How to motivate employees
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to employee motivation. Using a combination of methods can help to ensure that you get the best out of your team. Here are 14 of the best techniques for motivating employees for you to consider:
1. Find out what motivates your team members
This may sound obvious, but it is frequently overlooked. Managers often assume that they know what motivates their team, but it’s worth taking the time to talk with each team member and find out what really drives them.
Finding out about each team member’s individual needs and aspirations allows you to align their role and responsibilities with their professional goals. Motivations change over time, so starting this conversation at induction and continuing it with regular check-ins can allow you to realign your motivational strategies accordingly.
2. Adjust your expectations about productivity
A common cause of poor employee motivation is the manager’s expectations about productivity. Some managers expect all employees to be productive in the same way. But people work in different ways, and have different levels of passion for their work and different sources of motivation.
Some employees like to take a slow and steady approach, while others prefer short bursts of high productivity. Acknowledging that each employee is unique and focusing on work that adds value rather than on busy work can boost motivation because it shows that you care about your employees as individuals.
3. Be conscious of your management style
Your actions as a manager can have a big impact on creating a positive, well-functioning work environment. Having a respectful management style is one of the best ways of motivating your employees. Being open and sharing information, avoiding micromanaging and focusing on positive results rather than dwelling on minor, unimportant mistakes are all part of an effective management style.
4. Use a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards
To motivate your team effectively, it’s important to understand the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. While intrinsic motivation comes from within, extrinsic motivation is produced by external factors. To put it simply, when someone is intrinsically motivated, they do an activity because they get a sense of personal satisfaction and enjoyment from doing it. A person who is externally motivated does an activity to gain an external reward.
As a manager, you mainly have control over extrinsic rewards for your employees – things like pay rises, bonuses, benefits, awards, recognition. But you can also provide opportunities for intrinsic reward. A sense of achievement, succeeding at a challenging task, feeling valued or learning a new skill can be highly rewarding and motivating for intrinsically motivated employees. Offering both types of rewards can help to ensure that you cater to these different sources of motivation.
5. Embrace open communication and transparency
When employees have an understanding of how the business is going, they tend to be more motivated, loyal and invested. Being open and transparent with employees helps to foster trust and also helps them to see their work as more meaningful. Consider sending out sales reports or customer data on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
Giving your team the opportunity to make suggestions and put forward ideas is also motivating, as it shows them that you value their contribution to the business. When your employees have insight into the broader purpose of the business and space to have their voices heard, they are more likely to be invested in the success of the organisation.
6. Give meaningful feedback
It goes without saying that employees generally enjoy receiving feedback on their work. But your words will carry more weight if you link your feedback to specific examples. Telling your employee why they performed well is more effective than just saying, ‘Great job on the presentation’. Importantly, make sure you highlight how their performance benefits the company. For example, ‘This will help us improve our customer loyalty’.
Giving frequent and timely feedback fosters a sense of accomplishment, direction and confidence. It’s also important to give negative feedback occasionally so that your team knows where they need to improve. As with positive feedback, feedback on areas that need improvement should be specific, personalised and actionable. Aim for a positive to negative feedback ratio of 5 to 1 so that your employees don’t feel that they are being overly criticised.
7. Create a pleasant working environment
A dull, uninspiring, poorly lit workspace is unlikely to encourage your team to produce their best work. Creating an inviting, aesthetically pleasing, well-lit and functional space can make a big difference to workplace wellbeing as well as productivity. Utilising natural light can enhance mood, energy and mental health.
If this isn’t possible, blue-enriched and warmer or middle-tone lightbulbs are good alternative options. Providing comfortable furniture and giving your employees the choice of where they work, as well as whether they want to sit or stand at their desks, can help to create a warm, inviting work environment. Plants and paintings by local artists are budget-friendly ways to spruce up your workplace.
8. Make goals small and achievable
People tend to work best when they have clear goals they are working towards. But large goals can be overwhelming and leave people feeling unsure of where to start. Breaking broader objectives down into smaller and more manageable ones can help your team to be more focused and motivated.
Smaller goals allow people to see their progress and to feel that they are achieving something. When setting goals with your team, make sure that their personal goals align with the organisational goals and explain how their work makes a difference to the business.
9. Provide opportunities for career advancement
There are few things more demotivating than feeling that you are stuck in the same place, not growing personally or professionally. Giving your team opportunities for personal and professional development can help to keep them stimulated and engaged. Consider creating a career development program or offering to pay for professional development courses or interesting books. Finding out where your employees want to go in their career and establishing training goals with them can help to keep them on track. Their annual review is a great opportunity to do this.
10. Encourage problem-solving and learning
Allowing your team to solve problems on their own is motivating because it shows them that you value their skills and ideas. Providing some guidance can help your employees to feel well-supported, but it’s important to avoid micromanaging and let them develop their own ideas and solutions. You can develop a culture of learning and autonomous problem-solving by listening to your team’s ideas, having confidence in their different skill sets, letting them take ownership of their work and reframing failure as a learning opportunity.
11. Promote teamwork
An individualistic environment can lead to employees competing with each other rather than working together to solve problems. Creating opportunities for teamwork and giving your team a common goal increases motivation by promoting a sense of connectedness and belonging.
Seeing how their individual input contributes to the bigger picture can also be very motivating. Effective communication and strong leadership play an important role in team dynamics. The leader should provide guidance and support while promoting trust, open communication and collaboration.
12. Recognise achievements
An easy but effective way to boost employee motivation is to acknowledge efforts and achievements by giving a reward. This can help to foster a sense of pride and purpose in the work they do. Consider giving a financial reward, for example, a bonus or gift card or perhaps an award, a free lunch, afternoon off or simply a congratulatory email. It’s not only big wins that deserve recognition – celebrating small milestones is a great way to keep your employees motivated in their daily work.
13. Encourage regular breaks
People are more motivated when they are happy and healthy. Working for long periods of time is not only bad for health and safety – it doesn’t lead to higher productivity. Taking regular, short breaks at work helps people to stay focused, promotes problem-solving and increases overall productivity. Encouraging your employees to take the leave they are entitled to can also help to ensure that they are well rested and ready to put in 100% effort at work.
14. Offer flexibility
Offering flexible work arrangements helps your employees to find a healthy work-life balance, which can improve motivation and job satisfaction. It also signals to them that you care about their wellbeing and trust them to work autonomously. While it may not be possible in all industries, flexible work has become the preferred model among Australian workers.
Research shows that 88% of Australian workers want to adopt some kind of flexible work option. In addition to keeping your team motivated, offering flexible scheduling options can position you as an attractive employer and help you to attract top talent.
Ultimately, there is no magic formula that guarantees employee motivation. What motivates employees varies from one workplace to another and from one employer to another. By continually experimenting and finding out what works, you can identify effective ways to keep your team motivated and happy at work. The methods suggested in this article are just some ideas for you to try out as you look for ways to boost your team’s motivation.
