- Motivation to work Settlement for productive work
- How to motivate yourself?
- Simplify
- Stage 1 – minimum experience, maximum enthusiasm
How to increase employee motivation to work: methods and examples
For most people, the main motivator is still a salary increase. However, according to a 2015 study by the international recruiting agency Kelly Services, non-material methods of motivation, such as training or changes in functionality, can also retain an employee.
And so that the employee does not even think about leaving, it is important to constantly feed his interest. What steps and stages to implement motivation should be taken?
Standard doesn't mean bad
Typical methods of increasing staff motivation have been time-tested and give positive results. In addition to salary and bonus for achieving KPIs, these include:
- material bonuses for achievements;
- promotion;
- empowerment;
- additional paid leave;
- payment for VHI policy, sports activities;
- loans with reduced rates;
- provision of a company car;
- food subsidies;
- payment for courses, trainings and educational institutions;
- awarding certificates to the best employees;
- business trips to industry exhibitions.
However, the options don't end there. An example of successful employee motivation is the experience of Promsvyazbank. Its incentive system includes a number of interesting bonuses:
- a prize for the best ideas included in the database of improvement proposals;
- compensation for the cost of tourist trips with children;
- payment for studying foreign languages by the employee and his child;
- co-financing of obtaining a second higher education;
- payment of additional contributions to the pension fund;
- gifts dedicated to significant family events;
- a system of discounts from partner companies: car dealerships, branded clothing stores, travel agencies, etc.
Of course, not everyone can invest enormous amounts of money in HR, but some of the above is quite possible to adopt.
Read on the topic For even more ideas, see our article on how to increase employee efficiency.
Unusual motivation tricks
Methods of motivating employees may not revolve around money and gifts at all. Consider a non-compensatory motivation system. Original methods can not only cheer up a team that has been sitting too long, but also become a competitive advantage for the company in the labor market. Thus, puzzled by the search for the best specialists in programming and game design, the Russian computer game developer Nival Interactive offered its employees:
- training from eminent artists and filmmakers - teachers of VGIK;
- work in innovative projects, including foreign ones;
- flexible work schedule;
- office space organized taking into account the requirements of the team;
- recreation areas.
Giving more freedom to employees is a Western trend, which is still feared in Russia. But in vain. This is evidenced by the experience of Google, where the 80/20 system operates: employees are allowed to spend 20% of their working time on their own projects. The company estimates that about half of new products, such as Gmail, Google News and AdSense, came from this system.
Take on board a few more non-standard methods of motivation:
- lunch with the director (practised by German Gref at Sberbank);
- publication in the media (the employee acts as an expert);
- sporting events for all employees (eg weekly football);
- competitions based on interests (vocal, dance, sports);
- free taxi and meals for employees forced to work late;
- encouraging smoking cessation.
You can also take advantage of the experience of large Western companies and create better motivation for your employees.
Automatic motivation: add a spirit of competition
Another effective way. It is suitable when employees have a common task and the same KPIs. In this case, the first one to achieve the required indicator receives additional encouragement: material (cash bonus, souvenirs, discount) or intangible (for example, the status “Manager of the month”).
This method of motivating employees of each department can be conveniently implemented on the basis of a CRM system: the manager sets KPIs and monitors in real time the employees’ achievement of goals: the amount of completed transactions, the number of processed applications or cold calls. Moreover, this rating is visible not only to the manager, but also to the employees themselves. For example, in the SalesapCRM program, you can display information on your desktop for all employees: their sales and call plan, their current place in the ranking, their contribution to the company’s profit in the form of a chart, etc. As a result, managers online compare their successes with the achievements of their colleagues and strive for new heights.
Desktop of the SalesapCRM system with a report on the employee
Why motivate your team?
Imagine a character who does everything at a slow pace, prefers to smoke or sit on the phone at a time when he has a lot to do - I’m sure you’ve met such people more than once. Not only can this be a waste of time and resources for the company, but it can also have a negative impact on other employees.
Now let's introduce another person to your company. He is enthusiastic, gets things done quickly, takes action, and wants to do things well, both for himself and for the company. An ideal employee, nothing less.
In this situation, there is a classic scenario - we fire or fine the first one, and tell the second one that he’s done well and perhaps give him a bonus. There is another option, but it requires a little more skills and personal awareness - to understand and figure out whether everything is normal with the motivation system and whether it exists at all. It may turn out that a great specialist is not a merit of the enterprise, but a slow and tired employee is precisely the reason for negligence, lack of involvement or the complete absence of a motivation system.
