How can you motivate your employees in a good way?

How to motivate employees?

As a manager, you've probably asked yourself the question "What does it take to motivate my employees?" Motivation in the workplace contributes to increased productivity and job satisfaction. By having motivated employees, you will achieve increased turnover and increased well-being in the workplace. But what does it take to motivate your employees? Can you motivate them? Does motivation only come from within? Or are there other factors that come into play that you can influence?

By having motivated employees, you will achieve increased turnover and increased well-being in the workplace. Also when it comes to working from home.

What exactly is motivation?

Being motivated to do a task means that you have a desire to do something. The fact that our actions are motivated by something means that we aim to achieve a specific goal. When talking about motivation, it's important to distinguish between two main types of motivation, intrinsic and extrinsic. You should always keep this in mind when it comes to employee follow-up.

Intrinsic motivation is our inner driving force that propels us towards achieving the defined goal, this is our own interests and curiosity. It comes from yourself, that you find motivation in the task itself. It's something you look forward to tackling and you see the task as pleasurable. This inner drive may be that you learn more in an area, that you get to test your skills, or that you embark on a completely new project that you are looking forward to.

When we talk about motivation, it's important to distinguish between two main types of motivation, intrinsic and extrinsic.

Outer motivation, on the other hand, is a driving force that comes from the external environment. Outermotivation can therefore be said to be an external driving force towards a goal, such as a sense of duty towards your employees to show up for work or that you want to do a good job in order to raise a higher salary.

How to motivate employees working from home?

As employees adapt to how, when and where they work, the coronavirus situation provides a great opportunity for employers to improve what they already know is important. Of course, these goals are self-evident in the regular workplace, but are even more important when it comes to working from home.

Set clear goals

As an employer, it is important that you set clear goals for your employees. What can be achieved during this period? Are the expectations realistic? Feel free to allow employees to set up their own working day as they wish. This will contribute to increased motivation among your employees, which increases the chances of them succeeding in their tasks and chores.

Have meetings more often

Working with greater distances places new demands on accessibility and user-friendliness. Meetings on digital platforms must therefore be more structured than regular meetings in the office, where you see each other more often. Have a clear plan of what you're going to discuss at the meeting, so it's easier for you to come up with decisions and solutions, and for the meeting to be effectively followed up at a later date.

Another reminder is to hold meetings on digital platforms such as video, Teams or Zoom, and not on the phone. At least when it comes to longer meetings. Video meetings help to make your employees more active, making it easier to interact more with each other.

Provide frequent feedback

This point goes without saying in all meetings, but it's even more important when employees work from home and don't have the opportunity to see managers as often. It's important that employees feel valued. Therefore, provide frequent and specific feedback on what the employee is doing well and what can be improved .

Sitting in a home office for several hours can make employees feel forgotten and lonely, leaving them unsure whether the work they do is relevant or not. Therefore, have regular, frequent and good appraisals so that both parties are aware of routines and tasks. Feel free to follow a separate performance review template so that you are prepared for the review in the best possible way.

Distinguish between office and leisure

When you work from home in the living room, it's easy to mix both office hours and leisure time. Who among us hasn't gotten up, put on sweatpants, and then sat down in front of the screen without remembering breakfast? At least until your stomach starts rumbling around 2 in the afternoon.

That's why it's important that you plan your working day as if you were going to the office. Dress in work clothes, whether it's a blouse or a shirt (a dress and suit may not be necessary). Schedule breaks, plan your lunch, and at the end of the day, move away from your office chair to the comfort of your couch. In this way, you separate work and leisure time in a similar way as if you had gone to the office normally.

It's important that you plan your working day as if you were going to the office. Dress in work clothes, whether it's a blouse or a shirt.

Have informal video meetings

One of the biggest things to miss about the workplace is the sight of other colleagues. Who doesn't miss the communal lunches and chats by the water dispenser at work? Only seeing each other in work meetings can be stressful, so it's important that you arrange as many informal video meetings as possible. These can be virtual group lunches, or daily and weekly chats. Of course, this is not the same as being in the workplace, but it helps to remove tension and stress from the job, as well as increasing well-being among employees.

Take breaks!

This goes a bit under the heading of distinguishing between office and leisure time. But this should be a separate item on the agenda. Take breaks! Preferably in the form of walks or jogs in the neighborhood. Stretching your legs and exercising is definitely important in these times.

Other tips you can start using today

As a leader in an organization, you need to enable each employee to find their own motivational factors. It's a matter of defining goals for each employee and setting measures to achieve these goals. Everyone sees the world differently, some people are more motivated by the external environment than others and most people have different goals. As a manager, you need to understand that each employee perceives the world differently from both you and other employees. What is motivating for one employee may be unmotivating for another. Some people need frequent confirmation, while for others this is not as important.

To-do list: 7 general motivational tips

• Give praise in public
• Give praise (feedback) one to one
• Give recognition more often
• Provide feedback on work done
• Have confidence in your employees
• Have frequent performance reviews
• Show enthusiasm when something goes well

How to awaken inner motivation?

As you can see, the tips above are focused on improving the intrinsic motivation of each employee. Several surveys show that intrinsic motivation is the most driving of these two forms of motivation. But it turns out that companies are still clinging to extrinsic motivation factors, such as bonuses, in the almost desperate hope that it will work.

It turns out that companies still cling to these external motivation factors, such as bonus schemes, in an almost desperate hope that it works. 

It turns out that the ability to communicate well is the most important tool a manager can possess to increase employee motivation. Listening is the key to good communication, and one of the most important things you need to learn as a manager who wants to act as a motivator for your employees.

The 3 levels of listening

There's a big difference between listening to and listening to what the other person is saying. It's all about making an active effort when listening to what an employee has to say. We divide listening into these three levels so you can uncover which level you're listening at:

Inner listening

You focus on yourself, judging what is being said based on your own values and thoughts, looking for similar stories you have experienced yourself. This level is good for learning more about yourself, but is not the right level for listening to the other person.

Focused listening

You focus on the other person, you don't judge, you show interest and empathy, you put into words what is being said and use questions that make the other person aware. You will gain greater insight into everything that is being said and you seem more curious. The employee you are talking to feels cared for and heard.

Think back to the last conversation you had, what level were you listening at?

Global listening

You focus on the other person, reading body language, voice, facial expressions, presence and mood. You use all your senses to perceive what is not being said and create understanding based on more than what is communicated verbally.