Employee Motivation 101: No, Keep the Pompoms

Organisational tasks can be mundane and boring at times – let’s not kid ourselves. We’ve all had to experience that feeling of perpetually working on the same given responsibilities. Having to key in mountains of data; filing of a never-ending increase stack of documents; making routine phone calls to clients who have never answered your calls; a constant back-and-forth between two points. Eventually, demotivation takes over, we start withdrawing our commitment to the organisation, and end up delivering just enough to get by.

When faced with demotivated employees, what can organisational leaders to do undo the damage? 

Expressing gratitude to your employees is a fundamental step-one to recognising their efforts to the organisation. It doesn’t have to be anything grand or spectacular, a simple gesture is usually enough to get them back on track – a simple face-to-face ‘thank you; treating the team to a nice lunch – making sure your employees are aware that their work is appreciated.

Another way is to engage with your employees to understand the source of their demotivation. Communicate with them to figure out why they have been disconnected with their tasks-at-hand, and discuss potential ways in reestablishing their motivation. What’s important is not to dismiss their concerns, and instead identify underlying causes of demotivation within the organisation, in order to prevent future cases from surfacing.

It becomes difficult to commit to the organisation when employees just see themselves as cogs in the machine. Take the initiative to remove any notions of unimportance by letting them know how they contribute to the growth and development of the organisation. Foster a sense of accountability within employees, which functions to improve the connection between them and their tasks – and by extension, the organisation.

However, these steps do not suggest that employers are wholly accountable for re-motivating their employees. The onus is also on organisational personnel themselves in figuring out the source of their demotivation, or on working with those who are actively helping them back on track – such as employers who are using the previously mentioned approaches! It takes two to tango, and the responsibility lies with both employee and employer in delivering 100% to their responsibilities.

Link: Employee Motivation Has to Be More Than 'a Pat on the Back'

Image Source:

(1) ciphr.com

(2) leadershipmanagement.com.au

(3) myronstaana.net

(4) centerforworklife.com

Benjamin Lee Cheng Han | Benjamin is a student of International Relations at the University of Nottingham, currently exploring unchartered realms in the Public Relations field. Writing is clearly his interest – a decisive contributor to his foray into the public relations industry. To date, he boasts the proud record of having tamed one of the office cats, and drinking expired tea from the pantry.