As you build your small business and pursue strong growth, learning how to motivate your team should be among your top priorities. Highly motivated employees will often exhibit higher levels of engagement and be more proactive, productive, and committed to their jobs. According to Seenit’s 2023 report1, The State of Employee Engagement, 30% of productivity is due to motivation.
This article covers five team motivation ideas—getting buy-in, encouraging autonomy, providing growth opportunities, recognizing good work, and prioritizing work-life balance—to help you create a healthy and happy work environment.
1. Get Buy-in From Your Team
Employee buy-in refers to the level of commitment and support your employees have to the organization’s mission. You can promote buy-in by helping employees understand how their work connects to the company’s mission or purpose.
When employees feel that their work is making a positive impact, they typically become more engaged and motivated to keep working. In fact, studies show that engaged employees take ownership of their work and go above and beyond what is expected of them. This increased engagement and productivity can have a significant impact on the organization’s bottom line.
Here are some ways you can help your employees understand this connection.
Understand what motivates and inspires your employees beyond just financial compensation. If you misunderstand their drivers, your efforts may be ineffective or even counterproductive. Tap into their deeper psychological needs and drivers to foster greater engagement, loyalty, and commitment.
A helpful tool to get valuable insights into your team’s motivations is a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis. By conducting a SWOT analysis, you can:
- Gain an understanding of your team’s current motivational state
- Identify areas for improvement
- Develop targeted strategies to enhance motivation
- Align your leadership approach with your team’s actual needs and desires
Here’s a downloadable team SWOT analysis template to help you get started:
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Another way of promoting employee buy-in is to help your employees align their work, specifically their goals and performance metrics, to the mission and values of your organization. This can help employees see how what they do on a day-to-day basis contributes to the larger purpose of the organization.
A great example of how a company communicates its values to foster employee buy-in is Zappos. Their “Deliver WOW Through Service” encourages employees to take ownership and personally invest in the company’s mission. On the other hand, their unique “pay to quit” bonus, which offers new hires money to leave if they’re not fully committed, ensures that remaining employees are truly aligned with their culture and values.
Providing context and examples of how each role impacts customers, stakeholders, and the community can make employees feel motivated and engaged. Make sure to schedule regular check-ins with employees to discuss progress, provide feedback, and answer questions. Use multiple channels to communicate updates and share success stories that highlight the impact of their work on customers, stakeholders, and the community.
Encouraging feedback and questions is a crucial employee management strategy for boosting employee motivation and engagement, especially when morale is low. This approach creates an open communication channel between employees and management. It also gives employees a voice, which makes them feel valued and heard. It helps identify underlying issues causing low motivation, provides managers with insights to make informed decisions, and fosters a culture of trust and transparency.
One of the fastest and simplest ways of allowing employees to express their concerns or ideas without fear or repercussions is through anonymous feedback or surveys. You can use an employee survey tool, create your own employee engagement survey, or use one of our employee survey templates to facilitate this process. You can
2. Encourage Autonomy
There’s a reason why macro-management is one of the top people management skills an effective leader needs to develop. Giving employees a sense of control over their work and allowing them to make decisions about how they do their jobs can increase employee engagement.
When employees feel they have autonomy, they are more likely to take ownership of their work and be intrinsically motivated to do it well. Encouraging autonomy involves creating a culture of trust, collaboration, and support by:
- Providing your employees with clear goals: Clearly communicate the goals and objectives of the organization to employees and encourage them to develop their own goals and plans for achieving them.
- Delegating responsibilities: When employees are given the responsibility to complete tasks and the freedom to determine how best to approach them, it fosters a sense of autonomy and ownership over their work. This can lead to increased engagement, job satisfaction, and motivation as they feel more invested in the outcome of their work.
- Encouraging collaboration: Encourage employees to work together and share ideas. This will allow them to learn from each other and develop new approaches to problem-solving. It will also help them develop a sense of ownership over their work and feel more invested in the success of the team.
3. Provide Opportunities for Growth & Development
According to a 2022 survey conducted by Deloitte, growth opportunities are one of the top three motivators of employees across all age groups. Another survey conducted by LinkedIn in the same year revealed that 76% of Gen Z employees are willing to leave their current jobs if there’s an opportunity for growth.
These statistics show that growth and development are powerful motivating forces for employees (especially the younger generation) to perform well and stay in their jobs. Thus, creating an effective employee development program is essential to any organization. Here’s how to approach this effort:
- Identify career paths and progression: Identify the various career paths that exist within the organization, including both vertical and lateral moves. Map out the skills, competencies, and experiences required for each path.
- Conduct a skills gap analysis: Identify the skills and competencies that employees need to develop to progress along their chosen career path. This can be done through performance evaluations, skills assessments, or competency models.
- Create individual development plans: Once skills gaps have been identified, work with employees to create individual professional development plans that outline the skills and experiences they need to develop to progress along their chosen career path.
- Offer training and development opportunities: Provide training and development opportunities that align with the skills and competencies needed for career progression. This can include on-the-job training, mentoring, coaching, formal training programs, and job rotations.
- Monitor progress: Regularly review progress against development plans and provide feedback to employees. Adjust plans and goals as needed to ensure employees are on track to achieve their career goals.
4. Recognize & Appreciate Good Work
Appreciating an employee’s good work has many benefits—for the employees and the organization as a whole. Employees who feel valued and appreciated become more engaged, motivated, and productive. It also increases employee retention rates. According to Deloitte’s “Enhancing workforce resilience through recognition” article, employees who regularly receive recognition are 56% less likely to look for another job.
Moreover, employee recognition has a positive impact on a company’s profitability. In a 2023 report released by Workhuman and Gallup, researchers found that for employees who received recognition or praise for a job well done in the last seven days, productivity increased by 9%.
5. Prioritize Work-life Balance
Promoting work-life balance in your organization is crucial for maintaining a healthy and happy workforce. Encourage your employees to take ownership of their well-being, and provide them with the support and resources they need to achieve this.
Here are some tips to do that:
- Offer flexible work arrangements: Offering flexible work arrangements such as telecommuting or flexible hours can give your employees the freedom to manage their personal responsibilities while still being productive at work.
- Encourage breaks: Encourage your employees to take regular breaks and disconnect from work during their off-hours. You can also provide a designated space for employees to relax during their breaks.
- Set realistic expectations: Be clear about the expectations you have for your employees and set realistic deadlines and timelines for projects. Avoid overloading your employees with work, as this can lead to burnout and stress.
- Implement “no meeting” days: This promotes work-life balance by reducing the pressure to always be available, allowing employees to manage their time more effectively. This structure helps them complete work during designated hours, leaving more time for personal activities and relaxation.
- Provide support and resources: Offer support and resources to help your employees manage their workload and stress levels. This can include access to training on stress management techniques, wellness programs, and employee assistance programs.
- Lead by example: Transformational leaders inspire and motivate their teams to achieve extraordinary results. They also lead by example, especially when it comes to work-life balance in their own life. Encourage your employees to do the same by sharing your own strategies for managing work and personal life.
Bottom Line
Motivating your team is essential to maintaining a productive and engaged workforce. By encouraging growth and showing appreciation, you can boost morale and job satisfaction, resulting in a more motivated and successful team. Remember, motivation is an ongoing effort, and it requires a commitment to creating a positive work environment that values and supports employee well-being.
