How To Improve Employee Motivation

Maximising employee productivity is a primary concern for leaders and managers, and examining the theory of employee motivation can provide some excellent clues on how to improve motivation and performance in the workplace. Incorporating this knowledge into team leadership training sessions and sales managers training can help boost performance for all employees, and make your upper-level staff more effective.

New theories based on years of research about employee motivation have shown that employee motivation stems from internal rather than external factors. The key in maximising employee motivation lies in understanding that there are two different types of motivation:

Autonomous motivation, where a person does a job because they find it interesting, or because it's in accordance with their personal values.

Controlled motivation, where a person does a job because they feel pressured to do it, whether by internal or external forces.

Not surprisingly, studies show that autonomous motivation is much more effective than controlled motivation. Aside from being associated with better workplace performance, high levels of autonomous motivation are also linked to social, psychological, and physical wellness.

Why? Simply because people enjoy work more when they feel interest in what they're doing, and because they enjoy work more when they feel that they're doing it because they want to, rather than because they have to. Interestingly, numerous studies show that offering monetary rewards doesn't increase autonomous motivation, and can actually decrease it.

Naturally that doesn't mean employees work better when they're not getting paid, or that employees shouldn't be rewarded for hard work, but it does show that higher wages aren't the key to improving employee motivation and performance.

Three Keys to Motivation

So what is most important? Motivating employees lies in meeting three basic psychological needs:

• Competence—people are more motivated when they feel that they're working effectively; providing initial and ongoing training, along with opportunities for skill acquisition, are good ways to foster this.

• Relatedness—workers are more motivated when they have mutually supportive relationships with peers and managers.

• Autonomy—people are more highly motivated when they feel that they perform their work willingly and by choice, which ties into the idea of work being interesting and inherently rewarding.

Providing a workplace environment in which these needs can be met promotes optimal motivation levels and productivity, and enhances employee satisfaction too.

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