7 ways to improve employee motivation

Your employees are one of your organisation’s greatest assets. Their abilities, knowledge and experience drive your business, which is why employee engagement is a top priority. Utilising these 7 strategies for employee motivation will ensure your team are energised, committed and ready to deliver maximum productivity for your business.

Motivating your team is a major factor in your organisation’s success. The commitment, drive and energy that your staff bring to their role is paramount in powering your business and enabling you to achieve company goals.

Working out what motivates your staff can therefore have a huge impact, with greater employee engagement leading to increased productivity and improved output. But employee motivation isn’t always straightforward.

Sure, compensation is an important part of the picture, but there are also various additional factors that can improve workplace satisfaction. Here are 7 important ways that all employers can boost morale and continuously nurture team motivation for greater employee engagement.

1. Choose effective leaders

Astute leaders have the power to inspire and engage so assigning the right people to lead your team is an essential part of employee motivation.

The best candidates will not only have a vision for growth, but will also communicate this message with clarity, giving clear directions and ensuring that all staff feel their efforts are recognised.

Research backs this up, with 63% of staff feeling frustrated when their achievements go unrecognised. A leader who takes the time to explain company strategy, detailing the ‘why’ as well as the ‘how’ of any project, will help individuals feel part of the bigger plan. And when employees engage in company-wide goals, motivation increases across the board.

2. Set challenging work

Although it’s sensible to allocate work that you know staff can achieve, it’s also wise to remember there’s nothing less motivating than monotony.

Work that is both interesting and exciting keeps staff engaged and ensures they don’t become tired of their position. In many cases, this means encouraging staff to develop new skills, or take on new responsibilities.

Don’t be afraid to involve staff in projects that stretch their knowledge or capabilities. Most likely, they will surprise you and themselves, developing new expertise that will benefit the company as a whole. Do bear in mind, however, that providing challenging work is not the same as providing more work. Overloading employees, or piling on problematic tasks without resources, can sap motivation and actually decrease productivity.

By creating a positive culture of learning in your organisation, you will provide opportunities for growth that super-charge your business, boost attentiveness and increase employee retention.

3. Create career opportunities

Your best staff are those that want to seize opportunities and advance their career – if you don’t provide them with the chance to do so, they are likely to move elsewhere.

Take time to get to know your employees, their strengths and aspirations. Understand their career plan and provide a roadmap for that development. That could involve funding additional training or looking at ways to develop specific expertise.

Far from encouraging them to leave your business, supporting staff to accelerate their career promotes employee engagement and reduces staff turnover.

4. Improve internal communication

When a business communicates well with its employees, it has a huge impact. Staff understand the organisation’s mission and their contribution to it, ensuring they are willing to go the extra mile to make things work.

Keep your team informed of upcoming events, headcount changes or engagement initiatives as well as providing regular updates on the overall health of the business.

Communication is not all one-way traffic, however, so make sure employees feel heard by leadership. Promoting dialogue around what’s happening at your organisation ensures your team know their input matters.

With clear channels for internal communication, employees feel empowered and engaged. This conversation promotes a culture of transparency that helps people feel involved and motivated to contribute to company goals.

5. Promote transparency and collaboration

Collaboration between staff and teams encourages employees to work together to achieve collective goals. Not only will this promote skills development and drive innovative results, but it can also improve group motivation as any apathetic individuals are boosted by those around them.

Cooperative working depends on open communication and a high level of transparency. Open dialogue between staff and leadership ensures team members feel confident in their role and secure in the management of the company.

Be sure to provide clear employee feedback and communicate any changes in workplace expectations. Support employees to improve their performance and learn from mistakes.

This transparent communication enables individuals to grow within your organisation and, with a collaborative approach, to feel that they have a valuable role within the business.

6. Create a culture of security

Nothing saps productivity like stress. And when people feel their job is not secure, they very quickly begin to feel on edge.

As a manager, it is therefore important to address any threats on the horizon or changes in the market. Communicate clearly how this could impact the business and set out a plan of action that will set minds at rest.

Dealing positively with challenges, whether by shifting the focus of the business or capitalising on new trends, helps staff feel confident in your leadership.

Keep employees informed and reduce uncertainty wherever possible. When issues do arise, remember that staff absorb your attitude. With a confident approach, employees will feel up beat, keeping productivity safely on track.

7. Don’t overlook employee recognition

Last, but by no means least, is employee recognition. Recognising staff for their efforts and accomplishments makes them feel valued and can directly impact workplace satisfaction.

Knowing that your work has had a positive impact gives employees a sense of pride that can increase loyalty to the company and boost productivity. Beyond individual employee engagement, public recognition can also provide a clear message to other team members about the kind of behaviours you want to promote.

As a leader, it’s important to acknowledge exceptional performance, but remember to reward effort as well as results. As long as praise is honest and well deserved, you cannot overdo employee recognition.

Monitor employee engagement

Before you embark on any strategy to boost motivation, it’s a good idea to think about how you will view and measure employee engagement.

An impactful recognition program requires a clear picture of how staff are working – regardless of whether they work remotely or in the office.

To help managers tackle this task, we often equip them with a software tool to analyse employee productivity. Utilising AI and machine learning, the right tool will layer over existing cloud-based systems such as Office 365 or Salesforce CRM.

With this solution in place, you will be empowered to discreetly monitor individual behaviours so you can better understand how each team member is working. An individual score enables you to assess productivity, observe changes in work habits, and measure employee engagement in real-time.

With this information to hand, not only can you reward those high achievers, but you will also be equipped to enhance coaching, identify best-practice, and shape training to replicate and recognise those behaviours company-wide.

In today’s competitive market, organisations are always looking for ways to attract, retain and motivate those top performers while increasing growth and employee productivity.

By implementing the strategies discussed above, you will improve team engagement and quickly see if your efforts are being rewarded with results.