Whether a business is at the top of its game or just on the road to success, employee incentives remain critical at all levels. The success of the organization directly depends on the motivation of the team, which means monitoring this is extremely important.
How not to become a demotivator
Whatever employee motivation system you choose in your organization, it will not work if despotism and distrust reign in the company. Therefore, try to create an atmosphere of openness and creativity. This is facilitated by:
- respectful attitude towards subordinates;
- minimizing the number of rules;
- participation of employees in discussing decisions regarding their duties, working conditions, etc.;
- training from company leaders;
- recognition of employees' contribution to the company's success;
- providing employees with benefits for company products;
- setting clear measurable goals.
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Why does the motivation to work disappear?
Man is a lazy creature. If he can lie harmlessly on the couch for a couple of hours, he will do it. At first glance, resting is much more pleasant than working hard. Moreover, the brain is not very eager to work non-stop, it would like to look through the pictures...
Why sometimes no attempts to force yourself to work work? This can happen for a number of reasons.
You work at the wrong time
Everyone has a biological clock: that is, throughout the day the concentration of certain things (cortisol, melatonin, adrenaline and everything else) changes. And if you force yourself to work when your brain chemically wants to sleep, then you are faced with failure.
Exactly p
The job is boring or too easy
Therefore, you need to adjust your sleep and eating habits strictly to your body.
If you force yourself to do things that don't make your heart beat faster, you may run into difficulties... How can a programmer write good essays? How should a doctor write reports? Difficult.
The work is not urgent
And then Parkinson’s empirical law works: “Work fills all the time allotted to it.” Decided to write an article in the morning and then rest all day? Most likely, you will finish it in the evening. Why? There are no strictly established boundaries.
If the report is due in 2 weeks, who will do it now, when there are so many interesting things on the Internet?
Lack of self-confidence
It can be difficult to start working because of thoughts like: “It won’t work out anyway.” This also includes perfectionism. A person is afraid to start doing something because the work will not be perfect. It’s hard to accept that perfection doesn’t exist... But without it it’s impossible to work peacefully :).
Laziness
This topic deserves a separate article.
Now you need to take into account everything negative, rebuild it into a positive one and add a few life hacks. That's what we'll do ;).
Even more ideas
Proper employee motivation should inspire the team. If you seriously decide to increase enthusiasm in your team, we advise you not to limit yourself to our advice and draw ideas from specialized literature:
- Radmilo Lukic “Material motivation of sellers. Principles, opportunities, limitations", 2010
- Svetlana Ivanova “100% motivation.” Where is his button?”, 2015.
- Klaus Kobiell "Motivation in the style of ACTION. Delight is contagious”, 2011
- Natalya Samukina “Effective staff motivation with minimal financial resources.” costs", 2006
- Elena Vetluzhskikh “Remuneration system. How to develop goals and KPIs", 2022.
- Sarah Holliford, Steve Whiddett "Motivation", 2008
- Max Eggert "Motivation. What makes you do your best at work”, 2010
- Steve Chandler, Scott Richardson "100 Ways to Motivate", 2014
- Svetlana Ivanova “50 tips on non-material motivation”, 2022
- Reinhard Sprenger “Myths of Motivation”, 2004
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H2 Vision Board
It’s a paradox, but another faithful companion of laziness is prosperity. If you are paid well and you can afford to work a little, and then go to a cafe, browse online stores or relax in the pool, then it becomes difficult to force yourself to work and grow on yourself. Why, if there is already enough for everything?
Of course, I’m not calling for sharply reducing prices and writing for extra money.
But setting slightly more ambitious goals for yourself is a completely reasonable decision. Get yourself a board of tasks and achievements that will constantly be an eyesore and put pressure on your conscience. Hang on it photos of things that you don’t have enough money for yet. Or places where you think it’s too expensive to vacation. Write notes to yourself. Kick yourself in the ass.
Because only those who do not know how to stop there achieve real success.
Encourage positive communication between subordinates
Personal positive assessments of employee performance are an effective motivating factor.
A corporate culture that supports the desire to give each other positive feedback on the results of each completed task increases the level of motivation and productivity. How can this be achieved in practice? First, you can develop a culture of mutual recognition among subordinates by developing a rewards program that rewards employees based on the results of a survey of their peers. When employees begin to recognize and reward each other for their successes, their motivation levels will increase significantly.
Ask for feedback
This will help you look at your work from a different perspective. Ask for feedback from your manager or members of your team, and you will see what tasks you should focus on and what new goals to set.
Having goals is very important for professional development and job satisfaction. It helps combat boredom and lack of motivation, which inevitably comes after a while.
Take note
