Why employee motivation is important & how to improve it

Satisfying this need, or getting the thing we want or lack is the goal. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology proposed by the American psychologist Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation”. This is a theory of psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human needs in priority, culminating in self-actualization. It is possible to boost intrinsic motivation through extrinsic means. Cameron argues that external motives can promote children’s willingness to learn, and that they are not harmful to students’ intrinsic motivation.

We found out that if there’s no action, there’s no motivation. We also learned that action comes before, and motivation comes after, and with that, comes more motivation. The biggest difficulty of using motivation theories to get the most out of your staff is that there’s no single approach that works for everyone. These are basic, physiological needs that you are probably already doing in your small business. It’s simple but recognising an employee’s hard work can have a tremendous impact. Recognition can take many forms from an informal “thank you” or Kudos to a glitzier employee of the month or year award.

Collaboration between teams in the company allows ideas to be developed further. Working with those with different skill sets will, in turn, create more innovative results. In teams, there’s power in numbers and anyone experiencing a lack of motivation should be boosted by those around them. Maintaining and improving motivation in the workplace can be a problem for many companies, as not every task will be interesting. Therefore businesses must find ways to keep their employees engaged. If you’re setting a goal you need to actually believe you can achieve it. There is no point expecting to run a marathon in a few weeks if you have never run round the block.

why we need motivation

Have frequent conversations with individual team members to evaluate their targets. Ensure they agree with the level of challenge being provided. Employee motivation is an important factor in creating a strong company culture, as well as driving collaboration. When an employee feels a connection to the work they do and are committed to their role and the company, their enthusiasm and work ethic is likely to have a positive impact on other employees.

When insulin levels are high, our hunger is stimulated, and our blood glucose level is lowered. Glucose is a form of sugar in our blood that is a major source of energy and, when levels are low, makes base-ac.in us feel hungry. As we move along, we’ll dive into a few examples of concepts of motivation in psychology. We have developed a methodology to help individuals and businesses to harness motivation.

Creating the Culture

Comes from outside the learner and may be the promise of something good (more money, a better position etc.) or the threat of something bad (losing your job, being demoted etc.). I really enjoy all my lessons and work hard at learning vocabulary and grammar. It’s fun to speak another language properly and I can read novels and watch films in English, too, and that’s great. It just makes sense, you are more likely to be motivated if you’ve chosen to complete a task than if you’re told to. Allowing your workers autonomy in their roles is a proven way of increasing their engagement and motivation. The best way to create an atmosphere where they are comfortable to take on new challenges is to lead by example.

In relation to management, theory X suggests that managers should ensure close supervision over employees and does not encourage innovation. Employees’ commitment to the organisation will increase if the job is satisfying and rewarding. Actively disengaged – these individuals are not happy at work and tend to make their unhappiness known to others in the workplace. They make attempts to undermine what their engaged peers are trying to accomplish. Maslow believes that people would not move on down this list to be motivated by the next set of needs until the previous set had been satisfied. Here’s a short video which illustrates Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs by drawing on clips from the Disney film ‘Up’.

If you have employees who are motivated, they will also work harder to solve problems and challenges. Many research has shown that employee motivation is highly linked with employee engagement. Moreover, employee engagement almost always leads to higher productivity. Where I think motivation falls down is that we don’t experience the feeling of motivation all of the time…and that’s completely normal and it’s OK. I think it’s easy for us to fall into the trap of feeling like we should be motivated and therefore beating ourselves up if we don’t feel that way. There are two kinds of motivation though, internal and external.

Final Concept of Motivation Quiz

Employee motivation isn’t black and white, trial and error are key, don’t let your employees become demotivated. If you type the question above into Google, it comes up with a load of articles talking about employee motivation and how important that is to the success of the business. You find phrases such as “motivated employees lead to increased productivity” and “workplace morale and employee motivation go hand in hand”. So when we don’t feel in control of our time and energy, motivation levels can really drop. Allowing for some elements of freedom in the workplace, whether that’s flexible working hours or unlimited time off, demonstrates trust from leaders to employees.

Scientifically Proven Ways to Motivate Employees

For example, once we get a taste of freedom, we want more freedom, for example. Our work is about how we can have our basic needs met AND how we can have our higher level needs met AND how we have our wants met. At the base, we have physiological needs which include food and water. Once these needs are satisfied, we look to having our safety needs met – whether that’s physical safety and/or psychological safety . Once satisfied, we look to build relationships with colleagues and to feel a sense of belonging. We then go on to having our esteem needs met – through extra salary, promotion, expertise, and positions of authority. Only then, according to Maslow, do we look to fulfilling our full potential through expanding into our independence, creativity, and purpose.

These questions can result in fresh perspectives to help an organisation tackle their weaknesses. From internal conflicts and poor sales to low rates of productivity and inadequate customer engagement, there are many forms in which a lack of motivation within an organisation can manifest itself. Refers to behavior that is driven by external rewards such as praise, money, fame, or grades. In school or uni, if we’re motivated we learn better and remember more of what we learned. At work, we’re more likely to complete tasks on time, and in the gym, we’re more able to push ourselves that little bit further.