6 Ways to Boost Employee Motivation and Engagement

To create a happy, productive, successful workforce, your employees must be engaged and motivated.

71% of top business decision-makers state that employee engagement is essential to their business’s ongoing growth. And, 69% of employees believe they would put in more effort if they felt appreciated at work.

Your employees are the beating heart of your entire operation. By focusing on maintaining consistently solid levels of motivation and engagement, you will notice significant changes to your business. The kind that will propel you above and beyond your competitors.

But, as an employer, how do I do that, you say? Here are six quickfire tips that will help you boost employee engagement and motivation.

1) Create a dynamic culture

Your company culture counts. It’s the internal blueprint that will shape how you do things and how you communicate.

To maintain optimum levels of motivation and engagement, you must create a dynamic internal culture based on inclusion, communication, and collaboration.

Fostering the right company culture will take strong leadership as well as clear cut strategies based on your core company values. If you’re thinking about realigning your company culture, involve your staff at every stage, asking what they want from the process while offering various outlets for staff to share their thoughts or ideas with confidence.

2) Be inclusive

Expanding on the previous point: to engage and motivate your employees, you must be inclusive.

If someone feels left out or like they’re not being heard, they will disengage and look elsewhere for employment. To avoid such issues, you must reward and recognize achievements (team and individual) regularly while hosting groups or workshops where everyone’s voice can be heard.

3) Be transparent

Studies show that a lack of transparency is one of the primary factors in staff motivation and engagement. If your senior staff are not transparent concerning your strategies or initiatives, they will become disengaged and productivity levels will dwindle.

To ensure you’re completely transparent at all times, consider launching a company intranet where you can share regular company updates and hold frequent meetings so you can share vital information with everyone in the organization.

4) Offer learning & development opportunities

Learning and development is vital to keeping your staff engaged and motivated. By giving your staff the tools to develop their talents and acquire new skills, you will see an exponential rise in engagement and motivation.

68% of employees say training and development is the company’s most important policy. Moreover, 73% of institutions believe that alternative credential programs are essential to their future success.

In the digital age, the tools exist to empower your staff to hone their skills and acquire professional credentials around their existing work commitments. Not only will offering such opportunities increase motivation but they will also make your organization more adaptable to industry change.

5) Encourage social interaction

Regular social interaction is proven to boost engagement and motivation within the workplace.

By holding frequent social gatherings and social events, you will build organizational rapport, encourage cross-departmental communication, and empower people to share ideas. As a result of socializing, you will boost employee motivation while fostering companywide innovation.

Here are some social ideas for your consideration:

• Twice monthly company with drinks, food, and a chance to converse.
• Regular cross-departmental skill-sharing workshops.
• Monthly reward & recognition of meals.
• Company parties and BBQs to celebrate different cultural events throughout the year.
• Weekly ‘Ask the managers’ meetups with groups consisting of different people throughout the organization.

6) Streamline staff management

If your company’s management processes lack direction, internal inefficiencies will develop and friction throughout the organization—which will only serve to drive down employee engagement.

By embracing the power of digital technology, you will be able to streamline your most important logistical processes—initiatives that include internal collaboration, order fulfilment and, of course, employee management.

By introducing an employee time clock app, you will be able to track staff working hours accurately from almost any device while verifying time and attendance with ease.

If you take measures to better manage your staff efficiently, you will make your company more cohesive, more transparent, and more focused inspiring everyone within your business to perform to the best of their abilities.

Your staff are integral to the ongoing success of your business. Take these measures to keep them happy, engaged, and motivated and your business will blossom.

For consumer-facing business insights, read 5 Ways to Boost Your Relationship With Customers.