“Motivate your teams.” “Engage your employees.” Senior leaders make
these directives clear to managers. But why are organizations continuing
to focus on employee motivation and engagement during a time when so
many talented people are desperately looking for a job?
Informed leaders know that an engaged employee will produce far more
for an organization than it costs to employ them. In fact, in a recent
study by the Human Capital Institute,
a fully engaged employee will produce 120% of their salary value, while
a disengaged employee will produce only 60% of their salary value.
At a time when organizational resources are often scarce, disengaged
employees can be the difference between business success and failure. In
addition, the Corporate Leadership Council found that for up to
76% of employees, engagement is malleable; given the right environment, the engagement of these employees can be improved.
But what does it take to engage an employee in their work and the
mission of the company? The task can seem very daunting to a manager,
especially when employees are seemingly motivated by so many factors.
Conventional wisdom tells us that employee engagement is impacted by
everything from relationships with senior managers to a company’s
reputation for social responsibility. However, a 2010 study published by
Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer in the Harvard Business Review
has given us new insight.
Amabile and Kramer conducted an extensive,
multi-year study of hundreds of employees
and found that employees were most engaged and motivated on the days
they made progress, even incremental progress, toward their goals.
As such, below is a list of important factors in creating motivated, engaged employees:
1) Clear, obtainable goals
Managers should ensure that the initial goals created with their
employees are relevant to the organizations overall priorities and need
to avoid the temptation to change those goals indiscriminately. Managers
are typically proactive individuals who are aware of changes in
organizational direction. However, often times managers wanting to
appear proactive can change directives for their team without fully
understanding if, in fact, the business priorities have changed or if
they are just hearing organizational noise. Additionally, setting goals
that are overly ambitious can make even small setbacks seem overly
important, causing employees to quickly disengage.
2) Protection from unimportant work
In any organization, a team has a primary purpose. When the team
fulfills that purpose, they are making the most impact possible toward
the overall goals of the company. Small requests will often be made of
any team that have little to do with their intended purpose. A manager
should carefully evaluate any requests made of their team that take
resources and focus away from their primary function and goals. Managers
should also identify and, whenever possible, eliminate bureaucratic
processes that add little value or are outdated. Nothing feels more
defeating than compiling a detailed report that no one reads.
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