Cultivating Employee Motivation: Five Evidence-Based Approaches

If your employees don't seem motivated, it's not necessarily a sign of a larger societal problem, but it may be an indication that your company could be doing more for its employees. So how can you create this spirit of optimism? Let’s take a closer look at the inside and outside of employee motivation.

How to motivate employees: 5 strategies to increase initiative

Higher employee motivation is linked to better job satisfaction, performance and even employee retention. So it's understandable that managers want to know: How can you motivate employees and take advantage of these benefits? Below are five employee motivation strategies that you can use to increase the motivation and ambition of your employees.

1.Build your base

It's easier to improve employee motivation if you know where to start. Gathering feedback from your employees will help you find out how motivated they currently feel in their role and what they need to feel even more motivated at work.

You can conduct a separate survey that focuses specifically on employee motivation, or you can look at the questions in your employee engagement survey that specifically address their level of motivation.

Our engagement index, for example, will help you gain some insights. It asks employees to rate their agreement with five statements, one of which relates to motivation:

[Company] motivates me to do more than I would in a similar role elsewhere.

Gathering employee feedback is also an opportunity to assess how they feel about other important aspects of your workplace - compensation, benefits and leadership. All of these aspects also affect employee motivation.

2.Connect employees to a larger purpose

Numerous studies show that employees are increasingly looking for meaning at work. And when an impressive 70% of employees say their own meaning is defined by their work, then companies need to help their employees find that sense of fulfillment and purpose.

The good news is that this is not only a feel-good activity for employees, but also for employers, as studies show that meaningful work increases both motivation and performance.

One of the best ways to foster this sense of meaning and purpose is to show employees why their work matters. Because they may not have the same insight as executives, managers need to provide them with these connections:

• How does their individual work contribute to team or company-wide goals?
• Why are these goals important to the organization?
• Why are these goals important to the industry or the broader community?

By tracking work upward in this way, employees get a much better sense of where and how they fit in - making their work more valuable and consequently more motivating.

3.Build social support

Social connectedness - the term for feeling connected to other people - has been shown to increase motivation at work. But unfortunately, that sense of belonging is increasingly difficult to achieve these days, especially as many teams continue to work remotely or in a hybrid format. In fact, two-thirds of workers admit they feel disconnected from their colleagues.

Providing regular opportunities for team members to connect with one another might be detrimental to motivation, but the opposite is true - it contributes to it.

Whether you do something small, like devoting the first 10 minutes of your weekly team meeting to personal small talk, or something big, like planning a team-wide company outing, strengthening these relationships can do wonders for motivation. Research shows that just feeling like you're part of a team increases motivation for challenging tasks.

4.Offer appropriate praise and recognition

When we receive praise or a compliment, our brain releases dopamine. Dopamine is often viewed as a feel-good chemical, but in reality it is closely linked to motivation. The brain enjoys dopamine, and it gives us an important nudge to get more of this reward.

Even this quick lesson in brain science should be enough to show you that a little recognition for employees can go a long way toward boosting motivation—as well as engagement.

Recognition doesn’t have to be complicated. A simple praise in a meeting or a handwritten note in recognition of a job well done can help employees feel more seen and valued. Just make sure things are evenly spaced out because employees will notice if you favor someone. Only 26% of employees feel they receive the same recognition as other team members with similar achievements.

And although a hearty “Good job!” has a lot of weight from a direct supervisor, you should also encourage frequent recognition from colleagues. Research shows that this type of praise increases engagement, performance and motivation.

5.Encourage advancement opportunities

When employees see a clear path forward, they are more likely to actually want to take those steps. For this reason, professional development has a positive impact on employee performance and motivation - inspiring them to strive for future successes and milestones.

Professional development opportunities promote both types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation means doing something because of the inherent satisfaction, while extrinsic motivation means doing something to get an external reward.

Both come into play when it comes to career advancement. Learning new skills or overcoming new challenges provides employees with a sense of accomplishment, as do more tangible rewards such as certifications, raises, or promotions.

Leaders can take advantage of this by outlining a motivating future for their employees, including clear career goals, and then supporting employees' development with plenty of resources, progress tracking and regular check-ins. After all, it's hard for employees to find the motivation to move toward a finish line if they don't know what or where it is.Motivation doesn't have to be a secret

Contrary to what every previous generation would have you believe, it's not that no one wants to work anymore - rather, the world of work is changing rapidly and so is the question of what helps employees best concentrate and motivate.

Ultimately, it’s up to leaders and companies to figure out how to feed that fire.

Tips by IceHrm, your trusted HR management software partner that helps organizations streamline their processes and enhance employee experiences.