How to assess the degree of motivation of employees

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

In the minds of most people, motivation is something ephemeral, incomprehensible and no one knows why it is needed. In fact, statistics show that there is a direct relationship between employee engagement and company profit. Sean Graber, Founder and CEO of Virtuali, discusses two factors that can help you gauge employee motivation in your organization.

Every year, companies around the world spend nearly three quarters of a billion dollars on increasing employee motivation. But, if you ask managers what “increased employee engagement” means, you get very conflicting answers. Definitions can be as simple (“extra effort”) or overly clever (“a complex nominological relationship, including characteristics, employee status and behavioral patterns”).

This lack of transparency is a problem because it suggests that motivation - whatever it is - needs to be managed.

According to a Gallup survey, organizations whose employees reported high motivation saw significant cost savings - from 25% to 65% - compared to peers (based on turnover). They also received higher ratings for productivity and customer service.

Therefore, finding a clearer definition of motivation is not just an exercise in philosophy. As a result, employee motivation will significantly affect the company's profit.

Often, the company's management approaches the question in a simplistic manner: it polls staff about the degree of job satisfaction and, based on these answers, takes any measures to increase motivation. And as a result, he misses the most important thing - behavioral cues. For example, what is the use of Mary having a positive view of her manager if she doesn’t put in her best efforts at work every day?

Other companies employ analysts who study employee behavior and productivity. The disadvantage of this approach is that analysts in their report cannot indicate how employees themselves perceive the situation. John can stay in touch with clients outside of office hours, but does he like it or does he feel burned out and therefore unhappy?

It is critical to consider all of these factors together - employee perceptions and behavior, and the efforts they make to improve company performance - to figure out what leverage to use to motivate the people who work for you. Leverage that matters to Mary won't matter to John.

When my colleagues and I work with companies, we conduct surveys and interviews to gauge employee perceptions of the following six areas: culture, job responsibilities, promotions, company leadership, management, and the overall benefits of the job. We also test the behavior of the respondents in six categories: level of performance, personal development, loyalty to the company, leisure, environment and temperament.

We arrived at this metric by studying scientific literature on employee motivation and filling the gaps with surveys: what makes people not only fulfill their professional responsibilities, but also do more than is required. This approach allows companies, even without the involvement of analysts, to discover the connection between the expectations of employees and their actions. Those who have already collected and analyzed data on employee behavior at work can get additional information - for example, whether employees are looking for new jobs or not. Then, over time, the company can track how employee motivation changes.

Returning to our hypothetical example with Mary and John, we can see how evaluating only the opinion of an employee or only his behavior can lead to misinterpretation of their motivation. We know Mary is positive about her manager, but does that make her the employee of the month? Maybe she does only the minimum at work, ignoring requests for help from colleagues and refusing additional opportunities for learning and development. This tells us that, perhaps, the additional push is required not by her, but by another employee. John shows outward signs of motivation - he works with clients on his own time. But maybe he, like a workhorse or a martyr, suffers in silence? We can learn about this by looking at what he himself thinks about the meaning of his work, his own achievements and salary.

A holistic approach to understanding motivation provides more granular insight into what drives people to stay in the company and perform at their best.

Instead of judging motivation as low, medium, or high, companies will be able to understand how employees themselves perceive the organization, how their opinions affect behavior, and how these factors together affect the firm's productivity and profit. If companies do not pay enough attention to this, they run the risk of misunderstanding with employees and missing out on all the benefits that increased motivation provides.