Employee engagement and motivation is a crucial component of driving companies toward their goals and objectives. Statistics show that motivated employees work 20% better and ultimately help increase business profitability by almost 21%. Moreover, team members who are motivated through various factors are 59% less likely to feel burnt out.
As employee resignations are already at an all-time high, keeping staff motivated has become crucial. Many companies and executives may be driven to believe that monetary benefits and incentives have the strongest influence on employee motivation, but they couldn’t be more wrong. Individuals these days have other priorities that rank higher when it comes to motivation.
In fact, the biggest factors are peer motivation, doing good, and feeling recognized. The ability to make a difference not just for the company but the community as well as society, in general, comes next. As surprising as it may sound, money and benefits rank seventh on the list of factors that motivate employees today.
With these facts in mind, here are some ways to keep your employees healthy and motivated:
1. Build a pleasant work environment
Nobody likes to spend hours loitering in a dull, dismal area. Workplaces that are aesthetically beautiful, well-lit, practical, and enjoyable make work much more enjoyable. Start by ascertaining what your employees feel is essential for becoming motivated. Every office space is different, and in order to make it lively, employee feedback is the fundamental place to start.
Put a company-wide survey out to find what team members want. If it is skill development opportunities, give them carefully curated training sessions with professional keynote speakers. If they want better facilities to unwind, build a bunk room with various activities or sponsor a club membership. If they are looking for ways to interact with the senior management, organize company getaways and meet-ups.
2. Have managers who are empathetic and respectful
The majority of the time, a toxic team lead is the reason that employees resign. And just like with customers, hiring a fresh employee is more expensive than retaining an old one. Adequately motivated employees are 87% less likely to quit and the probability of taking leaves also drops by 41%. All these benefits can come when a company is careful about the type of managers it hires.
It is important to brief relevant HR representatives and other executives in the company that oversee recruitment and promotions so that only individuals that meet certain requirements should get the job. These qualities don’t necessarily need to be professional expertise. They need to focus more on soft skills like empathy, opinions on diversity, interpersonal communication, and humility.
3. Offer the best possible facilities for work and leisure
A workplace doesn’t have to be stringent in the context that it doesn’t allow anything besides professional responsibilities at all. Whether it is for work or for extracurricular activities, the facilities that an office offers must be top-notch. Go above and beyond when taking steps to provide the ideal environment for your employees.
The first step is to ensure every item for employee use in the office is in good condition and that your equipment is up-to-date and functional. This means all computers, printers, office supplies, and other things must be as latest as the relevant budget allows. You don’t want your employees chucking work laptops out the window in irritation; although no one really does that, they can sure feel that way.
4. Don’t disregard rewards completely
Money and benefits may not rank high on the list of employee motivating factors, but that doesn’t mean that a company shuns them completely. Moreover, rewards are not always monetary. It all depends on what motivates a certain individual because that factor can vary from one person to the other. The central idea is to give employees the best possible reason to stay with your organization.
So it makes sense to launch an incentive program if you want to retain your good employees and keep them engaged. Maybe it’s a bonus for the quarter. Perhaps the commission structure should be superior to that of the rivals. Perhaps it is stating that it will pay for additional credentials. Or perhaps your organization has profit-sharing. People have a greater tendency to do their best and stick around to see projects through if they are aware that they will be rewarded for their efforts.
5. Allow employees room to grow
Providing your staff with opportunities to advance within the organization, particularly if it is growing quickly, is a great motivator. Yes, there is the enticing promise of more pay, but there is also the psychological benefit of feeling appreciated and trusted for their work. Consider which of your team members would be an ideal candidate for a managerial position at the new site if you’re opening one.
Consider preparing the person who is managing inventories particularly well to take on full responsibility for vendor relations. Giving your top workers room to grow changes their perspective from using the position as a platform for better opportunities elsewhere to considering it a dedicated career path they would want to stick with for the foreseeable future.
6. Give feedback
Once you know you have built a team of quality employees, you must give them the feedback they deserve. Productive team members see this as an opportunity to polish their skills and improve on the areas where they may be lacking. Make sure that you have constructive criticism and appreciation where necessary. Together, these factors significantly impact employee motivation, ultimately driving them to perform better and even exceed expectations at times.
Conclusion
Unmotivated employees cost companies roughly $550 billion a year in the U.S. alone. That is a staggering amount of lost revenue that businesses can retain if they can invest a fraction of it into bolstering the confidence of team members. There are various ways to do this but most importantly, it starts with figuring out what the individuals really want out of the job. Once a company can figure that out, it is smooth sailing toward providing those opportunities.