How can a company keep employees motivated and engaged?

A company and keep employees motivated and engaged by: Communicating frequently and effectively Ensuring employee participation Coaching empoyees Introducing creativity Rewarding employees' achievements

Motivating & Engaging Employees

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Every organisation wants to maximise its employees' performance. But how can they do that? That's where employee motivation and engagement comes in. If the employee is motivated and engaged in their work, they are likely to perform better and bring more value to the organisation. But increasing employees' motivation and engagement is not a simple task-it rather requires a strategic approach to it.

Curious about employee motivation and engagement strategies? Read-on!

What are the employee motivation and engagement strategies?

Motivation is the employees' will to do something in terms of the level of energy, effort, creativity and commitment that they are willing to bring to the workplace. Motivation can be both intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is when employees are motivated to work because it is enjoyable. While extrinsic motivation is when employees are motivated to achieve something because of the specific outcome such as promotion.

Employee engagement is the extent to which employees feel passionate to work for the organization and aim of achieving their goals. An employee is usually engaged in their role in the company if they have a sense of care towards it.

There are a few strategies aimed to maximise employee motivation and engagement.

The five-step strategy includes:

Frequent and effective communication - Clear and effective communication is important in the organization. Ensuring that employees are aware and understand how their roles and responsibilities will contribute to the company's goal achievements, as well as suitable language is used to motivate and engage them.
Ensuring employee participation - Employees must be active and participative in the workplace. This is the key to attaining organizational goals. Managers should build games and team building activities that can over time make employees feel more confident and participative.
Coaching employees - This is an important step as by sharing various success stories, hiring an internal-external coach to motivate and engage employees will give them more will and encouragement to do well in their roles.
Introducing creativity - It is important to make a change to employees daily routines and encourage them to think outside of the box and be creative. This way not only will employees be more motivated and engaged but employees may also discover innovations that will contribute to organizational success.
Rewarding employees efforts and accomplishments - This technique is what will spark the employee's motivation and keep them engaged to do well in their role or a task. The reward will help employees perform better and aim to perform beyond set targets. The reward can be as simple as a voucher, gift card or certificate.

What is the difference between employee engagement and motivation?

Employee engagement and motivation are both important for employees to feel good in their workplace and create the most value for the organization. However, there are key differences between these two aspects:

Motivation - is a will to do something. It is the employee's motive to work hard to succeed in the workplace and feel that their work is meaningful. This can be shown in terms of the energy and creativity employees bring to the workplace through motivation and desire to succeed.

Engagement - is more of a feeling or belief. This is the employee's passion and commitment to the organization due to their appreciation and interest in the organization.

What are the employee engagement and motivation theories?

Various theories were developed to maximize employee motivation and engagement. In this section, the key motivation and engagement theories will be identified and explained.

Maslow's 'hierarchy of needs'

Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory is a motivation theory. This theory consists of a hierarchy involving five key steps from physiological needs (bottom of the hierarchy) to self-actualization (top of the hierarchy).

Employees feel engaged in the environment that is motivational for them to work in. Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory aims to achieve that by implementing step by step guidance of employee needs from the bottom to the top. Once the step at the bottom (see Figure 1 below) is attained, managers can aim to develop the work environment for employees at the higher ladder.

The employees may require more social interaction to be more motivated and engaged towards work. In this case, an employer must consider how to achieve the 'love and belonging' step. This can be done by incorporating more team activities or social events after work.

Motivating & Engaging Employees, what are the engagement and motivation theories, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, StudySmarter Figure 1. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, StudySmarter

Scientific management theory

Scientific management theory, also called Taylor's theory, was developed by famous theorist Fredric Taylor, who believed the main factor of employee engagement and motivation are monetary benefits.

Monetary benefits are identified as extrinsic motivation, as employees are motivated to achieve certain goals due to monetary rewards. Additionally, scientific management theory implements elements of the division of labour and specialisation in a particular role (see Figure 2 below). The scientific management theory is more suitable for increasing employee motivation rather than engagement.

Motivating & Engaging Employees, Scientific management theory, StudySmarter Figure 2. Scientific Management Theory, StudySmarter

Herzberg's 'motivation-hygiene' theory

Herzberg's theory is the motivation theory called Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory or Herzberg's two-factor theory.

Herzberg's theory includes two factors which are motivation and hygiene. The motivation factors are aimed to motivate and engage employees in the workplace. On the other hand, hygiene factors are maintenance factors that employees expect to receive in every workplace.

