It’s the beginning of a new year and hopefully your workforce is feeling ready for the challenge of 2021. With a third lockdown upon us things haven't been as straightforward as usual, so what can you do to make sure that your team are feeling are as energised and as motivated as possible?
We find that putting in time and effort at the beginning of each year to reconnect and communicate with your employees can really make a big difference to how they approach the upcoming months. Your people are your biggest asset and the most important resource for every business, so having a motivation strategy to achieve great results in 2021 will be well worth your time.
Ask for feedback
One of the first ways in which you can motivate your team is to find out what they really think. Asking for feedback on a regular basis can provide real insight for you and the management team and give you a great starting platform on where to go next.
Asking everyone openly in team meetings, sending out employee satisfaction forms/ surveys or even adopting a 360-feedback approach are all ways in which you can gather this information.
It’s also important to make sure that you follow up on any feedback you have received – this will show that you truly care and are committed to improving the employee experience.
Support new ideas
Your team members will feel empowered if given the opportunity to suggest new ideas and make them a reality. Give people a chance to take initiative and we believe you will be very impressed by everyone’s ability to come up with great ideas.
Review resources
One reason people often lose their motivation is that they don’t feel they have the right resources to do the job. Assessing this at the beginning of the year means you can get your employees ready with everything that they need and give them the best opportunity to thrive in their roles.
Change things that didn’t work in 2020
Staying innovative, creative and changing things that aren’t working can be a huge motivator. Evolving and diversifying with the times is something that we all faced throughout 2020 and hopefully we have all learnt that we are a lot stronger than we previously thought.
Don’t be afraid to change things if they aren’t working for you and your employees. Find out what didn’t work and move forward with new ideas to keep the team feeling fresh and motivated.
Share & reinforce the company vision
After a tough 2020 it is possible that employees could lose sight of what they are trying to achieve and why, particularly if they were furloughed or have been working from home a lot.
Make sure everyone understands the bigger picture by sharing and reinforcing the company vision and give a clear message of how the work they are doing fits in. If people can see the
impact of their work on the organisation, it will help them feel more connected with the task in hand.
Don’t forget that having a company vision provides a sense of purpose and direction for the whole business. Your vision will help you define your short and long-term goals and guide the decisions you make along the way.
Define roles & responsibilities
It’s important to make sure that everyone knows what they are meant to be doing and what their responsibilities are for the year ahead. Defining each person’s role, their responsibilities and success criteria can have an instant positive impact.
This is a really simple action that allows your employees to know what is expected of them and helps motivate them and hopefully give them a feeling of purpose.
Update & reinvigorate the working environment
Understandably a lot of us will still be working from home for the foreseeable future but don’t forget that in the meantime you can still take good care of the office and make it feel like an energising space for when people return to work. By no means does this have to be a costly task, but keeping the working environment clean, fresh, buying some plants, or introducing a treat tray is a good way to show your employees that you care.
If it’s not possible to get back to the workplace yet, then why not think about providing everyone with a journal or a mini cactus/ plant to have at their home workspace? Ensuring that wherever your employees work is a safe and invigorating environment is a great way to keep everyone motivated and inspired to work hard.
Celebrate successes
One of the simplest ways to energize your team is to spend time focusing on all the great things everyone has achieved – company wide and on an individual basis.
Receiving recognition and knowing that they are appreciated will leave your employees feeling ready to tackle what lies ahead and give them a sense of self-worth and achievement within the business.
It’s important to put equal weight on celebrating wins big and small, in many cases even the biggest projects and accomplishments are filled with smaller victories and moments to be proud of - both are equally valuable and impactful to share.
Don’t feel that there needs to be a big event to celebrate successes but be sure that you remember to do this consistently and ideally as regularly as possible.
Provide new training opportunities
If your employees know that everything is going to be the same all the time, then it is likely that they will lose the motivation to work to their maximum capacity.
Providing new training suited to a person’s skill set and job role will ensure that they are always learning, using their creative minds and ultimately empower them to reach a greater potential.
If you don’t already have a training plan in place, then maybe now is the time to think about it. Here at Whitcombe HR we offer a variety of team training from conflict management and time management to stress management and mental health awareness.
Training should enhance or reinforce your team’s existing skill set, increase their competency or proficiency, and help them to perform better.
Wellbeing
Putting the mental, physical, and financial wellbeing of your employees at the forefront of what you do every day is an extremely important and effective way of motivating and energising your team.
Success in the workplace doesn’t just rely on producing great results – it relies on developing strong relationships too and workplace wellbeing is strongly linked to this.
If you don’t have one already then make sure you create a company wellbeing strategy.
Promoting wellbeing can help prevent stress and create positive working environments where individuals and organisations can thrive. Good health and wellbeing can be a core enabler of employee engagement and team performance.
Form a social committee
Why not create a dedicated team to help organise regular team bonding and team building events?
Feeling like you’re part of a well-connected team can encourage collaboration, team motivation and a sense of wellbeing.
There are all sorts of amazing activities and events you can do together as a company. Some of our favourites activities include dog walking with a colleague, monthly or quarterly team quizzes, book clubs or adventure-based activities such as Go Ape.
A team to organise this will free up your time and ensure you have something in place every month to keep everyone motivated.
If you would like to find out more regarding some of the topics we have discussed in this blog such as workplace wellbeing, team training or defining your company vision and goals then please don’t hesitate to get in touch by emailing help@whitcombehr.co.uk.