There exists a common stereotype when it comes to motivation in the workplace – a financial award is the best carrot and stick. This has nothing to do with the truth. In the reality, less than 10% of people are motivated by money, so when working with a team, you need to clearly understand the motive of each of the employees with whom you interact.
5 Common Delusions
Sooner or later the pandemic will ease up a little, but the large-scale love for remote working seems to stick with us forever. The vast majority of employers prefer having their employees out of the office: some of them are experimenting with the hybrid work, the others allow working from home to all those who wish. Professional writers specializing in Linkedin resume service who help people find their dream job online, reveal the most frequent mistakes made by employees that discourage the candidates. Let’s take a closer look at 5 the most typical:
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Economize on salary
There is a common belief that the great thing about distant workers is they can be paid less than staff members. Such an imprudent approach can entail several risks: staff turnover, reducing the motivation of employees, and simply tarnish the reputation of the HR brand.
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Carry things to extremes
One of the popular hybrid models is when a group of employees or even a whole department continue to work in the office, while the others go home. Such polarization has a significant minus: a single repetitive work model leaves the workers worn out. Therefore, once in a while, the staff needs to visit the office just to have a quick word with colleagues or personally participate in the discussion. Besides, those employees who work online on a daily basis, especially if initially they were hired as regular staff members, often feel disconnected from the team which can lead to professional burnout. Fortunately, there are no problems that cannot be solved. For example, a company could establish a system where each employee beforehand “makes a reservation” of a workplace in the office for a certain date. The number of “places” is limited, so there is no chance to have fun with the whole team together. On the flip side though, the working place won’t be left idle.
Another common mistake is when the employer holds a remote interview with the candidate, whose duties suggest face-to-face communication with customers. Keep in mind that interviewees feel more laid-back and relaxed when at home. Therefore, if a specific position involves frequent meetings with clients and partners, it would be wiser to meet the candidate personally, so that your sharp eye can figure out how does it feel for him to be in an unfamiliar atmosphere.
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Lack of communication channels
Usually, when launching an online work process the communication automatically becomes chaotic. The mail is overwhelmed with messages from the accountant, the boss writes via Telegram, and colleagues share their thoughts via WhatsApp. As a result, the employees are distracted and it takes a considerable amount of time to find the necessary information on different platforms. That is why establishing a single communication channel for the entire company will be a lifesaver. The option of corporate mail will fizzle out as the staff, most likely, will “spread” in different messengers when you need to run a discussion on an urgent topic. To avoid such disarray use the mail only for important approvals and to communicate with customers. For internal correspondence, it’s better to have a separate tool specialized services like Slack or Discord will come in handy.
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Strict control or its absence
One of the most frequent arguments of managers against remote work is associated with loss of control over subordinates. Executives have a common concern that as soon as the employee gets off the grid he starts beating the drum by watching the series or playing computer games. Therefore, some companies use special programs to track the actions of remote teams. Nevertheless here you risk destroying the image of an attractive employer and scaring away the valuable candidates. The reason is – no one likes being under constant supervision. Besides, the effectiveness and motivation of employees may change for the worse. It doesn’t mean you should leave your team goes into freefall, especially when they only start their adventure with the remote work. Instead, it is better to revise the approach to work: each specialist should clearly understand what he is supposed to do and what are the deadlines. Shift from long-term planning to the short one: split the large-scale tasks into small, discuss the work plan at the beginning of the week, and summarize it at the end. This system will keep the employees on their toes as well as shake off the feeling of total surveillance.
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Too many online meetings
On the one hand, without video conferencing, it would be challenging to build remote processes, because it is one of the most effective ways to discuss current issues. On the other hand, endless online meetings turn out to be time-consuming and leave the participants tired and irritated. So, before appointing the next meeting, always ask yourself the question of whether it is really necessary. Online meetings make sense when there is a specific task that requires a quick resolution and covers several employees at once. For example, if a PR director, the event manager, and the marketer should mutually discuss the concept of a future event. In the correspondence format, this conversation can be slow and long – therefore it is better to talk it over in the format of a video call. In addition, it is worthy to form the duration limits for the calls, so that workers will have their time efficiently allotted. An important disclaimer: it is better to arrange obligatory corporate online parties within the working hours so that you don’t take personal time of your employees.
Proactive and Passive Employees
Be on the same page with your employees is the key to manage their motivation efficiently. You’d better divide your staff according to the personality types and characters so that you know the potential pitfalls.
