by Stefanie Krieger, on April 2, 2019
Technology is making the world smaller and giving us infinite ways to connect with each other. The way your employees get inspired and informed is rapidly changing. Managers can’t expect to continue to engage with their teams using the same tactics and tools they’ve always used.
The thought of changing the way you lead your teams can be daunting, but as a leader, you can use digital tools to your advantage and build an even more inspirational and productive workplace. Here are three tactics you can begin implementing right away:
1. Recognize and motivate
You already know that more motivated employees leads to more productive teams. The idea of recognizing employees isn’t groundbreaking; most stores and offices have an ‘Employee of the Month’ program to call out employees who go above and beyond. While this was a good strategy for many years, we now have the opportunity to take recognition - and subsequently, your employees’ performance - to the next level. 
With Crew (on both Android and iOS), you can give your employees real-time feedback with Gold Stars to specifically recognize the outstanding work they’re doing, without having to wait until the start of a new month. Knowing that their efforts can be acknowledged at any moment will drive employees to strive to do their best every day.
2. Row at the same speed
Have you noticed that some shifts are more productive than others? What if you could ensure consistency across all your shifts, even when you weren’t physically present? Similar to rowing, where all the crew members must row at the same speed to drive a boat forward, you can use digital tools to get everyone on your team moving at the same pace.
One quick way to encourage this behavior is by assigning tasks, giving all employees a team goal to drive towards, and then sharing progress daily with the whole team. This helps build a consistent, motivated culture that is present across shifts, even when you aren’t physically present.
3. Respond to change
How you handle and respond to change can be instrumental to how you are viewed as a leader. What do you do if there’s a snowstorm and the road leading to your store is closed? Or someone with a critical function has an emergency and calls out from their shift without much notice? These types of last-minute changes are stressful and that stress can cascade down to the team, impacting morale.
Using the Announcements channel in your Crew app, you can get mission-critical information to your team in minutes and ensure your store is staffed at all times. Once created, the Announcement will be automatically pinned to the top of your team members’ Notification screens, giving it extra visibility. In the event of an emergency, you even have the ability to override employees’ notification mutes to ensure that crucially important information gets where it needs to go. 
Keep tabs on the reach of your Announcement by tapping on your message to instantly see who has and hasn’t read it. Your team will benefit from how rapidly you respond to change and keep your store up and running, regardless of circumstances outside of your control.
The ways that you can engage with your team in this digital age are endless, and these tactics are just the tip of the iceberg. To learn more about how Crew can keep your team on the same page at all times, check out Crew on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store!
How do you keep your team informed and motivated? Let us know on Twitter!