The different combinations of motivation and hygiene factors influence employees level of motivation and engagement towards work (see Figure 3 below). These combinations are:

High hygiene and high motivation - This is the combination that will make employees highly engaged and motivated towards their work.

High hygiene and low motivation - This combination will mean that the employees will still be going to work in the company and achieve set targets to keep their job. However, employees will not be motivated to achieve targets beyond the set expectations.

Low hygiene and high motivation - This is not the best situation for employees to be in. Even though employees may be motivated, if the minimum working conditions are not met employees may look for another job with better working conditions.

Low hygiene and low motivation - This is the worst combination. This can result in high staff turnover and high work dissatisfaction.

Motivating & Engaging Employees, Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory, StudySmarter Figure 3. Herzberg's Motivation-Hygiene Theory, StudySmarter

Motivating and engaging employees for better business

The motivation and engagement of employees is important aspect for any company, as motivated and engaged employees will bring more value to the organization.

The largest international cable company Virgin Media¹ is a great example of how investing in employee motivation and engagement positively influenced business performance. The Virgin media's CEO Richard Branson believed in a philosophy whereby invested employees lead to happy customers.

Virgin media engaged and motivated their employees by:

Creating a fun environment for employees to work in
Ensured that employees have access to everything they need for self-actualization
Invest in employee training so they can develop their careers
Love and belonging - made sure that employees feel that they belong to the organization
Conduct an annual employee survey to see which aspects the company should improve on to increase employee engagement and motivation

As a result, the investment in employees brought better results to the organization. Moreover, Virgin media saw that 82% of its workforce in 2012 were engaged and motivated towards their work.

Improving motivation & engagement - key takeaways

Employee engagement and motivation are both important aspects in the workplace. If an employee is motivated and engaged they are likely to bring more value to the organization.
The 5 step motivation and engagement strategy is created to maximize motivation and engagement aspects. The 5 steps are: Frequent and effective communication, ensuring employee participation, coaching employees, introducing creativity, rewarding employees efforts and accomplishments.
There are three key employee motivation and engagement theories. They are Maslow's hierarchy of needs, scientific management theory and Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory.
Businesses need to invest in employees as motivated and engaged employees bring more value to the organization.
The difference between employee engagement and motivation is that motivation is an employee's drive to achieve something due to rewards or finding work meaningful. While engagement is an individual's passion and commitment that may occur due to the appreciation of the organisation.

SOURCES:

1. CareersHelp, Motivating and engaging employees for better business, 2021

Frequently Asked Questions about Motivating & Engaging Employees

A company and keep employees motivated and engaged by:

Communicating frequently and effectively
Ensuring employee participation
Coaching empoyees
Introducing creativity
Rewarding employees' achievements

By making the employees feel more active and participative in the workforce, the company can increase their motivation. For example, through games and team building activities, employees will grow more attached to the company's culture and hence works harder to contribute to its success.

Employee engagement is the passion and commitment the employee feels towards the organisation while motivation is the employee's will to do something or motives to succeed in the workplace.

The company can increase employees' engagement by creating a fun environment for them to work in, investing in employee training, or giving the employees a sense of self-actualisation. This will make the employees feel loved and appreciated, and thus work harder to contribute the company's success.

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What is the meaning of Taylor’s scientific management theory?

The scientific management theory is created to give managers guidance on how to manage and motivate employees. Taylor’s theory stresses that employees should be assigned to perform one specific task, scientific methods are used to find one best way to perform a task, managers directly supervise employees and employees are paid based on their performance. The main motivation factor for employees is monetary gains.

Who is a key theorist of the scientific management theory?

The key thinker of this theory is Fredrick Taylor.

What are the key principles of Taylor’s theory?

There are four principles of Taylor’s scientific management theory. That includes: 1)Scientific methods are used to discover the most efficient way to perform a task 2) Clear division of responsibilities 3) Performance-based pay 4) Rigid hierarchy and strict surveillance of employees.

How is Taylor’s scientific management theory is beneficial for businesses and employees?

The key benefits of this theory for the company and employees are that per-unit costs are reduced due to the large scale production. Better quality products are produced as employees are each specialised to perform a specific task and wages are higher for the hardworking employees.

What are the key advantages of scientific management theory?

The key advantages of Taylor’s theory are:

Increased production,
managers are being in control of their workforce,
The cost of production is reduced,
The performance-based payment system
Reduced inaccuracy.

How is being in control identified as an advantage?

This is an advantage for managers as they can have control of employees and be exactly aware of their work performance. For managers, it makes it easier to monitor employees.

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