A powerful motivational tool

Monday, 27 may 2019 | Brenda Rodríguez López

All companies want the same thing: winning customers over. However, there is no magic recipe or a unique path to achieve this goal. Of course, their achievement depends on a condition, the different members of the company should be willing to row in the same direction. Without motivation, there is no commitment, and without the latter, teams might break, goals could be forgotten and talent may move away. In other words, the mission will not be completed successfully. Therefore, motivation is the glue that makes it possible for everyone to agree on following the same path. But, where to find it and how to boost it? Every company has at hand an economic, powerful and modest motivational tool. The problem is that, sometimes, they do not take it into account.

There are many leaders who identify salary as the only incentive to promote employees' motivation. Indeed, a good remuneration for work is always positive, but by itself it is usually not enough.  Expecting the commitment of the employees to depend solely on a payroll figure is a serious mistake. As we mentioned in an earlier article on this blog, talent cannot be bought with money. The so-called emotional salary has an increasingly greater weight in the relationship of professionals with their work environment. The growing importance that workers give to factors such as flexibility, support for work-life balance, opportunities for professional growth, guarantees for stability, commitment to training or activities that foster a good working environment are good examples of it.

How important is recognition!

Recognition is another formula of alternative compensation that, in addition to serving as a powerful motivational tool, is also very affordable. However, companies do not usually notice it. For example, the absence of feedback can lead to employees experiencing states of anxiety, stress and insecurity. They may even spend more time than necessary when carrying out a task, just because of the doubts that arise in this context in which there is not enough communication. This scenario has an influence on the continuous loss of productivity and, in the long run, can lead to the growing discouragement of workers. Curiously, behind this silence and lack of reaction on the part of the companies, there is not always a problem. The superiors may consider that these employees are really doing a good job, but they are not aware of this fact.

This scenario may be avoided simply by putting more effort into establishing a right communication. Sometimes, a phrase of encouragement or recognition becomes enough incentive to change the perception that professionals have about their company and their work. When a company is committed to an open, bidirectional and honest communication, it reduces that invisible distance that exists between management positions and the rest of the workforce. This approach does not imply that the work is always worthy of praise or that it is exempt from demands. Nonetheless, whenever the professional is wrong or fails, a sincere and constructive approach will always be more effective, than one that is built around the punishment for failure.

The lack of recognition discourages as well as generates frustration, and might even lead to the inevitable resignation and abandonment of the company by the professional. Talent is the most valuable asset that companies have, that fact is evidenced by the intense effort that companies are investing on recruitment. Therefore, once employees become part of their staff, they should not forget the kind of experience they are going through. On the other hand, when employees do not feel valued, the work environment becomes tense and a greater number of conflicts arise among workers.