumptions, which when combined with the negative side of competitions can be dangerous.

Even after high-performing employees are identified and rewarded, it is imperative to appraise and incentivize the rest of the workforce. Research shows employees can feel intimidated by their colleague’s achievements and internalize an “Us-VS-Them » attitude. Hence, giving credit where it is due and constructive criticism to all parties ensures that the low performing employees know how and where to improve. High-performing employees always strive for improvement.

The current COVID-19 crisis has caused uncertainty and apprehension in businesses. It is due to this reason that creating a company culture that inspires and consistently keep employees on their toes is necessary. It preserves motivation and productivity and can be done through simple measures such as fostering healthy competitiveness remotely.

References

1. Why Healthy Competition Among Employees Works, BusinessCollective.
2. 6 Ways to Create a Competitive Work Culture That’s Team First (And Not Me First), Nov 21, 2017, Inc.