Most employees have a sort of “honeymoon” period with new jobs. Overtime, many employees lose their motivation and their engagement and productivity drops. Eventually, they start the search for new job opportunities. More than 80% of workers are either actively looking for a new job or are open to one. The biggest reasons for people abandoning jobs or new opportunities is not money. The reasons people leave jobs are based on reasons much more psychological and personal. Employees seek engaging positions, responsibility, ownership of their work, and learning opportunities. Engaged employees are 59% less likely to seek out a new job or career in the next 12 months. In order to keep your team motivated for the long term and keep them growing with your company, you need to be actively working on creating the environment and systems that keep your team motivated.
Here are a few proven effective ways to keep your team motivated:
1. Assign outside normal projects and expand team members’ responsibilities:
Employees are not robots. They get bored of the same responsibilities in their role month after month, year after year. They are also motivated by expanding their job scope and using their full talent. To motivate them and make sure the job description doesn’t get boring and unfulfilling, assign new, different projects and incorporate new responsibilities within their task list. 33% of professionals indicate they are “bored” and “need new challenge” as their motivation for moving on to another job. You may consider having employees help other teams to switch up their focus and encourage collaboration.
2. Involve employees in the larger strategy and development of the company:
One thing many employees feel they lack at their companies is a place and a position that is integral to the future of the company. This perspective sparks insecurity about their position and may cause employees to feel disloyal to their company. They may look for new positions as a result. A way to avoid this and motivate employees is to involve them in the larger strategy and development of the company. Include employees in top level management conversations and information. Ask for and take their feedback into consideration and make that clear. It’s quite likely that many of your employees see opportunities and problems with a more “integral” vision than many managers. Their voice is valuable to the future direction of the company and they will be more loyal to a company they feel honors that.
3. Improve communication for better productivity and relationships:
People who are well connected to those they work with are more likely to be satisfied at their job and actually stay. Work relationships are important to foster to keep employees engaged and motivated. The best way to do this is to improve the communication processes for your team. Outdated communication systems like email threads and phone conference calling are not effective. Email threads are incredibly disorganized and unproductive as well as not personal. They are not an intuitive form of communication. Employees are used to fast, intuitive, real time communication outside of work. Bring that into the office. Almost two-thirds of workers ages 18-34 said they’re motivated by video meetings and team messaging. Company chat, video conferencing, and app communication are the best ways to improve communication. For a tool that easily tackles this, try Hibox. Hibox provides your team with company chat, task management, file sharing, and video conferencing all in one for a complete digital workspace to keep your team engaged and motivated.
4. Foster collaboration within teams and across departments:
Speaking of better communication, improving collaboration falls in the same category. Employees feel more involved and better supported in their work when there is a focus on collaboration. They also have a better understanding of how their work overall fits into the big picture when they are collaborating across departments and teams. You can encourage and support collaboration by introducing a digital workspace that allows your employees to communicate, manage tasks, share files, and track goals all in one place. Not only is it practical for improving productivity, but team members feel more connected to the company overall rather than in their own “cubicle”, physically or mentally. Employee happiness is 23.3% more correlated to connections with coworkers than direct supervisors. Teams that collaborate come up with better ideas and solutions as well.
5. Set clear goals and expectations:
Employees enjoy feedback and structure. When management is too lax about their work, the quality of their work, or what they’re doing, employees tend to not take projects seriously or feel their work is not of value. Avoid this by always setting clear expectations, explaining the importance of employee’s work to overall goals, and creating measurable goals. Employees are motivated by deadlines and performance goals. Without regular goals and feedback on goals, they see their own work as unimportant and their care for the job overall reduces. When employees do not feel challenged, they tend to look for other opportunities. To set clear goals and expectations, use task management systems. Task management systems like Hibox have ranking systems and efficiency metrics for employees as they perform tasks that adds a layer of competitiveness. With tools like these you can continually challenge employees.
6. Encourage leadership from the bottom:
The beauty about online communication and collaboration is that employees at all levels are given a voice. Using company chat and other communication methods, encourages employees from lower levels of management to voice their opinions, concerns, and suggestions. Employees at all levels are a wealth of information on how your company is running and where it could be better. They see the little details management doesn’t. A good way to do this is to create a chat stream for suggestions that anyone can contribute to. Regularly ask questions and for feedback from employees at all levels and give them a space to voice their opinions. This makes employees feel their voice and opinions are valid and gives them a sense of value to the company’s direction. This also helps management and executives in learning what the problems and possibilities are within their company from within before it’s too late.
7. Allow autonomy where possible:
One thing that not only holds back productivity but doesn’t allow employees to feel like they’re using their full potential is micromanaging. Employees all have their own way of working and when they feel like they are forced into a system that doesn’t mesh with them, it becomes a constant struggle. Employees really appreciate autonomy and where possible, remote work options. More than 75% of workers would be more loyal to their organization if it offered flexible work options. Focus on deliverables and quality rather than set processes and micromanaging. Allowing employees to figure out what works best for them and their teams will help them feel more comfortable in their work flow and stay motivated. With a central task management system, it’s easy to give employees tasks and deadlines and have them work out in their own way. That way, you stay on top of what needs to get done and they have the freedom to work out how with their teams. A win-win.
Keeping your team motivated is not just a backburner concept to sometimes revist. Team motivation is not a general metric you hope “improves”. How motivated and engaged your team is has a direct impact on your bottom line as well as how many high quality employees stay with your company, which could make or break you. Boosting team motivation should be top priority. Try Hibox to foster collaboration, boost engagement and motivation for your team.
