Motivation of employees has been talked about for many years in the business world along with how to have the most productive teams. There are team building exercises, ways to watch and keep track of employees with paperwork and efficiency standards, performance reviews, along with standards and procedures. These are all acceptable ways of having a business see what’s going on.
As we go into the future there will need to be an added approach. Though there has been talk about taking care of employee needs, so to speak, this often falls short no matter what industry is being talked about. You can see this by hearing what employees are saying, the McKinsey report talking about frontline managers, absentee levels, turn over rates, or dissatisfied employees. In business there has been talk throughout the years on how to bring fairness to the employees.
There is a lot more information on employee satisfaction but the point of this article is to address what is it that will make a productive, satisfied, happy employee? The answer to this is that any person wishes, needs, and wants to have a benefit and a purpose in the activity (work) being done. And it goes further. Humans want to do well and be appreciated for the completed job. It is about problem solving and being free to do that while serving the customer. It is having ideas that are listened to and often used. People want to know that what is being done matters.
Businesses need to balance getting the obstacles out of the way for employees with asking for more at times. People have lives that will at times conflict with the job. Some companies have day care services, longer lunches, ways to cover for each other, or other methods to see the employees as people that have many responsibilities. Whether a company has the resources or not to do the above things, any company can work with the employees to balance work and home. A manager can solve problems with the employee, listen, and care about the employee and the job being done.
The more employees know they are part of the process and not just a number the more the employee will be a true part of the team. This is the human touch.