Spotlight: The 4 different ways employees are motivated.

"A culture that prioritises employee engagement elevates a brand as an employer of choice. This is now fundamental in attracting, and importantly retaining, the best talent."

Employees are the lifeblood of any organisation – and the strongest predictor of success. Workforce engagement is climbing HR’s agenda after becoming increasingly challenging in recent years – but with each individual motivated by different things, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. To effectively unleash the potential of their teams, businesses need to first understand what drives them.?

How are employees motivated??

Here are four key ways:?

Recognition. Regularly and efficiently recognising employees' contributions and achievements is an essential part of unlocking their potential. Employees who feel valued are also more likely to stay within the organisation and, with 82% feeling happier when recognised at work, are motivated to perform at their best. By implementing agile recognition programmes, businesses can foster an authentic culture where core values are embodied and productivity is maximised – here are some powerful examples of how to do this.?

Reward. Offering rewards in line with exceptional performance is another key way to maintain engagement and motivation. Reward can be monetary or non-monetary, and can include additional holiday time, flexible work arrangements and gift vouchers. Personalised reward not only reinforces desired behaviour but boosts employee momentum.?

Incentives. Differing from reward, encourage employees to go above and beyond in their role by incentivising specific individual or team goals, such as hitting a sales target or completing a project ahead of schedule. By offering meaningful incentives, businesses can motivate their people to accelerate their development and achieve exceptional results.??

Benefits. The benefits offer plays an increasingly crucial role in talent attraction and retention – employee priorities have shifted and 80% would now opt for additional benefits over a salary increase. This has placed growing demand on employers to take an active approach in supporting the physical, mental, financial and emotional wellbeing of their teams by providing access to meaningful tools, services, schemes and discount programmes. By addressing the diverse breadth of needs across the workforce, teams feel empowered to be their best.??

What are the benefits to business??

Employee engagement builds happy teams – and happy people create happy businesses. Those prioritising a strong engagement and culture strategy see boosted retention rates, reducing the steep attrition costs. Replacing an employee can cost up to 2x their annual salary, not to mention additional expenses associated with recruitment, training and lost productivity.??

Additionally, a culture that prioritises employee engagement elevates a brand as an employer of choice. This is now fundamental in attracting, and importantly retaining, the best talent – 77% of jobseekers prioritise a company's culture before applying for a job, and 73% of candidates wouldn’t apply unless the business’ values align with their own.?

How can employers put this into practice??

To truly maximise the potential of their workforce, businesses must be agile in how they engage their people. Understanding and addressing the motivators for both individuals and wider teams is key to this. Particularly in the remote world, leveraging technology to enable this impact at scale will put a brand above the rest and unleash the brilliant talent behind it.?

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