5 ways to keep your employees motivated and engaged

by | Business Growth, How can we help

The Importance Of Employee Motivation

Leadership starts with creating an amazing work culture that clearly shows who you are as a company. It starts to become part of the company DNA when leaders create a work culture that matches what they envision. While most companies are working towards creating an engaging work environment to stand out and improve their culture, others resort to rewards or punishment to squeeze performance from their teams. But a good leader or manager knows that the carrot and stick approach is not an effective long term strategy for sustaining excellence

Employees become more engaged once they feel a sense of purpose toward their role and bring enthusiasm, passion and energy to their work. Not to mention being more motivated and loyal. These type of employees can produce higher performance and better results for both the company and customers. But in order to be successful with these employee engagement initiatives, the unique needs and motivations of each individual must be considered.

So how do you keep your people engaged, motivated, productive and happy? What is the most effective employee engagement strategy? What are the key elements behind effective employee engagement?

To help you understand, we gathered 5 key strategies for employee engagement


  1. Building a people-focused culture
  2. Your people matter if your company values innovation, passion, and collaboration. If your workers are productive, they are most likely happy working with your company. You can achieve this by encouraging a transparent, productive and rewarding workplace. The key to retaining workers is motivation.

    By letting your employees know that the management cares about them and their future, you are creating a people-focused culture and an engaging work environment.

    Employees feel that they are needed when your management is transparent and keeps them in the know when it comes to information that affects their livelihood. Invest in their development and let them involve in decision making. Show your employees that you value them, treat everyone equally and provide them with unbiased managers.

  3. Walk the Talk
  4. As a leader, if you aim to have an engaged and energised workforce, you need to make sure that your organisation’s values are aligned with your policies. If the company says it welcomes new ideas from its staff, the management needs to follow through and act on these ideas. Even minor details can affect your employee’s commitment. If your company claims that your greatest asset is your people, yet neglects to mention your staff anywhere on the company’s website, your employees will notice it. It can have a real impact on the way they view their role and how they view your leadership. If your management fails to walk the talk do so at your own risk. Employees may disregard policies and regulations or subcultures may form within your organisation.

  5. Think “Bottom Up”, not “Top Down”
  6. Most business leaders tend to think more about the company’s future and forget about the things that make people want to work for them. Making sure that your organisation is a happy place to go to work every day is an essential component of a successful long-lasting business.

    If you’re building a house, you don’t start from the roof and work downwards. You need to build the foundation first and work your way up to the roof. The same applies to companies. Your people are the bedrock on which your company was founded, and if you don’t know what your employees are thinking, you’ll soon run into trouble. A happy working environment attracts good people and can lead to people doing their best for the company.

    It takes a strong bottom-up and top-down approach.

  7. Invest Time in Your Employees
  8. It’s becoming more important than ever for companies to understand the needs of their teams as we look toward the future of work-life relationships. It is essential to understand what employees want and need from their employer. To help you understand this, you need to ask questions directly from your employees. Learn how you can contribute to their lives and career. By giving more than wages, you are helping to build solutions and products to help grow your company and help build more valuable employees whether it’s through training, healthcare or other investments.

    To gauge the feelings and opinions of your employees, it is crucial to use surveys and questionnaires. Implement a survey and questionnaire that can produce an outcome that will satisfy both employees and management by allowing them to comment on real issues.

    Your team will feel more empowered, trusted, and respected if they are asked for their opinion.

  9. Recognition and Rewards
  10. It takes mutual respect and open communication to maintain a healthy employer-employee relationship. You have to take action instead of offering empty words. Employees are one of the most valuable assets of your company, and it is important to take the time to show that you truly care, especially amidst the increasingly competitive business climate.

    It goes a long way in attracting and retaining talent within the organisation if employees are recognised and appreciated for their outstanding work performance. By demonstrating an awareness and regularly thanking them for their efforts and hard work, employees get motivated to give their best and it provides encouragement for them to boost their performance.

    So how do you develop an effective reward programme? Let’s highlight the key steps involved in designing such a programme.

    Know your audience

    Each employee is different and has their own motivations. So HR managers should target the audience correctly. One size fits all approach won’t work in developing a successful reward programme.

    These are the things you should consider so that the programme can work in the way it is designed to:

    • What motivates them?
    • Posting and sharing on social media
    • Know the type of recognition being provided by the company
    • Know the number of your employees
    • Know each team’s individual role

    Set the right reward programme target.

    Company leaders or managers should assist companies to achieve their business goals by setting a reasonable amount of achievable and measurable targets with due consideration.

    Depending on your company’s actual situation, you may offer monetary or non-monetary rewards to your employees.

    Communicate with your team.

    Employees should know and familiar with the company reward programme. After all, they are the ones who are going to take part in the reward programme. The management can then review its effectiveness on a regular basis.

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