employee motivation
An employee motivation platform with wellbeing in mind.
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what is it?
Employee motivation in a new world of work.
Employee motivation is the foundation for positive business outcomes, like increased team productivity and stronger employee engagement levels. However, in a new remote world, many companies find it challenging to boost and maintain employee morale and motivation.
THE IMPACT
Employees and teams are affected by continued changes to where and how we work.
Despite the wave of "RTO", many of us are no longer together in the office to have face-to-face meetings, cross-company social gatherings, and those organic “watercooler” moments that make us feel like humans. For those who are back in office, hybrid set ups and employer-employee tensions have led to a new suite of connection challenges. Whether these points of connection were work-related or personal, not having them can make individual employees feel demotivated and disconnected from each other, their company, and their work.
Distributed employees can feel isolated from the rest of the company, and even their own team in some circumstances. There’s an inherent lack of cross-departmental visibility in a remote work setting that can make employees feel as if they exist in a silo. No one sees you burning the midnight oil, or balancing work between your other personal and family responsibilities (to anyone remote homeschooling, major props). This means that recognition for great work has to be more intentionally executed, by front-line managers and from the leadership team.
It’s become increasingly difficult for many employees to draw a hard line in the sand between work and home in a remote work environment. After transitioning, 70% of workers sign on during the weekends, and 45% report they work longer weekday hours than they ever did in a physical office: the average workday increased by 48.5 minutes. Let’s not mention the similar increase in the number of meetings and Zoom fatigue (*cries silently*). It’s so easy to send one more e-mail, take one more call, or stay online for one more hour. With no hard boundaries between the working world and their personal lives, employees are at risk of becoming demotivated and burning out.
Keep your team stress-freeUnderstanding employee motivation.
Before we share how to motivate employees in the workplace, and how it's related to employee recognition, let’s break down the two types of work motivation—extrinsic and intrinsic.
Extrinsic Employee Motivation
Employees who are extrinsically motivated in the workplace will often perform tasks because they want an external reward or incentive. Extrinsic motivation comes from outside factors like:
Money
Fame
Grades or ratings
Praise
Intrinsic Employee Motivation
When people are intrinsically motivated at work, they’ll often find tasks inherently rewarding because those tasks contribute to achievement of goals or purpose. Specifically, intrinsic motivation:
Evokes feelings of happiness and fulfillment
Relates to someone’s personal goals
Ties in to an individual’s sense of purpose
Both forms of recognition can be used as employee motivation techniques.
For example, recognition given by a manager or trusted peer reinforces an employee’s contributions to greater company goals, which taps into intrinsic motivation. When recognition is given publicly and tied in with an external reward, it appeals to extrinsic motivation.
whY IT MATTERS
Why does employee motivation matter?
Motivation programs for employees drive engagement. Engaged employees make a stronger impact on your business goals. When you reward your employees for their hard work, it motivates them to engage more with their work and hit personal and company goals.
$550 billion
Disengaged employees cost companies up to $550 billion a year.
Just one actively disengaged employee can cost you $3,400 for every $10,000 of salary. The good news is that you can use employee recognition and motivation programs to increase employee engagement.
40%
Forty percent of employees would feel more motivated by recognition.
Despite this, 82% of employees don’t feel that their managers recognize them enough for their contributions. When managers do take the time to recognize their employees, engagement increases by 60%.
36%
Thirty-six percent of workers are engaged in their work.
That means roughly 64% of workers are just going through the motions and aren’t happy in their role. There are many factors that contribute to an employee’s engagement level, and employee motivation in the workplace is one of the most significant.
how it connects
Employee motivation in the workplace connects with employee recognition.
Employee recognition is one of the most powerful levers you can pull when it comes to motivating employees in the workplace. In fact, 37% of employees chose recognition as the top motivating factor at work, ahead of increased pay, promotions, training, or autonomy.
Techniques and strategies to bring recognition programs to life that inspire motivation.
Whether you’re exploring spot rewards, a sales incentives program, company values awards, or work anniversary rewards, here’s how Blueboard sets your employee motivation programs up for success:
INDIVIDUALIZation
Design employee recognition and motivation programs that support intrinsic and extrinsic motivators.
If employees are motivated by fame, celebrate them at a company all-hands meeting.
If employees are motivated by a sense of purpose, recognize them with company values awards to connect them to the company's foundation.
PERSONALIZATION
Give employees the opportunity to choose their reward.
With Blueboard's employee recognition and motivation platform, your employees have the ability to choose from hundreds of hand-curated experiential rewards that fit their interests, comfort zones, and lifestyle. Whether they’re looking for activities from the comfort of home (like an in-home sommelier tasting or guitar lesson) or exciting travel opportunities, Blueboard reward recipients have the freedom to choose something that’s personally meaningful to them.
PERSONALIZATION
Give employees the opportunity to choose their reward.
With Blueboard's employee motivation and recognition platform, your staff have the ability to choose from hundreds of hand-curated experiential rewards that fit their interests, comfort zones, and lifestyle. Whether they’re looking for activities from the comfort of home (like an in-home sommelier tasting or guitar lesson) or exciting travel opportunities, Blueboard reward recipients have the freedom to choose something that’s personally meaningful to them.
measurability
Measure the impact of recognition on your motivation rates.
At Blueboard, we offer a post-experience survey to every rewarded employee to measure how their experience contributed to increased engagement. We’re proud to report that 96% of employees feel more motivated to perform at a higher level after they go #Blueboarding. These feelings linger long after the reward is received as recipients feel a spark of excitement and motivation when they share their story.
Looking for the best way to reward, recognize and incentivize your top people?
Connect with our team for a personalized demo of our recognition and rewards platform and see our hand-curated experience menus.
Let's talk
