5 secrets to motivating your team

Most companies have some idea of how to motivate their employees, however many ignore the emotional and developmental needs of their staff. In this blog post, we highlight five key areas that you can use to make your team more motivated and happy in the workplace. 1. Responsibility Frederick Herzberg, famous for the Motivator-Hygiene theory, states that job enrichment is vital for intrinsic staff motivation, arguing that:

• The job should have sufficient challenge to utilise the full ability of the employee
• Employees who demonstrate increasing levels of ability should be given increasing levels of responsibility
• If a job cannot be designed to use an employee's full abilities, then the firm should consider automating the task or replacing the employee with one who has a lower skill. If a person cannot be fully utilised, then there will be a motivation problem.

Essentially, responsibility makes people feel valued and as long as they are not overloaded (which can be demotivating) employees thrive when given more accountability for a wider range of tasks or bigger projects. 2. Recognition Recognition is widely agreed to be one of the biggest motivators of employees, with multiple research into the subject pointing towards its positive impact on motivation. As Fiona Thomas, Director of Education at Net Languages, argues, “If the person who is directly responsible for us does not seem to notice or care when we perform outstandingly, we understandably feel unappreciated. This in turn can affect our work performance to the detriment of the organisation we work for. “Recognition from colleagues or those higher up the ladder can also be very effective at motivating us. This, I believe, tends to happen most in a climate where there is a general sense of well-being and appreciation within an organisation. People who work in an environment where recognition is part of the institutional culture are much more likely to reciprocate in kind.” 3. Provide an inspiring office environment Want to increase motivation with a few simple licks of paint, better lighting or temperature? Here’s the lowdown on the impact of office environment, according to the stats and information cited on DeskTime.com:

• VIBE conducted a study which found that multiple computer screens increase productivity and efficiency by 9 to 50 percent, especially when it comes to tasks such as cutting and pasting.
• Studies show that comfortable, well-ventilated and well-lit, safe workplaces increase productivity as much as 16 percent and job satisfaction as much as 24 percent, while reducing absenteeism
• In one study by the Centre for the Built Environment, researchers found “some evidence” that poor ventilation decreased productivity in a call centre
• In a study conducted by RPI, workers in windowed offices were shown to spend 15 percent more time staying on task than colleagues in windowless offices

4. Involving employees in brainstorming and company decisions Involving employees in brainstorming and company decisions shows them that you trust them, value their input and want to establish a culture whereby your staff can make a real difference to the future of the business. Feeling valued is an incredibly motivating factor and will empower your staff to create ideas for the benefit of the business, not just in brainstorming meetings, but all year round. 5. Reward Reward doesn’t always have to mean money and even rewards that may not seem like grand gestures can have a big impact on employee motivation. You may want to consider some of the following:

• Team lunches
• Dress down days
• Go home early on Fridays
• Flexi-time
• Staff chill-out zones
• Profit share
• Commission – i.e. if an employee creates an idea that gets sold to a client, they get a cut of the project or sale value
• Team days out

Would you add any motivational tactics to the list? We’d love to hear your views, so please tweet us with your ideas to @Flexioffices and we’ll retweet our favourites.

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