Motivation is key to getting your staff out of bed and into work every morning. So why are so many employers getting it so wrong?

When was the last time that you felt excited and inspired, valued and indispensable? Or so proud of your achievements that you had to be restrained from grabbing strangers and giving them a blow by blow account? Then throw your work into the equation and ask yourself whether these feelings were inspired by your job. If they weren’t, your answers will tell you everything you need to know about why your employee motivation strategies may not be adding up.

Employee motivation is like the Holy Grail of employment relations. You know that you want it, but when it comes to finding it you just don’t know where to start. The long hours culture, the struggle with the work/life balance agenda and the perennial lack of time and money all seem to be impossible to overcome when you want to see your staff skip into work.

Moving away from the traditional forelock-tugging culture is slow progress and there are plenty of studies that reveal how big a task employee motivation has become.

What Everyone Wants

According to recent research, 76% of us know or suspect that a colleague is looking for a new job, revealing how badly employers need to motivate their staff. Workplace communications consultancy CHA has found that 60% of the UK’s workforce plan to leave their jobs in the next two years, although this could be dramatically reduced if they felt motivated. A survey by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) revealed that a corporate ‘pressure cooker’ exists in the UK thanks to a lack of promotion opportunities. “This is a huge issue,” says Petra Cool of the CMI. “There is nothing worse than a de-motivated workforce. Remember the last time you were served in a shop by someone who looked unhappy? Well, that’s the result of poor motivation. It’s bad for productivity and bad for the bottom line.”

It seems that the problem lies with the pressure to meet targets and push performance which leaves employers with little time to recognise the needs of their employees. Inevitably the cash comes first.

The way our business structures are organised is also a problem. Loyal, hard-working staff find that when they want to move upwards there is nowhere for them to go. Not all of them can sit at the top and then retention becomes a problem too.

Making Changes – The Solutions

So what should you be doing to create the glowing workforce that will stop your business becoming a statistic? First, know what you want. Vicky Hoad is an Account Manager for Blue Rocket Group, a media relations company, and is a great example of what a motivated employee actually looks like. “Everyone has a voice here and is made to feel valued,” she says. “The training is hands-on and there is the feeling that your contribution matters. We are encouraged to follow our own creative ideas, set ourselves individual challenges and even fulfil personal ambitions. There are open channels of communication and I have even been able to talk about both professional matters and personal issues. The result is that there’s a motivation and loyalty here that I haven’t seen in other companies. Things really would have to change radically for me to leave.”

It almost sounds too good to be true, but Vicky’s experience is one that many companies would do well to recreate. Not only has Blue Rocket Group created a workforce that many employers would kill for, it has also found the key to sparking a motivational chain reaction that helps reduce recruitment worries and create corporate stability. Luckily, though, the key is available to anyone. Adrian Bailey, Director of People Fan Club, a consultancy that helps companies improve employee motivation, explains how to find it.

“There are two types of motivation,” he says, “one is extrinsic, such as money and job titles, and one is intrinsic, such as doing an activity for the sake of it. The latter is what gets us out of bed in the morning. Bring this into the workplace and you have a strong workforce that is self-managed, flexible and ready for change.”

According to Bailey, the average worker relies on several factors to make them feel motivated. As well as a being challenged, stretched and interested they need some freedom and control over how they work as well as the chance to create meaningful connections with anyone from their customers to their colleagues.

“But employers fall into two camps,” Bailey says. “There are those who have cottoned onto why motivation is so important and there are those who still think it is all about the money. And if your culture is not already based on those important intrinsic factors then things can be hard to change.”

But not impossible. In the first instance, change comes from making time for employees, understanding what they want and acting upon it. For most of us this is summed up as a sense of achievement, being valued and having the chance to shine. It is also about leading by example. Each manager has to understand each of their employees, what is important to them and how they can deliver it. And then they really do have to deliver it.

Meaning Your Message

There is the question of balance too. Communication is vital to motivation. No one wants to work in the dark, but no one wants to be mindlessly badgered with useless information either. Patronising mantras or empty promises will backfire. Instead it is about meaningful messages that are supported by actions from a genuinely interested management structure.

“Employer and employee relations have changed,” explains Peter Thomson of the Future Work Forum. “It’s no longer about telling people to get on with their work. Instead, it’s about giving them a series of tasks instead, much like hiring contractors.”

Thomson believes that if people have more control over their lives they can be more creative and productive then ever before. The fact is that sitting at a desk is the least productive place for many employees and they don’t get the urge to be creative when their manager is peering over their shoulder either.

“Treat employees like children and that’s how they’ll act,” Thomson says. Employers have to realise that trust goes a long way and that this is a huge part of motivation. It is also about recognizing a job well done. “Look at the way so many employees operate. Two workers do the same job, yet the one who stays until late every night gets paid overtime and is praised for working hard. So what of the worker who leaves early every day because they have finished all their tasks? Shouldn’t they be the ones that are rewarded instead?

Importantly, Thomson agrees that by failing to create employee motivation those businesses that are struggling to recruit staff are missing out on the one tool that could seriously reverse their fortunes. “This is a great way for those businesses with little money to work. Rather than attracting employees with cash you can give them flexible working practices, work life balance and control that they want instead. It’s about being a good employer and there is never a substitute for that.”