How To Motivate A Team: Keeping Employee Engagement High
Importance of knowing how to motivate a team
Understanding how to motivate a team is vital when engaging with your employees because it:
- Improves productivity – Employees who lose interest in their jobs will cause productivity to drop. Motivating a team will keep them engaged and increase productivity, output, and business revenue.
- Produces happy and collaborative employees – Motivated employees look forward to their workday and are happy to collaborate to deliver quality work. Instead of viewing work as a burden, they will enjoy what they do and be passionate about reaching the company’s vision.
- Decreases turnover – Once you’ve managed to keep your employees motivated and happy, they are less likely to look for opportunities elsewhere. Providing incentives through acknowledgement, bonuses, and raises will make them feel appreciated and increase their loyalty to you. A loyal team will decrease the turnover rate and reduce recruitment and training costs.
Levels of employee engagement
Employee engagement measures how employees feel about the organisation and the work environment.
In measuring employee engagement, employees are categorised into four levels.
#1. Highly engaged employees
Highly engaged employees have a very favourable opinion of the company. They are usually the most contented about their jobs and happy working with the team.
These employees want to grow their careers with the organisation and put extra effort into their work. They’re usually brand advocates and speak highly of your product or service. They are known to encourage their coworkers to give their best performance.
#2. Fairly engaged employees
Fairly engaged employees view the organisation in an average light. They like working in the company but know there is room for improvement.
These kinds of employees may not ask for more responsibilities and may underperform. This is because something about the organisation keeps them from fully engaging.
#3. Barely engaged employees
This level of employee engagement consists of indifferent team members. They are the ones who lack motivation and do the bare minimum for their role.
Barely engaged employees will only do as much work to get by. These employees are the ones who are most likely already looking for other opportunities. They are, as we consider, a high turnover risk.
#4. Disengaged employees
Disengaged employees are the exact opposite of highly engaged employees. They have a negative opinion about work and the organisation. They often feel disconnected from the company’s vision and goals.
These employees lack motivation and commitment. That’s why it’s essential to know how to handle disengaged employees to prevent them from influencing other employees.
How to motivate a team?
The first step in knowing how to motivate a team is investing time and effort to keep them engaged. Below are five ways of motivating a team.
Providing your team with the knowledge of what they’re working towards is an excellent way of motivating them. Keep them acquainted with all the company goals and updated for every milestone you reach.
This will make them feel included and increase their concern for the company. When your team members care about the company, they will work together to achieve pleasing results.
Regularly set clear and measurable goals aligned with your vision to do this. Track the progress of these goals while consistently communicating the success to your team.
Sharing your vision with your team members must be straightforward. You must inspire and challenge them to work together towards your shared goals.
#2. Communicate
Employee motivation is only possible with proper communication. Since communication is a two-way street, you are expected to listen to your employees as much as they listen to you.
Instructing your team about what must be done is insufficient if you want good communication. Keeping your doors open for employee feedback and suggestions is good practice.
Observe your strategy in communicating with your team members and how frequently. Do you often communicate via email? Can you improve your current mode of communication?
Weekly huddles with each team member are an excellent way to contain problems before they become more significant. Remember, proper communication will help build a healthy relationship with your employees and motivate them to achieve good results.
#3. Provide positive feedback and reward
Positive feedback holds excellent power in inspiring and motivating a team. When you applaud your employees’ efforts, they will feel appreciated and will try harder to reach company goals with you.
Acknowledgement and reward must always be given to team members who put in extra effort and achieve their goals. Positive feedback will become their motivation to be productive and reach future goals.
Reward your employees for their work, whether monetary, company perks, or advancement.
#4. Prioritise a good work environment
The work environment is vital for employees’ attitudes, productivity, and happiness. A good and healthy work environment is more likely to retain loyal and satisfied employees. Create an enjoyable workspace where your employees will enjoy their time.
Be mindful of privacy, noise, and ambience, as these factors significantly affect productivity. Having a place to rest and cool off is necessary to relax in your work environment. Keep your team’s well-being prioritised by maintaining positive energy and promoting a stress-free workplace.
For remote employees, catering to their needs and ensuring they are comfortable with the work setup is just as important. Remember that work-from-home employees have different struggles than those you see at the office.
Regularly ask for employee engagement surveys to determine your remote employees’ struggles. From this, you can create better programs and a good work environment for them even though they are working remotely.
#5. Provide career advancement opportunities
Employees feel motivated to work towards a goal while learning and enhancing their skills. Managers who know how to motivate a team know that career advancement is one of the best ways to motivate.