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Proactive vs passive employees
Firstly, take into consideration, that there are two types of people proactive and passive. The active ones are knowledgeable leaders, they understand what they need and they do it. The passive ones are wingmen, they need to be instructed what to do specifically and how to get the result. A delicate nuance about proactive people is that they usually are motivated by the performance and final result. Having a ton of work to do – a piece of cake! It is nowhere near a tragedy for them, quite contrary, it is a pile of Christmas presents. What they genuinely enjoy is always being helpful, implementing their ideas and creativity, or even racking their brains in order to solve the problem. So, for example, if you’re trying to motivate a proactive salesperson, then it is not always to do with money. Alternatively, you can galvanize him with the nobility of the goal: the more customers use the product, the more they benefit and he carries out a pivotal mission in the process. In such cases, the competitive effect may come in handy, use the formula – “the previous month you had such results, and this month you have these ones.” The forward-looking motivation will work in your favor as well. For example, if the employee accomplishes the KPI with flying colors in 3 months, then he will get a pleasant bonus. Perhaps not even the bonus itself will motivate, but the desire to hold the high standard. Passive people in their turn are motivated by serenity, comfort, and understandable tasks at work. If you want to work with them fruitfully, you’d better decomposing tasks well in order to provide them with a detailed plan of action and approximate results at each stage.
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PAEI typology
With the disappearance of the unifying office, the key skills of the manager come to the forefront – the creation of a single focus for all employees, the ability to correctly set the task and ensure its understanding, control its implementation, build effective communication, and motivate the team. If in the office, we averaged how we communicated with different employees, then under the new circumstances, now when our employees far away, when there is no way to smooth out the managerial corners by personal presence, communication with each employee should be built individually.
What do you need to make it doable?
- Understanding of your managerial style, with its pros and cons, and awareness of the impact it has on the others
- Understanding the management styles of your employees
- Formulate an individual communication plan with every employee
Professional resume writers from WriteMyResume recommend taking the PAEI typology of management styles, which was proposed by Dr. Adizes. This is one of the most common and easy-to-use typologies. Dr. Adizes has identified and detailed in his books four key management roles that can be combined to form the individual style of each person:
P – producer
Producers are usually hard workers, always busy, always in business. They prefer a clear little task with deadlines and control. They are focused on achieving short-term goals, so the best motivation for them would be an achievement of the result. On the downside of this style is that the producers first perform then think and such an approach can end badly.
A – administrator
These employees are well organized, pedantic, and attentive to every tiny detail. Much as they love controlling risks they enjoy forecasting potential problems and find resolutions. They always have a detailed plan of action the week ahead. Accuracy of information and professional perfection is the focus of attention.
E – entrepreneur
Entrepreneurs are the ones who notice changes in the work environment and their impact on the organization. They incessantly generate ideas, see further directions, and plan possible actions. In the current situation, they really enjoy video calls as they need an audience to feed off their energy. On the flip side though, they are inattentive to details.
I – integrator
The integrator is concentrated on interaction with other people that makes him quite empathic. These employees create and raise a culture of mutual trust and respect. They prefer a friendly conversation as a means of controlling the process and believe that a goal can be achieved only with a united team of like-minded people.
Practical Tips to Reboot Motivation
Gratifying staff meetings
Weekly team meetings with the team, where managers say words of gratitude for specific actions, for specific knowledge that the employee has mastered this week. The meaning is in focus, there is a cool metaphor. Imagine that there are 2 dogs living inside each person. The first one is a barking angry dog that constantly wants to do something wrong, do some trouble, or just be lazy, the second dog wants to develop, personifies the best qualities of a person. Which dog do you think will grow faster? The one that is fed more, to which more attention is directed. This is why it is so important to focus your people on the best moments.
Psychology
When working remotely one of the greatest challenges is the incapability to trace the emotional state, and the state is primary – thoughts come from the state, from the thoughts of action, from the results of the actions. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to introduce a psychologist to the company, a person who is professionally trained to identify even the slightest changes in the emotional state.
Refocus attention on the essential
The middle managers can also be panicked and that’s even worse because they are at the helm of the departments. so it is important to switch the attention to the task sector “important, but not urgently”, this way they are engaged in important matters, they understand the usefulness of their actions, they are aware that this is a contribution for a future.
Individual development plans
Try to implement development plans on the technology of the “Wheel of Balance”. The whole point of this is to highlight the main areas of life: work, relationships, hobbies, health. Firstly, the employee estimates the level of satisfaction in one of the areas from 0-10, then makes a prediction for a month or even for a year. What people feel with such a technique is care. Let your team know that everyone matters and how the harmony of each one is important.
It goes without question that the vast majority of the managers currently carry the considerable weight of responsibility on the company’s retention. The crux is without motivated staff it will be a Herculean task to accomplish. The present situation does not facilitate at all – with the employees progressively experiencing pain, loneliness, and fear of the unknown it is important to pull yourself together and act. It may require pumping your managerial skills “on the fly”. But you know what do athletes say? To achieve a qualitative new result, it is necessary to make a little more in training than “I can’t at all”, it is this additional effort that yields fruit at the end.
Author’s Bio
Carmella Andersson works as a resume writer for ResumesOnTime company. It gives her an opportunity to improve her critical and creative thinking skills.
