1. Fair Compensation and Career Opportunities: Offer fair pay and create growth opportunities, such as promotions and special assignments, to keep employees motivated and invested in the organization.
2. Employee Recognition: Regularly acknowledge employees’ contributions and efforts, making them feel valued and encouraging others to perform better.
3. Learning and Development: To keep employees engaged and motivated and provide opportunities for personal and professional growth through training, workshops, and seminars.
4. Positive Work Culture and Employee Welfare: Foster a positive, flexible, and open work environment while offering welfare programs like wellness initiatives and family support to enhance employee satisfaction.
“It is not the belief but the ability to make others believe in you that drives the outcomes.” These famous lines by Henry Ford have become the crux of every successful organization. Employee motivation is a critical factor in achieving business goals.
A motivated team will always work hard to achieve a particular goal, even if there are challenges. Therefore, leaders need to have faith in their teams and keep them motivated for higher performance.
During the inception of Infosys, no one ever thought that it would be one of the largest tech companies in India and the world. Employee motivation and the faith of the leadership in the employees played a key role in the success of the firm.
These small steps eventually became a giant leap for the organization. The hard work of the employees paid off, taking the firm to new heights of success.
A highly motivated workforce ensures high engagement, overall happiness, and satisfaction.
According to a survey conducted by Talent Works International, happier employees tend to be 31% more productive.
Higher employee engagement also helped companies to experience a 233% increase in customer loyalty and a 26% increase in annual revenue, according to the results of research conducted by the Aberdeen Group.
Several factors affect employee motivation. We will discuss a few of them below:
Most people think salaries are the only connection between the organization and the employee.
However, that line of thinking is flawed. It is not the quantum of salary that matters more but the fairness concerning the role and performance.
Employees usually demand fair compensation, but organizations typically try to hire at salaries lower than market levels. This pressure on compensation often harms the organization more in the long run.
An employee who perceives that he or she is compensated commensurately is generally more motivated at work and performs better.
Hence, fair monetary benefits are critical to motivating employees.
Employees tend to be motivated more by career opportunities than just compensation, especially after a few years.
These opportunities could be in the form of promotions, role enhancements, job rotations, special assignments, onsite assignments, and even relocation.
Employees are often willing to sacrifice short-term monetary benefits outside the organization for more significant career opportunities within the organization.
Hence, it is a great way to motivate and retain top talent within the organization.
Employee recognition is a token of appreciation for employees’ efforts, performance, and contributions to the organization.
It is an acknowledgment from the organization to make employee feels valued for their contribution. It makes them feel that the organization cares about their hard work.
The recognition makes the recipient feel important and motivates others to work towards it. The social status associated with these awards makes the employees feel special.
When employees give the organization a significant chunk of their waking hours, it should also take care of their needs and aspirations. Monetary benefits such as salary or incentives are helpful in the short run.
However, in the long run, employees look for personal development opportunities such as training programs, seminars, workshops, etc.
These events also break the mundane cycle of work and help the employee to hone his or her skills.
Adobe has a ‘pursue your hobby’ plan to encourage employees to take up short workshops to pursue their interests.
Hence, it creates a positive impact on the psyche of employees and makes them more motivated at work.
The work culture in any organization is the most crucial aspect of keeping your employees motivated.
Hence, the management needs to create a positive work culture where employees can work with little stress.
In a flexible corporate culture, employees can dress casually in comfortable clothing.
Replacing archaic office furniture with modern, bright, and cheerful workspaces can help create a more pleasant work environment where employees enjoy their work and productivity increases.
These concepts are utilized by the likes of Amazon, Flipkart, British Telecommunication, etc. to design their offices.
Apart from physical workspace, an open, vibrant, and dynamic work culture can motivate employees to work harder and perform better.
Openness, empowerment, and collaboration should be essential elements of the work culture to motivate employees. Leaders play a critical role in building the work culture by setting examples.
When a person works in the organization, he or she is part of an extended family.
Team outings, family days, and annual meets make the employees feel more inclusive.
Other benefits, such as family insurance, medical plans, and wellness programs, are also significant.
These measures can help in employee motivation so that they stay with the organization for longer and work harder to achieve the goals. This ultimately helps the organization achieve greater success.
Lead author: Sagar Chaudhuri, the Co-Founder and CEO of HiFives. He is an HR Tech Evangelist with over 25 years of corporate and entrepreneurship experience. In the past, Sagar has worked in leadership roles with companies such as Genpact, Infosys, and ICICI Bank. He has an engineering degree from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM Lucknow. Connect on LinkedIn
To stay updated on the latest HiFives blogs, follow us on Twitter (@MyHiFives)