Today's question comes from Martin Despins (I'll translate and paraphrase a bit):
"More money or more perks? What's the best way to improve my employees' productivity? Right now I feel they just don't care."
Martin, I'd say you are not asking the right question.
Your key point was that you feel your employees just don't care. The problem seems to be they lack engagement. That's a matter of intrinsic motivation, a motivation that comes from the inside. Money and perks are extrinsic motivators, more akin to carrots & sticks. You have a mismatch between the problem and the solution.
I can't give you a "three steps to fix everything" type of answer, but I can steer you in the right direction.
Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic motivation
Daniel H. Pink, in his seminal book Drive, address quite well the extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation issue. In a nutshell:
Extrinsic motivation is about rewarding desired behavior and punishing undesirable behavior. It works well with animals and with people in need.
As soon as you remove a genuine need from the table, extrinsic motivation loses its attraction. Most of the time it's just isn't worth the hassle. If you don't need money, would you sacrifice your time to do something uninteresting for a bit more money? Would you suffer a boss who likes to lord his control over you if you could switch jobs without much risk?
Intrinsic motivation, on the other hand, comes from within you. It is composed of Mastery, Autonomy, and Purpose.
- People want to be good at what they do and get even better (Mastery),
- People want to have some measure of control over their environment and their choices (Autonomy),
- People want their effort to mean something (Purpose).
Intrinsic motivation gives your employees a reason to care. Care about their work, care about the business.
How to foster intrinsic motivation
The three components of intrinsic motivation are the place to put your focus to improve your employees' engagement and performances.
Mastery
Catering to your employees' need for mastery means that they will be able to deploy their talents to the fullest and that they will develop them rapidly. From an employer's point of view, what's not to love about it?
Formal training (by hiring a trainer or sending an employee to school) is a way to help cater to their mastery need, but it's a costly one and not always the best one (says the consultant who sell training and workshops... way to go Maurice.).
Providing the opportunity to grow organically within your organization is both cheaper and more natural than external training. It could take the form of half a day a week for personal learning or work on pet projects. It could take the form of unrestricted mentoring opportunities, meaning that someone could try their hand in any field within your organization regardless in which department they hail from.
Leaving behind strict job definitions for looser roles and make sure people have the bandwidth to get involved in a variety of discussions and projects is also a great way to see them grow quickly and become far more versatile.
Remember! Humans are not static machine parts. Give them room and opportunity, and they will grow and serve your organization far beyond the reason you hired them in the first place.
Afraid that if you train employees, they will leave for a better deal? Well, what if you don't train them and they stay?
Work environments that allow you to grow are few and far between. Employees know that and if you still have a retention problem rest assured that education and opportunity are not the sources. On the contrary, talented people will be interested in joining an organization that allows them to spread their wings.
Autonomy
Being micro-managed and told what to do isn't very motivating, especially when you are an expert and you are bossed around by someone who barely understands your work.
In recent years the idea of self-organization has been on the rise. Management presents to teams intent and constraints for the work, and the team themselves manage how to deliver value. A discussion between management and teams make sure that the request is possible. There's a lot more to self-organized teams than just that, and we often see teams managing their own recruitment, doing their own performance evaluation and so on.
There is more to autonomy than self-organized teams, however. Flexible schedules, control over one's career path, the ability to choose a mentor or even the team we will work with can go a long way to satisfy the need for autonomy.
The best trick I can give is to allow for some slack in employees' schedules. Have them use that slack to choose what they want to work on. Some will use it to finish work sooner, others to explore new avenues. In the end, it gives them time to be creative with their effort, and the results can be very beneficial for the company.
Purpose
It isn't your responsibility as a business owner to give meaning to your employees, but if your company doesn't have a purpose that people can resonate with they might not see the point of working for you.
Think about your company's vision and mission. What is your company about? Concrete and specific can be more inspiring than vapid generalities.
Simon Sinek wrote It start with why, a good read explaining how to build a message (and a company) that's inspiring. That's your goal, to be able to inspire both clients and employees.
That sense of purpose, coupled with mastery and autonomy, is what create truly engaged employees. Engaged employees and the will, the drive and the bandwidth to address company. They become more akin to partners than employees and will help drive the company forward rather than mindlessly execute your orders.
Creating an environment that foster engagement isn't an easy task, but it isn't an insurmountable challenge either. Get some help, either in the form of a coach or a community of entrepreneurs lived through it.
Good luck!
Oh, and Martin, next time send a link to your company's website so I can share it! That's free publicity :)
My name is Maurice Lefebvre and I am a business coach and trainer at Quantum Monkeys. I have blog on Medium in addition to answering questions about corporate culture, innovation, or Agile on Steem. If you have any question, leave it in the comments or drop me a line!
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