Developing team motivation

In 2012, BUPA conducted a survey of 5,000 workers in Britain, with some alarming results: more than 25% of those surveyed revealed that they were reluctant to pursue new business opportunities, because doing so would only lead to a greater workload. More recently, Hay’s Group published the results of a survey on the motivation levels of UK workers. Those who were reported as “highly motivated” in their jobs amounted to a mere 15%, while a much larger 25% of individuals admitted to “coasting”. However, in the last two years, as reported by the CIPD, employee satisfaction levels seem to be improving. More employees are open to diversity and different modes of work, but even so the percentage of UK workers who claim to be “very satisfied” in their work is still only around 20%.

How does this affect you?

As a business leader, the efforts of a highly motivated team are critical to your company’s performance. They can be the making of a company, but without motivation they can also break it. You can offer your employees the opportunity to gain valuable experience and develop new skills, but if they aren’t motivated to do a good job then that’s worth nothing. If you want your employees to help you grow your company into a successful business, they must be able to see how it benefits them.

How do you do that?

Job satisfaction and motivation are influenced by several contributing factors, key examples being payment, benefits and work-life balance. However, employee engagement is a further aspect which measures how actively your workers are absorbed in their tasks, and how they perceive them as contributing to the whole business. How much do they care about making the company a success? If all they want to do is to complete their job quota and go home, then your employees need some stimulus to engage their interest.

Employee engagement is considered by many to be the best way of acheiving a “high-performance culture”. This in turn will have a very real impact on your overall productivity levels. It’s not easy to pull off, but if you can accomplish a substantial degree of employee engagement, it will pay you dividends. One of the ways you can do this is to begin with delegation. Letting go of the reins and allowing your employees more responsibility will help to develop trust and give them a greater interest in the company’s performance. To read more about how to delegate successfully, click here.

Motivation might appear at first glance to be a simpler concept, but it’s not as easy as all that. It’s not even just a question of larger salaries, as employee motivation is different for every individual. What you can do is to work towards a “high-performance culture”, starting with these simple tips. These will cost you little or nothing, but should yield an increase in productivity.

To find out more on these topics, get in touch with our experts, Mark or Rachel, here.