Two Strategies to Improve Employee Motivation
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Two Strategies to Improve Employee Motivation
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There are many ways in which you can improve your employees’ motivation, but in this blog post we’ll focus just on two of them:
- The skills and competencies your employees have but no longer use – yet would like to.
- The skills and competencies that they would like to develop or acquire.
1. Improve Employee Motivation by Giving Them the Chance to Use Their Capabilities More Fully
You can use this strategy without spending too much time, by simply considering some key aspects:
- What skills and competencies do my employees have that they don’t use in their current jobs, but would like to use?
- Which of these skills and competencies could be useful in my business, and how can I integrate them in their current jobs?
To find the answers, you can review the hiring interviews, their resumes, or ask them directly.
Including these skills and competencies in their jobs can raise their work satisfaction and engagement. They will have the chance to do more of what they love, and to use their capabilities in a larger extent. In this case, you don’t have to invest in developing their skills and competencies, because they already have them.
What to Consider When You Add New Tasks:
- Make space in their work schedule for the new tasks. If their schedule becomes too busy, they may feel stressed out, dissatisfied or overwhelmed.
- Don’t take away the tasks that they value in exchange for new ones. If there is not enough time in their schedules, they can delegate some of their tasks, but at the same time, let them retain ownership through supervision. In this way, they will not lose anything to gain something new.
- Give them time to adapt to the new tasks. Even if they have the skills and competencies for them, they may need to adjust these to their current situation and use them in a new context.
On the other hand, think about what can or will happen if you don’t consider their full capabilities.
Have you ever been in a situation where you knew you could do certain task, but for some reasons, others didn’t give you the chance?
Maybe they didn’t know that you could and wanted to do that task, maybe they didn’t trust you because they had never see you do it, or maybe they already have someone else for that and didn’t need to consider you as well. What did you think about those people?
2. Improve Your Employees' Motivation by Giving Them the Chance to Develop or Acquire New Skills and Competencies
If you already make use of all your employees’ capabilities, you may want to consider the skills and competencies they would like to develop or acquire. The need for development is one of our core needs.
Once an employee becomes an expert in one area, they may feel all right for a while, but after that, they can become bored if they don’t have new areas to explore and practice.
If you don’t know how your employees want to develop, you can simply ask them. Hold individual meetings with them to find out what their professional development plans and goals are.
Take into consideration how the company can support employees’ development in the directions they want to go, for example, through mentorship, internal or external training, coaching, learning by doing, etc.
Even if you can’t satisfy all your employees’ development expectations right away, you can take small steps and provide what you can for now.
Keep a document with all the information you have about your employees’ development goals and expectations, and revisit it from time to time to see if you can take further steps to support them. Over time you may have more resources, more time, or better conditions to facilitate their development. Update this document whenever you gather new information.
It’s important for employees to know that the company invests in their growth, that things will not stay the same way all the time, and that there is evolution and flexibility within the company.
Conclusion
Applying these two strategies will influence how much employees value their jobs and how satisfied they feel at work. It requires a deep understanding of your employees’ skills, competencies, and development interests. However, taking the time to gather this information will benefit not only them but also your business.
