Motivate and energise your workforce
by Halee Reid
When you look at your workforce today, what do you see? Employees actively engaged in their job and the success of the organisation? People in management positions effectively leading their people and delivering sustainable results? Turnover kept to a minimum?
How many times have you heard: “Our workforce is our most important asset”? It’s a phrase that may be somewhat cliché, however your employees still represent the fuel that drives the engine of your business.
Consumers engaging with your company care about their experience dealing with you - was it memorable; difficult; or a truly remarkable engagement? Did the phone get answered promptly by someone with energy and excitement in their voice? Did promises get fulfilled faster than expected, or at all?
This is what really compels a consumer to become a customer and can spark word-of-mouth referrals as they tell their colleagues what it was like to deal with you.
Yet the reality within many workplaces is that these most important assets are often left to wither, due to a lack of maintenance and reinvestment. Their value is often overlooked in favour of other things such as sales revenues and production costs.
In this article, we look at how to motivate and energise your workforce to ensure you retain your top talent.
Value your workforce
There are studies that clearly demonstrate that productivity drops significantly when people don’t feel engaged. Realise that your best performing employees will come from the ranks of the most engaged and understand that employee engagement drives business outcomes. Keep in mind that it’s through your employees that customer loyalty is built.
Invest in them
There are no generally accepted standards for measuring the value of people, however, in order to get a return on any asset, you MUST invest in that asset.
Your employees need to know you value them as much as you do any customer and one way to show them, is to invest in their professional development. This shows you care and support their success and that you value them and their contributions.
Help leaders lead
People in management positions play a vital role in engaging people and getting results. You need to set the pace and tone, communicate expectations, get people actively involved in running the day-to-day business, and provide regular coaching and feedback so your employees can keep the momentum going.
Mentors, trainers and other models have their value, but it is the employee's manager who seems to have the greatest influence.
Provide career progression and recognition
A lack of career progression can be a source of demotivation, especially for those who feel they’re not being properly recognised. They may stay in the job instead of leaving, but simply find ways to disengage. You need to ensure that suitable employees are able to move forward professionally and be recognised when they do a good job.
Studies have shown that when it comes to job satisfaction, culture, community and recognition are actually more important to many employees than continued financial gain. Small rewards and recognition from management can go a long way including combining tasks, forming self-directed teams, rotating assignments, job sharing, etc.
Encourage passion-driven teams
Passion-driven teams value trust, belief in the team's ability and an attitude of sharing best practices. They also value camaraderie, commitment and continually talk about the team's common purpose.
Poor relationships with colleagues can create an uncomfortable work environment for employees and lead to a complete lack of collaboration and team-oriented engagement.
Set achievable KPIs
To encourage growth from your team, set achievable goals and objectives that can be scaled up quarterly or annually. Setting performance indicators that are extremely tough or even unattainable, will simply frustrate team members and foster a feeling of being undervalued even if, in reality, they’ve done a good job.
Release control!
Whilst it can be tempting to seize control of your employee’s work, it can often rob team members of a sense of ownership and leave them demotivated. If you want to keep your team energised and motivated, ensure they feel ownership and control of their output.
Inject fun into the workplace
We’re not suggesting constant laughter and water balloon fights, just a fresh twist on things; a little spontaneity. Studies show that fun enhances creativity in the workplace and does not diminish productivity when everyone's work and collaboration goals are clear. Let fun happen!
Encourage communication
A team that doesn’t feel comfortable communicating with management will often result in fewer shared ideas, lower levels of collaboration, a more unhappy work environment and less-efficient problem solving. Encourage an open-door policy and ensure that team members are comfortable using it!
And lastly, hire for fit!
Getting the right people in the door in the first place is obviously a key to increasing the odds of keeping them. How are your job candidates specifically screened for a good fit with your organisation's professed values and team’s culture?
Conclusion
If you're serious about creating a workforce that's engaged and productive, you must devote time and attention to creating environments in which the people on your teams can flourish. And when they flourish, you must take measures to ensure they are protected and well cared for, because that's what people do with their most celebrated and valuable assets.
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Halee Reid is a Senior Consultant in Dixon Appointments' Recruitment Team. For further information, contact Halee on 03 9629 9999 or email: hreid@dixonappointments.com.au