Statistics indicate that only 15% of employees feel motivated and engaged, while 81% will quit their current jobs after getting a better offer. These statistics don’t seem encouraging, as employees can make or break your business. Various factors can trigger this problem. Some workers may feel less motivated due to long work hours and stressful tasks.
Others may also feel less appreciated and undervalued. Lack of developmental opportunities, inflexible work schedules, poor leadership, and a toxic work environment can also contribute to their lack of motivation. Fortunately, you can salvage the situation by leveraging certain practical strategies. Here are a few you can consider for the best results.
Set employee goals
An effective way to revive your staff’s motivation is setting employee goals. It’s easier to stay on course and be productive when they know what’s expected of them. Moreover, achieving these goals can boost their confidence and job satisfaction. Likewise, setting clear goals can prevent waste of time, as workers can now prioritize their tasks from the most urgent to the least urgent. Goals can also help them make the right decisions when faced with challenging tasks.
Seeing these benefits, you want to create these goals if you haven’t already. As a tip, set SMART goals to reap the full benefits. That means they should be within the employees’ job responsibilities. You should also consider their abilities and set a specific time frame for completion. Tying these goals to the company objectives is also recommended, so keep this in mind. While at it, set your employees up for success by creating an action plan to achieve their goals.
Offer them a healthy work-life balance
The last thing you want to do is stress your employees, which can severely affect your business success. Not only will they feel less motivated, but their productivity will also reduce. Moreover, their health can suffer, causing you to record extremely high absenteeism rates. Worse, your employees will abandon your business for better offers. It’s also worth noting that a high employee turnover rate can harm your credibility and even prevent customers from staying loyal to your brand. Fortunately, a healthy work-life balance is a great way to prevent these. Moreover, this can increase their satisfaction and encourage them to give their best to push your business forward. Fortunately, you can promote a healthy work-life balance for your employees in various ways.
For instance, resist the urge to overwork your staff without resting. Instead, provide regular short breaks throughout the day to enable them to refresh their minds and avoid burnout. You can also offer flexible scheduling, where your employees can take time off work for doctor appointments, unexpected emergencies, self-care days, and so on.
You can also replace a strict work-from-office system with a hybrid system, so feel free to consider this. This way, your workers can work from home for two or three days weekly. Not only can they reduce transportation costs, but they can work in a more productive environment.
Prioritize collaboration
Collaboration is essential for boosting employee motivation. Workplace conflicts become minimal as workers can understand and appreciate other perspectives. Moreover, collaboration increases mutual respect while eliminating or reducing competition among colleagues. Likewise, it makes communication more effective, which is particularly important when working on a project.
Collaboration also encourages your team to learn from each other as they work towards a common goal by pooling their talents and skills. Fostering workplace collaboration can be easy with the right strategies. For instance, you should create a supportive work environment where employees can freely share their ideas, thoughts, and feedback without fear of being intimidated or ridiculed.
Likewise, matching your team size to specific projects is beneficial, so keep this in mind. Smaller teams will be ideal for smaller tasks, while larger projects require more hands on deck. Communicating your expectations can also help your workers understand and execute their roles effectively.
While at it, consider investing in digital communication platforms to streamline communication; this is especially beneficial if you have remote workers. As a tip, leverage tools that suit your business operations. For instance, online platforms like BuildOps field service management software are ideal for running an HVAC or plumbing business, as you can easily communicate with your technicians on the field.
Encourage socialization outside the workplace
Workers are likelier to be engaged when working among friends. On the other hand, a hostile and toxic work environment can increase their dissatisfaction, reduce their motivation, and prompt them to leave your business. Therefore, encourage your workers to socialize outside of work. This way, they can get to know each other beyond work projects and the like. Fortunately, you can encourage this beneficial practice in several ways. For instance, you can allow your workers to take time each day for lunch together. This way, they can relax and connect on a deeper level.
You can also go further by organizing weekly happy hours, so keep this in mind. You can also organize monthly weekend activities so that everyone can have fun. For instance, a sports competition can relax your workers while promoting interaction. Or, you can invest in a cooking competition and enjoy various tasty meals.
Another idea worth considering is encouraging your workers to participate in charitable deeds together. Regardless of your chosen method, the goal is to help them appreciate and understand each other better. This way, conflicts, gossip, and other toxicity will be reduced.
Assign manageable workloads to your staff
Admittedly, a lot must be done, from attending to clients to working on several projects. However, this is not a license to give your workers an unrealistic workload in your bid to complete these tasks. Not only can this increase their stress levels and jeopardize their health, but they will feel less inclined to perform their work efficiently.
This, in turn, can lead to errors that may take more time and resources to rectify. To avoid these, ensure you assign manageable workloads to your team. This way, they can remain productive, finish their tasks on time, and feel happier at work. As a tip, check in frequently with your workers to ensure they are happy with their workload.