Understanding what motivates and engages employees (and the workplace factors that inhibit motivation and engagement) helps leaders and managers help their teams, and in turn, their companies.
As discussed in our article on the major role employee engagement plays in our business, keeping employees engaged keeps our companies running smoother, allowing for faster business growth. Lower turnover, better company reputation, higher productivity, and a huge jump in profitability are among some of the most impressive business benefits of having an engaged and motivated team.
Not only do our companies benefit from an engaged team, but more importantly, our employees do, too. They experience less burnout, higher job satisfaction, belonging, better well-being, and more when engaged at work.
Action Items For Better Employee Engagement
Consider implementing some of the following techniques and routines to empower your employees, boost productivity, and inspire motivation.
1. Recognize efforts and offer more incentives.
Because employees need reassurance and a positive relationship with leadership to be engaged at work, managers can recognize employees’ successes by offering incentives, promotions, rewards, and even disincentives for disengaged employees.
2. Develop better lines of communication.
To improve employee communication, leaders should establish a culture of transparency. Encourage employees to consult each other (and yourself) to constantly work together to solve miscommunication, solve challenges together, and work towards more clearly defined goals and expectations.
3. Encourage boundaries and limit distractions.
We know that employees cannot properly engage at work when they are distracted. Encourage employees to:
- schedule time for focus
- communicate their time and communication boundaries to coworkers and clients
- and minimize personal interruptions.
4. Provide professional development opportunities.
Did you know that highly competent people can grow unmotivated when they are not challenged? They need challenging tasks and skill development or education. Providing opportunities for professional and personal growth is essential for any and every workplace.
Consider GettaMeeting’s comprehensive meeting modules to instantly download and utilize in a meeting. From team building to creating healthy habits and empowering employees, GettaMeeting has many topics that your team can learn, all instantly downloadable and simple to facilitate.
Along with skill development, managers can implement job enlargement (expanding roles to include more responsibility within the same skillset) and job rotation (moving employees to different roles for a short amount of time to experience and learn different tasks/skills). This allows highly competent employees to expand their roles, learn different skills, and experience a change of pace and responsibility to spark employee motivation.
5. Include employees in decision-making processes.
It is proven that employees are more motivated to work when they have a say in making decisions.
- Include employees during decision-making meetings.
- send a survey to understand employee input,
- or simply ask employees what they believe should be done.
Employees then become engaged and have higher stakes in the company’s future.
6. Schedule quick one-on-ones to understand what motivates your employees.
Because there are many different types motivation, an entire team can not be motivated in one way. Therefore, having occasional one-on-one meetings with employees can help managers understand what motivates individuals and how to tailor incentives and communication to best motivate everyone.
7. Seek timely feedback and apply it.
Just as employees like to be involved in decision-making, they also need to know that their voices are heard and taken into consideration. Managers should seek feedback from employees often and truly apply their feedback whenever possible and necessary. By doing this, employees feel considered and a valuable member of the team, which motivates them to continue their work and stay engaged in important matters.
Need help giving or receiving feedback at work? Check out this article.
8. Grant more autonomy & responsibility.
Job enrichment is essential to maintaining and forstering top talent at work. For teams to become confident and more motivated to work, employees need to be allowed more responsibility in making their own decisions, having more control over their tasks, and structuring how they do their work.
9. Offer more flexibility.
Just as autonomy is important to employees, flexibility is a growing need for professionals and one that unemployed folks are are looking for in a job. Older workers in particular are more motivated by flexibility, so it's important to offer it to everyone in some capacity.
10. Make time for team bonding and building.
Feeling a sense of belonging at work is a necessity for employees that is often overlooked. Managers must encourage solidarity and support at work, and beyond that, genuine care and concern.
Feeling connected at work promotes communal benefits, which motivates employees to work harder not only for themselves and their colleagues, but for their organization. Be sure to host casual events or team building activities often so that your team can get to know each other better and find camaraderie.
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