How to Improve Employee Motivation and Commitment
[In the long term, employee motivation and well-being strongly influence organizational health, customer satisfaction and loyalty as well as financial success.]
One of the greatest challenges that managers face today is ensuring that their employees stay motivated and involved in their work. Studies demonstrate this clearly: a happy and engaged employee is more productive, more creative, has fewer absences, and is more loyal to their company. In addition, in the long term, employee motivation and well-being strongly influence organizational health, customer satisfaction and loyalty as well as financial success.
Provide a pleasant working environment
Striving to continually improve employee well-being ensures a number of benefits. However, professional well-being stems above all else from the ability to complete one’s work in pleasant working conditions.
To start off, provide your employees with a well-maintained, light, and pleasant workspace. Ensure that all employees have their own clean and comfortable, if possible, even customized workspace. Also consider offering flexible working hours to your employees. When it is compatible with your work activities, don’t be afraid of suggesting remote working, which will give your teams more responsibility and independence, and therefore will increase their general levels of motivation, elevating work-related stress.
Promote personal development
Employees who feel competent in their work are more likely to be proactive and creative. As a manager, it is therefore both possible to step in and develop your employee’s technical skills, but also their more personal skills (the much talked about “soft skills”). Pay close attention to your employees’ needs in terms of their personal development. Be warned, however, that these needs are rarely expressed explicitly. They manifest themselves above all in your employees’ levels of tension, fatigue, or stress. If you notice that one or several of your employees are in need of support, do offer them development opportunities.
Value individual as well as collective achievements
Motivation and engagement are also a matter of recognition. As managers, you must do everything in your power to make your employees feel as valued as possible, both as individuals and as work teams.
Recognition can take several forms. First of all, we can give traditional thanks and congratulations. Do not forget to publicly showcase all victories, whether big or small.
Bring in a written line of communication dedicated to acknowledgements between colleagues. Checking in with your employees and taking an interest in their lives beyond the workplace also contributes to the creation of a real sense of belonging and commitment.
Improve manager-employee relations
If the atmosphere within teams needs to be tended to, the same goes for the relationship between manager and employee. In 2013, la Dares revealed that “hostile relations with one’s boss are the main cause of employee departures. To ensure the long-term commitment of your teams, direct managers must therefore strive to foster healthy relations with their employees. To achieve this, they need to stick to the “3 Es” rule:
- Empathy: Managers need to put themselves in other people’s shoes to understand them better. For this, nothing beats being a good listener! Listening to your speaker from a neutral standpoint allows you to distance yourself from your own system of knowledge, of values and beliefs, and to shift your focus away from your own point of view.
- Equity: Managers must continually provide fair working conditions and a fair environment to their employees. Be careful however, equity does not mean equality! It is not a question of providing exactly the same thing to everyone, but rather of constantly adapting to everyone’s individual needs, which can differ according to job position, seniority, experiences, personal values, expectations, etc.
- Exemplarity: Finally, a manager must be an example to others! Managers need to both represent the company’s values and be model workers for their employees. Their behavior will serve as a basis for the working practices that their team will emulate. Thus, it is important that managers be the first to respect the rules that govern teams.
Related Blogs
-
May 20, 2022How to Speak Up…
I recently spent a month interviewing the group heads of a large financial services company in order to understand how their direct reports need to communicate..
-
May 6, 2022If You’re Not Outside…
You need to speak in public, but your knees buckle even before you reach the podium. You want to expand your network, but you’d rather..
-
Jan 14, 2022How To Give And…
For many people, giving and receiving feedback can be incredibly stressful. When you have poured your heart and soul into your work, having someone offer..
-
Oct 8, 2021Avoiding Negative Emotions Won’t…
I’ve been thinking a lot about dessert lately. What’s the most memorable, delicious bite of dessert you’ve ever tasted? Chances are, it wasn’t a store-bought, plastic-wrapped ball..
-
Jul 30, 2021How to Boost Employee…
Through the turbulence of the past year, one of the constants for me has been my relationships with my colleagues. As a senior leader at..
-
Jun 4, 2021HR Transformation: Why Diversity,…
If there’s one thing the pandemic has brought into clear focus, it’s what each of us considers important—especially at work. Diversity, equity and inclusion, and..
-
Feb 5, 2021The First Four Things…
Ever find that it’s noon and you haven’t accomplished anything on your to-do list? Get a productive jump-start on the day with these tasks. I..
-
Mar 6, 2020Effective Job Search
The Key To Carrying Out A Productive And Effective Job Search In my experience as a career coach, I have found that people who are..
-
Feb 14, 2020On-boarding Techniques
10 Must - Follow Company: On-boarding Techniques Making new employees feel comfortable and useful is as easy as 1, 2, 3, 4….. Effective employee on-boarding..
-
Jan 3, 20202020 Resolution Hacks
Resolution Hacks That Actually Work It’s that time of year again, when we all make New Year's resolutions. But will this year be any different..
-
Dec 27, 2019Career Clarity
5 Tips To Gain Career Clarity Between Christmas And New Year’s Day The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is one of the slowest..
-
Dec 20, 2019Minimize the Holiday Madness
Ways To Minimize The Holiday Madness It’s said that it’s the most wonderful time of the year. But for many, it’s also the most stressful...
-
Nov 22, 2019Spend your day wisely
How To Spend Your Working Day Wisely And Actually Get Things Done Time doesn’t discriminate. The CEO of a Fortune 500 company with an overloaded..
-
Oct 18, 2019Tricky Interview Question
How To Respond To The Question ‘Why Do You Want To Work Here?’ One question you can expect to encounter during almost every job interview..
-
-
Apr 19, 2019Starting a New Job?
When You Start a New Job, Pay Attention to These 5 Aspects of Company Culture When you join an organization, you have a short window..
-
Jan 11, 2019Reasons for Leaving?
How To Answer Why You Left (Or Want to Leave) Your Employer If you want the job, don't reveal this. Job interviews are designed to..
-
Jan 8, 2019Happy New Year!
This is the beginning of ANYthing you WANT! A New Year, a New Start and Way to Go! Advance Career Dream Team is wishing you..
-
Dec 28, 2018Culture Is the Secret
Losing Employees to Clients or Competitors? Culture Is the Secret to Retaining Them. Businesses lose employees all the time. At any moment, you could lose..
-
Aug 24, 2018Back to Work after…
8 things successful people do after getting back from vacation Coming back from a magical vacation isn't much fun. One minute, you're lounging by the..
-
Jul 13, 2018Outsourcing HR and Payroll
When Writing Your Business Plan, Be Sure to Include This A plan to outsource back office departments can save you time and money. Since the..
-
Nov 10, 2017Your Impact at Work!
What Is Your Impact? We keep throwing this word around called "impact." Do you know what your impact is and how would you define, discover,..
-
Sep 28, 2017Wrong Job?
Six Emotions That Signal You Are In The Wrong Job Almost a third of your time on earth will be spent working. That’s a big..