Managing Employee Motivation

Amid a lockdown, keeping ourselves, teammates and employees motivated may seem a new and unknown challenge. Still, there are pieces of advice and ways to handle this situation that seem useful nowadays. 

As mentioned by one of MBN’s expert contributors, Jaime Zapata, Talent Management Director of TalentHow, crisis has always existed throughout history. Human talent availability during a crisis is one of the best advantages a company could have, even though it comes with uncertainty and new challenges. Understanding the importance of human talent is the first step. The second would be to know what areas to change or take care of as a way to define priorities. Jaime Zapata mentions that checking the employee's environment and their satisfaction could be considered the two main ones but the variables that come with them are wide. Actions and considerations to take as first steps include: 

• Strengthening employee commitment to the company.
• Providing collaborators with first-hand information opportunely. 
• Dates and commitments must not be lost even when things get rough. 
• Redesigning Human Resources departments. 
• Being careful with decisions taken and how they can impact the company. 

Employee experience and keeping the team motivated are two factors that cannot be neglected. Keeping a workforce motivated has been a common practice in many companies. Still, nowadays, it is almost indispensable considering the challenges that come with working remotely. According to Forbes, there are six strategies to keep employees motivated: setting goals to create meaning out of what people are doing and what is expected from them, celebrating milestones no matter how big or small the accomplishment is, sending back concrete feedback on the work being done, giving employees the confidence to speak up when it comes to problem-solving, experimenting and allowing new ways to do things and lastly following through with promises.  

Along with everything mentioned above, an important factor is employee experience, as mentioned by another expert contributor of MBN, Gustavo Linares, Founder of TalentHow. "Understanding that our employees' experience is related to the service we provide as a company and therefore creating a positive environment in which people want to work is essential, especially in these difficult times we are going through," he said.

This process begins even before the employee starts working at the company and it will continue to happen while they are working there. The quality of experience they have will likely be the one they give to customers. Keeping in mind that companies need to provide better service to their employees becomes essential.