Productivity Hacks: How to Keep Your Employees Motivated

These people—your employees — are working for you. Altogether they make a team, perfect to achieve goals and make things happen for your company. Sorry to say but you cannot run your company on your own, so you need these people. Showing gratitude is a way to show your employees that you care for them.

Many companies introduced flexible hours, yearly raises, complimentary bonuses, health insurance plans and similar ways to show their employees they care. A recent Gallup report showed that 76% of employees experienced symptoms of job burnout, stating reasons from poor management to an unmanageable workload to being treated unfairly at work. Sadly, the gloomy stats don’t stop here.

According to a CIPD 2020 survey report about Health and Wellbeing at Work, there has been a 37% increase in stress-related absence at work since last year (absenteeism), and 89% of employees said that they have worked while feeling unwell. Also, a McKinsey source states that workplace stress costs employers in the US nearly $200 billion every year in healthcare expenses.

The year 2021 survey of CIPD was a bit different due to the pandemic.

The report shows amid the pandemic, the employees’ situation didn’t get any better. Just under two-thirds of organizations (64%) offer some sort of insurance or protection initiatives, at least to some groups of staff; this is little changed from previous years. Insurance and protection benefits remain considerably more common in the private sector. Counselling services, employee assistance programs, ‘stop smoking’ support, wellbeing days, regular relaxation or exercise classes, and free flu vaccinations are more common among public sector organizations.

With several incentives and despite all the efforts and offers on the part of employers, employees do get stressed and effected their health in various ways at their workplace—but why so?

Not a Reward but a Threat

For most employees, the fancy perks create more frustration as instead of being motivated, they feel crushed by the continuous state of competition and even fear failure. It is not only the overburden of work but the fear of not being able to do satisfactory, consequently, employees suffer stress and frustration.

Facing failure or being unable to achieve the deadline is the biggest convict of causing stress.

So the rewards or the fancy perks become more of a threat than a reward. This situation results in either employees’ absence to relieve stress or working with stress. Both conditions are harmful as the former leads to further stress of not being able to achieve deadlines and the lateral results in inefficiency and ineffectiveness in tasks.

According to SHRM's 2017 Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement Report, only 29 per cent of employees are "very satisfied" with current career advancement opportunities available to them in the organization they work for.

With all those fancy perks and incentives, why these statistics? Why?

Simply because all these efforts of companies are designed by employers, not employees. By introducing such perks, employers feel confident that staff gains better work-life balance and feels more positive about their jobs and workplace. But the reality is the opposite because over 80% of people do the jobs. After all, they have to pay bills. They stick to their job, after all, they have to earn not because they are happy with their job.

Before heading towards the tips to show your employees that you care for them, first, have a look --

Why Is Employee Satisfaction Important?

A satisfied or you can say Happy (to be precise) employee is more efficient in his tasks. His contentment adds to his efficiency and he can efficiently achieve deadlines, as compared to a stressed employee.

Besides, with clarity and more consciousness, his active mind brings innovative ideas that can lead to the success of the company. As it is rightly said:

“Employees who believe that management is concerned about them as a whole person—not just an employee — are more productive, more satisfied, more fulfilled. Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which leads to profitability.”

Now you would contemplate that if all these fancy perks a company offers are insufficient to satisfy employees, then what can satisfy and motivate them?

How to Keep Your Employees Motivated

Don’t forget that your company and its success revolve around your employees. If your employee is happy, he is your best ambassador, especially in the digital world, where things move around so easily. So how you can make them happy, how you can show them you care for them as a person, is crucial.

• The most tried and tested element in every kind of relationship between humans is The Connection. The better your connection is, the more effective it will become. You must keep one-on-one contact with your employee to better know him, his needs and thoughts.
• Emphasis on the importance of employee wellbeing. A healthy (mentally and physically) employee is more productive.
• Positive communication is the key.
• Create a friendly environment.
• Know your employees. This way, you can understand what they need from you as a firm.
• Flexible work schedules; as it has been seen that the employees remain more productive, energetic and functional during a pandemic — work from home scenario. So flexible work hours not only add to their efficiency but their fresh mind brings more ideas of success for the company.
• The best and most effective way of increasing employee productivity is through one on one and timely appreciation of their efforts. Waiting for the annual dinner or appreciation awards to make the appreciative speech is of no good. Every person value appreciation when he has done something worth it, so appreciate your employee right at the spot in front of others so that they feel more motivated and peers also get the motivation.
• Recognizing individuality in team works is a gift and this gift can help you create a team that can create possibilities. An employee will be more functional if he knows he will be accredited for whatever efforts he is making. The worst and most heartbreaking thing is when another person gets the spotlight of your efforts. So with one-on-one connection and timely appreciation, you can spare yourself from inflicting emotional damage to the employee.
• Be fair—have a keen eye on who is making how many efforts. Relying on other employees to judge and appreciate the efforts of a particular employee can sometimes result in misguidance because of prejudice. Practice appreciation and equality based on the efforts you see. Don’t wait for any validation from another employee.

In the end, it is your company and your employees and your success, so be a leader worth following and care for your employees’ wellbeing. As it is a digital world and things move around easily, so tailor support to individuals’ needs, and provide additional support to your people.