Motivated employees, research
shows, work harder, smarter and more productively; apply more of themselves to a
particular job, persevere stronger through tough odds, exhibit more passion
towards their job and are more adamant about meeting goals and pursuing targets.
While some people are innately more passionate about their jobs and careers than
others, organisational structures and management styles can play a key role in
tuning the motivational barometer. The key question then is how to transform a
lukewarm workforce into an impassioned motivated one and truly reap the rewards
of a successful selection process. Below, offered some key motivation pointers:-
1. Start Early
Motivating employees starts as early as the interview stage. Make sure you
identify as early on as the interview and on-boarding stage the strengths a
particular individual brings to the job and how these strengths will be actively
incorporated and utilized in meeting the organizational targets and goals.
Employees inspired with a clear vision of how their background, training and
skills will directly be tapped into to affect the bottom line on certain key
projects or tasks or towards pre-defined fixed goals will be far more motivated
than their counterparts who are uncertain what dimension of their skills and
expertise will be mobilized, to what tend and when.
2. Communicate Openly
An easy way to keep the troops upbeat and give them a feeling of being “in the
loop” is to adopt an “open-door” management culture in which communication with
peers and superiors alike is facilitated and encouraged. The more employees feel
they can approach each other as well as their management with ideas, problems or
concerns the less alienated they feel and the more likely they are to actively
involve themselves and participate in realizing the company’s vision, mission
and value system. Moreover, management should take a very proactive approach in
communicating the company’s goals, strategies and direction at any point in time
so employees’ individual goals can be aligned with the organisation’s overriding
ones and they never feel that they are operating as lone rangers or completely
in the dark.
3. Diversify the Work
While some jobs can be by their very nature repetitive and monotonous,
management can try to lighten the workload, vary it and make it more appealing
by allowing for participation in peripheral tasks or projects, and can mitigate
from the dullness of certain tasks by complementing them with more interesting
tasks or allowing for more frequent travel, training, exposure to other
departments, or rotational work. Multi-disciplinary projects that pull in
employees from a variety of departments/teams are a great way of exposing
employees to new methods and practices and stretching their workload to more
colorful dimensions.
4. Delegate Responsibility
Encourage team members to shine and show them that you trust them by giving them
the limelight in key meetings, deals, projects, and allowing them to take full
responsibility and reap the associated rewards. Employees should have clear
goals and allowed free rein to achieve these goals in the most efficient and
innovative manner so long as the appropriate support and oversight
infrastructure is in place. Micro-management can be as detrimental to motivation
levels as effectively abdicating the team altogether through sporadic, distant
and intermittent management; effective managers are able to delegate reasonable
levels of responsibility rather than stifle or abdicate their teams.
5. Challenge
Set the bar high and allow a certain amount of freedom to take risk to encourage
creativity, growth and innovation. Show you trust your employees’ judgement by
allowing them this leeway to take calculated risks so long as they have been
effectively thought through, possible scenarios have been well defined and
quantified, and the personal accountability is there. While the risk of failure
is always there, this freedom to take risks will provide a steep learning
gradient and foster a mature, ‘can-do’ attitude.
6. Listen and Learn
Solicit feedback from employees on what they expect from the job and their
management as well as what they have planned for their careers. Listening to
employees opinions and feedback actively and genuinely is a surefire way to
communicate your respect. Learn from them what they hope to contribute to the
business, how they see the business moving and improving, and where they see
themselves down the line. Prepare to be flexible in your style, targets and time
and resource allocations in response to their genuine personal concerns,
requests, goals and issues.
7. Train
Invest in top-caliber training and development programs that nurture staff,
build their skills and allow them to learn and advance their careers. Allow your
discussions with employees and their shared goals, hopes, dreams and ambitions
to determine the course of their training to the extent possible within the
framework of organisation’s goals and the broad possibilities of their role.
8. Give Feedback
The importance of giving regular and constructive feedback to encourage,
motivate and guide cannot be overemphasized. Adopt a comprehensive firm-wide
performance appraisal system for formal appraisals and complement that with
regular informal face-to-face meetings discussing progress and performance and
issues/concerns that hinder them. The purpose of these meetings should not be to
‘criticize’ but to guide, assist, mentor and coach the individual to better
performance levels. Regular positive feedback for key accomplishments and
contributions is a key criteria for raising employee morale.
9. Recognize and Reward
Companies can be extremely creative in devising ways to recognize and reward
creative thinking, superlative performance, innovation, loyalty to the company
and other key parameters considered important to the company. Staff incentive
schemes can be as varied as the accomplishments that lead to them and can
include anything from cash bonuses to company equity, days off, training, club
memberships, awards or any number of other rewards.
10. Be Fair
Little does more to debilitate motivation levels than the feeling of working in
an unfair environment where growth and progress is determined not on merit but
on subjective extraneous criteria. Make sure employees are competing on a level
playing field with equal opportunities for progress and advancement and that the
‘rules of conduct’ ie the company’s expectations, goals, values and vision are
clearly defined and transparent to all.