Motivation is one staple of every successful business. Motivated employees give their best to their jobs, and it improves productivity, keeps morale high, and retains your most skilled resources with you.
Motivation is critical, and it is also hard to sustain, requiring continuous effort. There is no single formula to keeping motivation high. However, various elements of successful workplaces work together to boost motivation. Applying these elements in your workplace can help improve long-term employee motivation and eventually business performance over the long term.
Create a Positive Work Environment
The mode of your workplace is essential, and the pandemic has made managing workplaces even more complex. The increase in remote working has made the work models more challenging as employees and managers work across shared physical workplaces and private home offices.
In such situations, make it a point to support and facilitate employees setting up efficient work environments at home. This can range from having allowances for setting up home offices to in-house webinars about healthy work-life balance.
Keeping employees engaged and positive can be as simple as taking their input into account when planning hybrid work schedules or arranging for employees to give their honest feedback without fear. In the post-pandemic scenario and mental framework, game rooms and social activities are not enough to generate a positive work environment.
Develop Channels of Communication
There is a need to build and develop chains of communications. Just like physical meetings,
Zoom calls or Slack meetings are not guarantees of effective communication. Make a practice of having in-depth sessions with key employees to encourage feedback and brainstorming. When employees see their opinions valued, they feel more nurtured and valued.
This works two ways as employers are increasingly expected to be more open about the company’s culture and decision points. Employees enjoy the opportunity to connect with their workplace’s future decisions and feel empowered when they are included or at least involved.
Appreciating good performance
Rewarding expected behaviour among your human resources supports the long-term objectives of the company’s goals and increases motivation. Employees feel proud to see their efforts appreciated. It supports the feeling of being a valued contributor to the business.
If applicable, having a monthly or quarterly rewards program can be designed to appreciate top performers without ignoring slower ones. This can be done through performance points to reward all employees while encouraging top performers.
Rewards can be a simple thank-you message from the CEO or departmental head.
Praise can be a great motivator. A public thank you or mention during lunchtime can go a long way in boosting morale. Doing this acknowledges effort, increases loyalty and improves motivation.
Make Employee Wellbeing a Priority
Happy and healthy employees are more motivated. It is such an obvious point that many people overlook it. Make sure that big projects or ones with short deadlines. Completing projects on time with burnt-out employees is a matter of concern.
Employee burnout is a real thing and can cause severe health issues. Encourage employees to manage their workflows and plan efficiently. There should be time to relax, unwind and let loose if you have a hybrid team, it is even more critical for remote employees.
Something as basic as regular breaks are highly underrated and can affect employee health significantly. A few minutes several times during the day can help team members unwind. This helps keep creativity and motivation high.
Offer Employees Trust and Respect
We all value our self-respect, and when we get respect at work, it empowers us. Most employees want autonomy and independence at work. Being micromanaged or nagged is not a good feeling.
It is empowering to be in control of your speciality and respected enough to plan and structure your time according to how you work best. The most important thing managers can do to trust their employees and let them manage their activities.
Allow employees to self-manage their workloads, and being available to guide them to find solutions for their problems, leads to confident and happy employees. Simply handing over solutions to problems is also not advisable.
This approach helps build inclusion and trust and allows teams to work in the best possible way. Allowing employees responsibility and control over their jobs helps them feel more valued for your company. It also helps to cultivate an overall framework for long-term motivation.
Sadia Zaheer holds a Masters in Business Administration from IBA, Karachi. After working in several financial institutions in Client Management, Corporate Lending, Islamic Banking and Product Management she jumped careers to pursue a career in writing.
She is a Finance, Business and HR Development writer with four years of experience. She reads a lot and takes care of her multiple cats to remain calm.
