How to motivate employees to achieve better results.
To achieve the best results, employees must as a minimum:
clearly understand the goals set for them and have an action plan to achieve them;
want to achieve their goals (have a sufficient level of motivation);
have the resources to achieve these goals.
Let's consider how to form a system within the company in which these points will work 'automatically'.
Goal Setting
Perhaps everyone knows that one of the important functions of management is planning. In every successful and structured company, department heads have clear, formulated plans for certain periods (a week, a month, a year; it varies in each company). Also, it is no secret that there are many companies with no plans, where staff do not understand what is expected of them, owners do not understand why their goals are not being met and where the money is, and HR professionals do not understand why people are being dismissed… As a rule, it is simple: the staff do not know about these goals, and this is primarily the problem of the owners, managers, and HR.
Solving this problem must start with the department heads. It is necessary to select managers with high organisational abilities, capable of planning and organising the work of the department, or to teach this to existing managers, provided they are capable of change.
In order to assess organisational abilities when selecting managers, it is necessary to use the 'Level of Organisational and Communicative Skills' test, which is fully automated on the Smart Way platform. Also, this test should be used when forming a talent pool. In this way, you will select managers capable of setting goals. But this is only part of the solution.
In order to effectively organise the work of subordinates, managers must have well-developed communication skills. It is not enough to write a plan, give it to an employee and say, "go and do it". It is very important to explain the goal itself in detail, why it is important to achieve it, how to do it, and then to ask the employee what and how they understood, to ensure the information has been received correctly. The same 'Level of Organisational and Communicative Skills' test is used to assess communication skills.
Having selected managers with high organisational and communication skills, you then need to teach employees how to achieve the set goals. To do this, you need to create training materials, instructions, regulations, and procedures, and ensure your staff study this material. For this to be effective, use the LMS system Smart Way, which will 'automatically' monitor the staff's study of all necessary materials.
So, once you have managers capable of effectively organising the team's work, your employees know what goals are set for them and are trained in how to achieve them, you need to ensure the employees are motivated so that they want to achieve the set goals.
Motivation
It is important to motivate employees 'correctly'. It often happens that a company has a motivation system, but for some reason, the employees are not motivated at all. The reason is very simple: as a rule, it is an economic motivation system built on the principles of achieving KPIs or OKRs, the result of which is financial reward.
But let's look at the well-known Maslow's pyramid
We see that financial reward is only the lowest level of motivation. Yes, if your employees do not have enough funds to provide themselves with food, clothing, and other basic necessities, then the system of economic motivation will work perfectly. But usually, these are only front-line employees with a low income. If we take middle-level employees or managers, they are already at the third level of the pyramid or higher, and financial reward is no longer a sufficient motivation for them. It is not that they do not need an economic motivation system; they certainly do, but it is not enough. For such staff, it is important to 'activate' a system of individual, non-material motivation. Because if department heads are not sufficiently motivated to achieve goals, then it is likely those goals will not be achieved.
So how do you build an effective system of non-material motivation in a company?
First, test all employees to identify their motivational types using the 'Professional Motivation Type' test, which is fully automated on the Smart Way platform. From our article “Motivational Types and How to Work with Them” you will learn how to motivate employees of different types and what demotivates them.
Having information on each company employee about what specifically motivates and demotivates them, the HR professional should provide each manager with a summary table, where the first column is the subordinate's full name, the second lists the factors that motivate them, and the third lists the factors that demotivate them.
Communicate the importance of non-material motivation to managers, explain why it is important and how it will affect work results, and at least once a month, check in on how it is working, so that managers do not forget to motivate their subordinates and remember what demotivates them.
Resource
Perhaps someone thought this was about the material resources needed for work? And you would be right; you need to provide staff with all the necessary material resources, but that's not what we are talking about here. It is important that employees have enough emotional resource. This is about burnout. The more productive an employee is, the faster they will burn out. In order not to lose the most productive employees, you need to monitor their level of burnout using the 'Professional Burnout Level' test, which is fully automated on the Smart Way platform. Conduct staff testing centrally once every six months, and individually when you see that 'something is not right' with an employee. If the burnout level is above average, let the employee rest. Depending on their motivational type, encourage and motivate them more. Create corporate programmes to reduce burnout, such as gym memberships, corporate English courses, or simply a trip to the cinema and the like, but do not force staff to participate; let them choose what they want.
Conclusion
By following these simple steps on a continuous basis, over time you will create a productive and motivated team in which people will enjoy working and will develop their company! This is a 'long game', a strategy that must be adhered to constantly. Its implementation may take more than one month or even a year, but by creating such an ecosystem, you will ensure the sustainable development of the company and high employee satisfaction.