Motivation is a powerful incentive for employees to bring their best work. It refers to how driven and happy an employee is in their role. Even though it might seem that a paycheck may be enough as an incentive or motivation, which could not be farther from the truth. Motivation is more than just money and employees thrive on it. First, you need to understand why motivation is important before you can draw up a viable motivational plan.

Improves Productivity

It is not unusual for individuals to be demotivated to continue in their position particularly if they have been in the same role for many years. So why does productivity drop? Productivity may drop when the employee cannot find a reason to improve or lose the desire to continue. The solution for this loss in productivity is to make the team engaged and motivated. The rise in motivation will easily increase productivity, output, and profits. According to hrzone.com, adding goals, rewards and challenges can make work more interesting to employees. As a result, employees will try harder to reach their goals, which will benefit both them and the company. 

The Feeling of Positivity

The feeling of being demotivated can make it even harder to achieve your goals even on a normal day. For instance, waking up with a sore throat or seeing that it is going to rain for the whole day will make it seem like a good day to take the day off. Nevertheless, motivated employees come to work every single day. Instead of looking down on work as drudgery they must perform to pay their bills, they enjoy the challenge and find satisfaction working on individual and team projects.

Decreased Turnovers

Motivated employees are more likely to be happier to work with you and less likely to search for new jobs. If you regard your employees whether through raises, bonuses, flexible work schedules, or kind words, will make them more loyal to you and the company. Recruitment and training costs decline when you have a stable staff and that contributes to a positive company image. A positive company image attracts better and more talented employees.

Motivation is Contagious

Engaged employees can be sources of inspiration and encouragement to the other staff members. When your team overall is motivated and inspired to contribute to the success of the company, they might be more likely to help a colleague who might be struggling to find traction or motivation to continue.  That kind of personal touch can help employees overcome problems and crises that can affect the quality of their work.

It is difficult to assign a metric to measure employee motivation. The only genuine way to measure motivation is to know how employees are feeling actually. Annual surveys are too infrequent and take too long. By the time, you ask for feedback, the employee might have been living with those problems for a year and may have already had detrimental effects on the business.

So instead, conduct short and frequent surveys that make it easier for HR to gather data and act quickly. Furthermore, make them confidential as some people find it harder to be fully honest in person.

Showing that you care, listen and act upon the things that matter to them, will – ultimately maintain motivation.