Whenever an organisation loses a staff member, the first question is whether they were being paid enough. It is convenient for employees who leave organisations to sight poor remuneration as the reason for their departure.

Research has, however, shown that employees leave organisations for reasons other than poor remuneration. The same poor remuneration reason is often cited by managers when employees show low motivation, which may manifest as poor performance, a high number of grievances, conflict, bad customer services and many other manifestations at the individual and company level.

There is no dought that managers know that scientific research has demonstrated that motivated employees perform better than unmotivated staff. When employees are engaged in what they do, they expend more discretionary effort. This means managers spent less time supervising such employees.

Gallop(2020) did an excellent study on employee engagement, a higher order of employee motivation. They looked at 456 scientific studies on employee engagement (meta-analysis study). They looked at employee engagement and company performance in 112 313 businesses covering 2,708,538 employees.

They found that companies in the lower quartile in employee engagement and those in the upper quartile had marked median business performance differences.

– 10% in customer loyalty/engagement
– 23% in profitability
– 18% in productivity (sales)
– 18% in turnover for high-turnover organizations (those with more than 40% annualized turnover)
– 43% in turnover for low-turnover organizations (those with 40% or lower annualized turnover)
– 64% in safety incidents (accidents)
– 28% in shrinkage (theft)
– 41% in quality (defects)
– 66% in wellbeing (net thriving employees)
– 13% in organizational citizenship (participation)

The results above clearly show a business case for companies to ensure that their employees are motivated. Research has consistently shown that money or the paycheck does not encourage employees to perform better. This is why things like performance bonuses and incentives have not worked well to drive company performance.

A company can do a lot to drive employee motivation and, in turn, increase business performance. I share with you below some of the strategies that have been found to work wonders on employee motivation.

The number one motivator for employees is the feeling that they are doing work that positively impacts people’s lives. These people could be customers. Scientific experiments have been done to show the impact of meaningful work on employees. If you can create jobs that allow employees to connect with the effect they are having on people’s lives, you will have done half of what is needed to motivate staff. Share with employees the impact of your products or services on the community.

Show your employees that you value them. Show publicly that you value their contribution and that the leadership is grateful for their contribution. Inculcate in your leadership the need to respect employees for their contribution in making the organisation successful.
Employees need to feel they can raise concerns(both negative or positive) about their work without facing censure.

They must be allowed to disagree with their bosses respectfully. Allow your employees to raise issues without fearing for their job security. That way, you motivate them to bring the problems to the fore. Organisations found to have this high level of psychological safety tend to be more innovative and less likely to be surprised by huge problems because employees will bring them to the managers’ attention.

There are documented case studies where lack of psychological safety led to disasters. Do you know that employees were aware of the problems and solutions required before the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan? They never brought these issues to management’s attention because the management approach was unforgiving to anyone perceived to have challenged their authority or implying that management was not doing things right.

Similar findings were also reported in the post-accident review of the Boeing 737 Max.

Employees want to feel that the management and leadership system is entirely behind them and would like them to succeed. That the company leadership will do everything possible to provide the necessary resources to allow them to succeed. Never let employees feel they are digging into their resources to subsidise the company. This could be when they are serving customers or when they are travelling on company business.
Empower your employees to make decisions within policy guidelines. When employees feel their employers trust them to make the right decisions, they are motivated to produce quality products and services.

Create an environment that allows every employee to develop and grow to their highest potential. You do not necessarily have to hire Consultants to do the training of your staff. You can use the internal resources of people who are already capable of training people internally. I see companies, for example, hiring people to train staff on report writing, communication, excel training etc. when there are already people within with these skills at the highest level.

Google, for example, does not hire external people to train their staff, they use internal experts to training their staff and offer a token of appreciation to the trainers. When employees feel the organisation is investing in their growth by training them, they tend to be more motivated and committed to the company.

Teach your managers to treat employees fairly. Being hard does not motivate employees. Employees want to feel that they will be treated fairly and equitably in their dealings with the company. Employees want to feel that they will be heard if they raise a concern.

Keep your employees updated on what is going on within the company. This includes good and bad times. This includes sharing both good and bad news transparently.

The process of setting salaries must be seen to be fair and equitable(process equity). Most organisations are not transparent in how certain individuals earn more than similar individuals in the same role or grade. Because of too much secrecy where it is not necessary, employees speculate on why John is earning more than Glady’s when these people are in the same grade. When there is process equity in how remuneration decisions are made, employees are willing to go the extra mile because they know their employer mean harm to them.

Make your employees love working for the organsiation. Create a human-centred organisation, not just a results-focused organisation. When you treat your employees well, they will reciprocate with better performance.
Ensure that at every level within the organisation, you have exemplary leadership. Leadership that inspires confidence in the employees. A leadership that demonstrate respect for the employees they lead.

Research has consistently shown that employers that focus on employee psychological support than financial support have a more sustainable relationship with their employees. Throwing money at every problem or concern employees raise will not help the organisation in the long run. Also, remember if you through more money at employers, they will take it. Unfortunately, after taking the money, more problems emerge, and they will not be motivated to perform better.

Memory Nguwi is an Occupational Psychologist, Data Scientist, Speaker, & Managing Consultant- Industrial Psychology Consultants (Pvt) Ltd, a management and human resources consulting firm.

https://www.thehumancapitalhub.com email: [email protected]  or visit our website at www.ipcconsultants.com