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According to a study, almost half of the population of the United States go above and beyond at work because they feel they might not be acknowledged or rewarded enough for their efforts. Employee motivation is a factor catalyzing the success of an organization.
Motivation at workplace ensures work is completed in time without compromising the quality of the products and services. To maintain employee motivation at workplace, the work environment is really important.
Here is a list of factors affecting employee motivation which are simple to understand, easy to measure and add value to the organization. Check it out below.
12 Factors Affecting Motivation at Work
Workplace Culture
Workplace culture refers to the norms and behaviors people depict while at work. It starts from when the employee enters the organization until they leave, it includes the way they eat, dress and how they perform the official and non-official activities at work.
A work culture with proper communication, knowledge sharing, respect and flexibility to accept criticism motivates the staff for more efficiency at work place.
Rewards & Appreciation
Nothing motivates employees more than appreciating their efforts and rewarding them for their good work. Just saying a simple “thank you” or “we appreciate your input” at the end of an email can change the mindset of employees towards adding more value to their team and organization. Rewarding them can include vouchers, sponsored trips or an extra day-off.
Make sure you point out good work, so they are inevitably motivated to repeat the good work more often.
Relationship between co-workers
All the employees in the organization work towards achieving a common goal, so it important to maintain a professional relationship with co-workers which includes respect, offering a helping hand or understanding their behavior when they feel low.
With the help of this factor, employees create a workplace with more respect, relaxation, responsibilities and decreased stress.
Effective Leadership
To choose a leader among the employees can set an example and an idol for inspiration to perform better and to understand how to deal with different situations they face at work. The leader must ensure maintaining respect and honor which helps in the betterment of work culture.
Work of Choice
Intrinsic motivation comes from completing a task that seems interesting and pleasurable for employees. In order to increases employee effectiveness, one should offer them interesting tasks and job of their choice to bring out their best work.
Job Security
People prefer to work at places where they can focus on doing their job rather than being afraid to lose their job. Telling employees that they lucky to be hired at this organization and that if they do not perform well, they can look somewhere else, creates an atmosphere of fear and pressure for employees and they become less committed to perform the task which earlier they took pride in.
Conflict Management
Employees at a workplace come from different backgrounds which increases the chances of conflicts in the organization. To manage these conflicts on time with proper precautions, keeping in mind both the sides, is an effective way to manage conflicts. It will help in creating a good work environment.
Organizations should come up with policies and guidelines which help in resolving employee issues at earliest and in the smoothest way possible.
Learning Environment
To create a workplace environment with knowledge, education and learning is beneficial for employees and the organization. It will improve their skills, attitudes and behaviors and motivate them to be curious to learn more skills that can add to the value of the work they perform.
Through a provision of adequate resources and proper channeling, it is possible to create a learning and educative work environment to grow even more.
Democratic Environment
It is essential that employees feel involved in the decision-making process. To have a voice and to have that voice heard by the managers or the executives of the organization, motivates the employees to input more suggestions towards greater work.
Participation in the decision-making process makes the employees feel that they can get the work done better, quicker and cheaper and encourages them to contribute ideas in order to add value to the final decision.
Working Conditions
To create an environment where the employees facilitate success helps them to take pride in their workplace, even if it is a small cubicle or a workstation. At the minimum, it is important to provide the employees with a safe, clean and sanitary work place and allowing them to personalize their space increases the feeling of belongingness which motivates them even more.
Adequate Wages & Salary
The employees feel satisfied with putting in so much efforts only if they are receiving a good reward for their work. If you wish to have a motivated and high productive workforce, it is important to pay them wages and salaries according to their ability and performance.
Good employees might be motivated by several other factors than wages, but it gives an opportunity to the competitive organizations to steal the best ones out of the lot by offering them better compensation.
Personal Life Balance
Do not expect your employees to work overtime for you and feel equally motivated. They also have a life outside of the workplace, in which they might be going through difficult circumstances, therefore, it is important to have open lines of communication with the employees so they feel free to share their personal problems with the managers and ask for help without hesitating.
It might not be the manager’s job to act as a therapist, but it is important to recognize their problems that are affecting their performance and recommend any kind of assistance to them. Also, avoid taking overtime and burdening them with loads of extra work to keep them motivated the next day.
Bottom Line
Motivation can by dynamic as it changes over time according to different situations the employees are in. But it is essential for the managers to recognize and react to such changes by understanding every individual employee’s situations to build a strong, engaged and a high performing team. Using one of the many tools for employee engagement that are available will allow your organization to build a stronger company culture and keep employees motivated.
