Noticing a dip in staff performance, reflected by low engagement on your company intranet, and generally an absence of motivated employees since the start of the new year? It’s not surprising. It’s January, it’s cold and dark, and there’s a pandemic going on. If there was ever a perfect recipe for low levels of employee morale, it’s this.
Indeed, a study by Harvard Business Review found that the three main negative motivators – emotional pressure, economic pressure, and inertia – are likely to have increased as a direct result of the pandemic. People are understandably more anxious about protecting their health and families, worried about financial security, and experiencing the ever-encroaching boundaries of work life balance – all of which contribute to waning motivation.
Taking proactive steps to motivate and encourage employees is therefore crucial as we navigate the difficult winter months ahead. By utilising the same digital workplace tools that enabled remote working – in particular your company intranet – you can motivate staff members so that they feel productive, engaged, and happier at work.
Your intranet is a powerhouse of productivity apps, employee engagement tools, and effective communication features that are ready and waiting to help you boost staff motivation and encourage innovation.
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Here are 5 ways your intranet will help you motivate teams:
Encourage staff development with online training
The link between learning opportunities and employee motivation is strong. Companies that invest in personal development see improved employee retention, happier and more engaged staff, and a better work environment.
Online learning might just be the motivational-boost your teams need
So why not use your learning management system to create an online training programme for your staff? Encouraging people to learn new skills allows them to feel full of purpose, because they have a tangible goal to aim towards and achieve.
Gamification features such as interactive training courses, personalised learning paths, and certificates act as further incentives to improve employee engagement, professional development, and motivation.
Use digital rewards to motivate employees
Intranet software tools like intranet badges allow you to build your own employee reward programme, where you can formally express gratitude to staff for a job well done.
Providing digital rewards at the point of achievement – such as when a team member has delivered outstanding customer support or completed a particularly challenging project – is a great motivator, because it shows that their work is appreciated and valued in the organisation.
Collect – and respond to – employee feedback
Gathering employee feedback is essential to understanding what motivates and engages your teams. Send intranet surveys to your staff on a regular basis to measure motivation levels and ask what the company can do to help improve them, whether that’s additional guidance from management, time to focus on personal growth opportunities, or some wellbeing tips.
Critically, always respond to those who take the time to share their feedback, otherwise you may find employees’ motivation levels going down; staff will see through any survey that’s sent as a box-ticking exercise!
Make sure you always respond to staff feedback
Step up your internal communications
Communication breakdown can destroy relationships, and the same applies within your organisation. Studies show that poor communication and withholding of information from upper management leave people wanting to quit their job. Ramping up your internal communications is essential to boosting – and maintaining – workplace motivation.
Your intranet is full of communication tools that will help you communicate and share information with your teams effectively, whatever the situation.
For example, when you need to send an urgent update across the whole company, you can post an intranet announcement that also gets pushed to employees’ phones.
If you’re looking to improve collaboration amongst teams, you can create intranet discussion areas that group relevant conversations together into one focussed space. @Mention technology – which allows you to tag and automatically notify staff in an intranet message – is useful when you need to communicate with individuals on a one-to-one basis.
Say “thank you” more helps to keep employees motivated
At Claromentis, we learned first-hand that peer recognition is an amazing motivational tool. Since going 100% remote last year because of the pandemic, usage of our intranet ‘thank you’ tool – which lets staff post messages of kudos – doubled. People wanted to share their genuine appreciation of one another, and as a result, we saw improved alignment in our company strategies and company culture.
Use your intranet ‘thank you’ tool to share kudos with your staff
Use your intranet ‘thank you’ tool to share kudos with your staff.
The effects of recognition on employee engagement and motivation are unquestionable. A study by Deloitte found that employee engagement, productivity, and performance levels were 15% higher in organisations with positive feedback compared to those without. So, encouraging staff to use your intranet’s ‘thank you’ tool is a no-brainer.