Opportunities for growth and development are needed in every type of career. Imagine working for many years for a company without being presented with a chance to grow. Wouldn’t you feel undervalued and disengaged?
Career advancement opportunities must be tailored specifically for each team member. It may be in the form of training, goal-setting, and mentoring.
If your employees feel like there’s no advancement in your company, they will likely find that advancement elsewhere. To avoid that from happening, bring challenging tasks to the table. Encourage them to hone their skills and become confident to take on more responsibilities in the future.
Gamification for employee engagement
Gamification is a promising approach to employee engagement. It helps a team leader motivate their teams through competitions, rewards, and other game-like features.
Research has shown that 90% of employees have increased productivity when gamification strategies are implemented at work.
Now let’s dig in to understand gamification and how to motivate a team.
Why use gamification to motivate a team?
Gamification is implementing game-like elements to work activities such as training, goal-setting, and communication. The main focus of gamification is to inspire collaboration and fun when achieving individual and company goals.
Games are implemented to add fun and productivity to any environment naturally. That’s precisely what employee gamification is designed for. Gamification can potentially increase employee engagement by up to 60% and productivity by up to 50%.
Gamification strategies to motivate a team
#1. Game-based learning
Source: spencerauthor
Training and upskilling can sometimes get boring and repetitive for your employees. Sticking with the traditional classroom method or group discussion may harm you more than good. Some information may be harder to retain through traditional training setups.
You can upgrade the training into a more engaging and interactive activity with gamification. This will not only make employee training more fun but can also help your team retain information better.
To apply game-based learning, use trivia or quizzes to let your employees earn points they can use later on. Implement a friendly competition among the training attendees to make it more exciting.
#2. Leaderboards
Regarding friendly competition, posting a points-based leaderboard can motivate your team members to become more productive. You can also post the top-performing employees and their progress to inspire other team members to follow through.
#3. Progress bars
Having a specific goal in mind will motivate your team to achieve excellent results in the workplace. One way to enforce this is through progress bars. Showing your employees’ progress will push them to put in extra effort to achieve it on time.
Gamification offers a sense of progress and accomplishment needed to motivate a team. You can set a goal-tracking software showing how far your employees have reached company goals.
#4. Achievement badges
Aside from progress bars and leaderboards, you can also use achievement badges to visualise your employees’ achievements.
Achievement badges can make the workplace fun while also increasing engagement and productivity. They can indicate an employee’s achievement and expertise on their job. Using badges to recognise good performance can motivate and encourage employees to do more.
#5. Rewards
Implementing a rewards system is perfect if you want a gamification strategy that works well for all employees. Rewards and recognition are a personal approach to motivating a team. When your employees know that their efforts will be met with rewards, they will be happy to exert more effort.
You can keep track of your team member’s progress by setting weekly or monthly goals for them to reach. Announce the winning employee or team of the month and grant them a special reward.
Employee reward ideas to motivate your team
- Paid time off – Some team members may work extra shifts or extended hours to finish a project. You can offer them paid time off to reward them for their efforts.
- Dress-down day – Your team will work efficiently if they can relax and not stress about what they’re wearing.
- Planned get-together for remote employees – A small get-together may be a fitting reward if you have remote team members.
- Transportation rewards – Employees who work onsite every day indeed struggle with transportation. Rewarding them with a commuting allowance, one-month free parking, or a gas card will help them tremendously.
- Wheel of Fortune rewards – If you feel like the rewards are getting repetitive, you can implement a randomiser. Organise fun rewards in a wheel of fortune style, and let your employees spin it upon completing a goal. This strategy is perfect for celebrating small wins.
#6. Company competitions
Some gamification strategies must also be focused on fun and collaboration. Although productivity is your primary goal, encouraging teamwork and implementing fun company competitions wouldn’t hurt.
There are many ways to carry this out. You can be creative, funny, or seasonal. The main goal is to allow employees to have light-hearted fun in the workplace.
You can host virtual trivia games or costume contests to make the competitions enjoyable. If you focus on healthy and fun activities, you can boost morale and motivate your team.
Bottom Line
Every employee has different needs. That’s why it’s essential to be aware of some issues that must be addressed. By listening to them, find out if your team members are experiencing problems at work.
If your goal is to keep employee engagement high, knowing how to motivate a team is essential. Learn to communicate and align your goals with your employees. Apply the abovementioned tips and see what is best for team motivation.
Take it slowly and apply one or two strategies at a time. Give your team enough time to respond as you implement these tips and move forward when they bring positive results.
If you think gamification is perfect for motivating your team, our experts at Mambo are excited to work with you. Book a demo now!
