- Inspire with a vision
- Allow autonomy in setting goals
- Encourage Peer Recognition
Employee motivation comes in many shapes and sizes, but basically breaks down two types of initiative. Some employees appear to lack intrinsic motivation but can be compelled to accomplish certain tasks. Others are highly internally motivated, very creative, and satisfied with their work.
Intrinsic motivation, a key factor of engaged employees, is something that is fostered in certain environments. A few employees may possess a healthy dose of internal motivation no matter how miserable a work situation becomes. But, most people will lose intrinsic motivation and job satisfaction in a micromanaging, negative environment.
Take a look at children for an example:
Young children possess vast amounts of internal curiosity, creativity, and exploration. A three-year-old child loves to help with dishes, push a vacuum or sweep. But, they aren’t very effective at actual cleaning. Work is synonymous with play until control, criticism, and fear of failure make the work tedious.
But many managers in today’s work understand that beating employees with fear of punishment really doesn’t reap rewards in the long term. Workplaces have evolved into safer, more positive, and inspiring places.
Three small steps can cultivate an environment that fosters high levels of employee engagement and keeps employees motivated through challenging times.
Let’s dive in.
Inspire With Purpose and Vision
Corporate purpose drives decisions, innovation, and is often mentioned in meetings. But, at many companies, non-managers don’t hear about the company vision all that often. This becomes a big perception gap where managers think in terms of company vision, but may fail to communicate those thoughts to employees.
As a result many employees have only a vague idea of the corporate mission, and fewer can translate that vision into why their particular job makes a difference.
Consider asking your employees to write the mission or goals of your company on index cards. Then collect and read the responses. Do your employees have a good grasp of the reasons why things are done?
Inspire employees with even the most routine and mundane jobs by showing them how their job makes an important difference to the success of the business and in turn affects clients, partners, and the world at large. Once employees can translate how their effort makes a difference, and they believe it, even the most mundane tasks can feel important.
Encourage Goal-Setting Autonomy
After employees have a clear vision of the purpose and importance of their work, allow employees ownership of their goals and the ability to create an individual vision based on their responsibilities. And, instead of an annual goal and review session, consider meeting more regularly with employees. This can be a formal or informal meeting that occurs anywhere from once a month to quarterly to review their success and any challenges.
More regular consulting allows employees to ask for resources they need to get assistance with a challenge they haven’t been able to overcome. In addition to meeting regularly, having set open-office hours may allow employees to ask for help as they need.
When asking for specific behavior or goals, consider using words such as “think about” “consider” or “imagine” instead of “should” “do,” and “must.” Certain words have the power to inspire, while others imply control and force. Simply changing your verbiage can change the tone of goal-setting sessions and hand control back to employees.
Studies show that employees who have a hand in setting their own goals often set higher goals than managers would have set for them. And, they are far more likely to succeed at self-imposed goals than they are to respond to an outside goal, even those with rewards attached to them.
Encourage Peer Recognition For Great Performance
In employee motivation, top-down recognition can carry mistakes that harm motivation. But, peer to peer recognition usually avoids those mistakes. Peers don’t have the authority to use rewards to control behavior. Instead of using the glitter of a prize to induce, peers can provide a gift that says “thank you” after great behavior is demonstrated.
This allows employees to retain their autonomy because the awards are not contingent on specific, preset behavior. Employees aren’t being “bribed” to behave in a certain way. Peer recognition serves as a way to reinforce good behavior simply because the company, or management doesn’t control recognition. Peer recognition is even more effective when peers have access to awards they can hand out.
Check out the SPOT feature on Thanks
Peer awards function as a positive reinforcement of great behavior, but aren’t guaranteed to be given every time an employee does a great job and so they don’t become addicting and require more and more money to be thrown at a particular trait to maintain it.
Another benefit of peer recognition is that it often happens more frequently and in the moment than manager or company-based awards. This serves to further reinforce positive behavior.
Plus, peers who recognize others also receive benefits. They are more likely to be satisfied with their job and their engagement increases. Peer recognition strengthens bonds between employees, creating increased feelings of belonging and well-being at work.
The benefits go on.
- Peer recognition can have deeper motivation than manager recognition because of the absence of power to control
- Peer recognition occurs faster and better reinforces good behavior because of the “in the moment” reinforcement
- Peer recognition is often between individuals and not broadcast publicly as often, creating a deeper connection and meaning to the recognition. The recognizer doesn’t have a “publically vested” interest in recognizing.
- Awards are not contingent on specific behavior, which allows employees to retain their autonomy and internal drive.
- Peer recognition doesn’t create an environment or always rewarding specific behavior and thus becoming addiction.
- Peer recognition doesn’t encourage employees to cheat the system.
- Peer recognition strengthens bonds of friendship and belonging.
- Recognizing peers become more engaged at work and report a higher job satisfaction than non-recognizing peers.
- Both the employee being recognized and the one recognizing benefits.
- Team unity is strengthened.
- Peer recognition can help to eliminate competition among colleagues, thus strengthening internal inertia and motivation.
Conclusion
Employee engagement continues to chart the path to more productive companies, better services, and a happier society. Managers want what’s best for their employees and tweaking their approach to employee interactions can have a much bigger impact when employees are handed back ownership of their responsibilities and goals. Peer recognition allows for positive reinforcement without appearing to control or induce behavior and thus taking away internal drive.
About Thanks
Thanks is a leading provider of a recognition-based platform that increases communication, builds teamwork, and makes recognition a part of company culture. Fast, easy and simple Thanks makes it easy to bring data-driven employee recognition to your entire organization. O.C. Tanner purchased the Thanks platform in 2019 to fulfill the recognition needs of smaller businesses.
Thanks customers benefit from the same decades of research in employee motivation and company culture that O.C. Tanner enterprise clients enjoy, but in a product that is geared for fast, easy and simple deployment. Whether you’re starting a recognition program or improving and expanding on what you already have, Thanks has everything you need to engage your people with effective, scalable recognition.