What is Employee Motivation? Do you know what is it or how it works?
Well, motivation is an extensively used word. We use it all the time, either at the workplace, school, or home. But why do we need to encourage and inspire ourselves or our team in some specific situations?
See, motivation is the driving force behind every human action. For instance, in order to get good results or complete a vital project, it is essential to keep yourself and your team motivated.
Team/ employee motivation is crucial in the workplace. After all, motivating the employees will enhance productivity, thereby helping achieve the company’s goals readily. Motivation is the process of commencing, guiding, and maintaining the goal-oriented behavior of employees.
It causes you to act in a way that helps you move closer to your goals. Motivation includes emotional, biological, cognitive, and social forces that activate human behavior. As a result, we can quickly fulfill our goals because the ‘benefits to be received’ after attaining the targets keep us moving forward.
In this blog, we will look at why motivation is essential and how you can keep your team motivated in the workplace. So, let us begin!
What is Motivation & why is it important?
Motivation is a driving force that helps in achieving personal and professional targets. Therefore, it is vital to understand how motivation works and why it is integral. Well, there are numerous reasons for this.
- It increases your efficiency as you work towards your goal.
- It drives you to take action.
- It encourages you to inculcate goal-oriented behavior.
- It helps you avoid unhealthy/ unnecessary behaviors like addiction, risk-taking, etc.
- It enables you to have control of your life.
- It improves your overall well-being.
Team/ employee motivation helps in fostering healthy relationships and supportive work environments that result in the effective implementation of strategies and improved well-being. Motivation is a constructive approach which is essential to enhance overall productivity at the workplace.
It is a comprehensive concept and has some components associated with it. So, let us discuss them in the next section!
Components of Motivation
Do you have any goals that you wish to achieve? We all have! But simply having the desire to accomplish the targets will not lead us anywhere. We need to be persistent and have the endurance to keep going despite the challenges we face.
This is what motivation does. It serves as a guiding force that keeps us moving toward achieving goals. There are different components of employee motivation that help us stay steady in our journey. Here they are!
1. Activation
It is the decision to initiate a behavior. For instance, you get enrolled in a program or a course with the intention of completing it. This is activation wherein you decide to do a particular course or achieve a specific goal. Determination is the first step to accomplishing the targets.
2. Persistence
It is the continued effort to achieve the goal despite the obstacles that come your way. For instance, you work day and night on a project. You face many challenges and complexities, but you stay steady and move readily towards its achievement. That’s persistence; enduring in the toughest situations to fulfill your target.
3. Intensity
It is the focus and the vigor that helps in pursuing the goal. For instance, you have to complete a vital project. So, working on it, researching the topic, understanding its long-term benefits, etc., will help you complete the project efficiently. This intensity to achieve the targets is the main component of motivation.
All these three components of motivation help you in achieving your objectives. This means when your goal is clear, and you are persistent enough, the targets will be fulfilled without a doubt. Whether you apply these components at the workplace or for personal reasons, they are bound to help you remain motivated.
How to motivate your team?
Employee motivation help in achieving the immediate and long-term goals of the company. When the expertise, knowledge, and skill of every employee are combined, there is nothing that a company cannot achieve.
Here are the top ways for employee motivation and give their best on the job.
1. Value employees & pay them consistently
The employees are bound to work efficiently when they have a positive work environment and are paid on time. Therefore, when the employee’s salary is set, it is essential to note that their pay is consistent and they get it on time. Research shows that more than 26% of people leave their stable jobs when they do not get paid properly. Thus, appreciating the employees’ work and paying them consistently is what keeps them motivated at the workplace.
2. Self-development opportunities
Your team members will become adept when they have opportunities to learn new skills. Therefore, it is best to provide your team with training so that they can advance their careers and become knowledgeable about the latest technologies and industry-related skills.
3. Fostering collaboration
What happens when the team doesn’t feel appreciated? They become unproductive, and as a result, the goals become challenging to attain. Research shows that more than 40% of employees feel their efforts and work go unappreciated by their superiors. In such a situation, motivating the team becomes vital. Encouraging them from time to time and asking for their input will make them feel valued. Ask your team questions, listen to them, and implement valuable solutions to make them more productive at the workplace.
4. Set clear goals
Many studies indicate that 65% of team members waste their time at work. This is because the employees are unaware of which tasks must be prioritized and which mustn’t. As a leader, it is your duty to work with your team and set clear goals. Once the goals are set, every team member will know where they have to focus and which project can be left for a while. This way, they will know their relative priority and role in the team.
5. Don’t micromanage
No employee likes a boss who is constantly looking over their shoulder and guessing every decision. This stifles their creativity and productivity to a great extent. In fact, more than 40% of the employees reported that they would rather take the work pressure than to sit next to a micromanaging boss! As a leader, it is best to provide team members with goals and let them figure out the best way to achieve them. This way, they will feel relaxed and will be able to concentrate more on work.
6. Criticize constructively
When a team member does a substandard job, let them know, but do it with tact and care. Never criticize an employee in front of their colleagues. Also, focus on the discussion of the performance, not the person. In other words, if you feel that a team member is unable to complete the work on time, don’t say, ‘why are you becoming careless these days?’ Instead, point out the mistakes and discuss how the employee can improve them in the future. Criticizing constructively will encourage employees to work smarter and help the company yield profits.
7. Set a good example
The hypothesis/ axiom, ‘Do as I say, not as I do,’ doesn’t work well in businesses. As a leader, it is essential to exemplify the standards you hold your employees to, especially when it comes to willingness, punctuality, discipline, etc. This also means not concealing a mistake when you make one. In this way, you will set an excellent example for your team members, and they will take you as their basis of motivation to fulfill the goals.
8. Break out of comfort zone
Encourage your team members to take on new responsibilities and projects outside their current roles. Make sure that the new tasks given to the team members are manageable in terms of difficulty and workload. By providing your team a chance to try new things, you will demonstrate faith in them, thereby motivating them to perform at a higher level.
Motivation is crucial in every workplace, and one must constantly strive to motivate and inspire employees. You can surely achieve the desired results by adhering to the ways mentioned above. Also, your workforce will reach operational excellence, which will ultimately be favorable for the company. Thus, employee motivation has immense benefits not only on the professional front but personal as well!
