It’s no secret that motivation is important when it comes to doing good work. “Company culture” has become a popular term among corporate leaders; more and more companies are focusing on creating a culture that fosters motivation in their workforce.
This is more than a simple fad: according to the Harvard Business Review (HBR), “Why we work determines how well we work.” Motivation is the key to unlocking performance.
While people can be motivated to varying degrees by different forces, there are some common factors that affect motivation in most people and settings.
Open communication
Emotional pressure often comes from not knowing what to expect from your company, managers and fellow employees. When team members are unsure how their performance is measured, what’s expected of them or how their work product affects the bigger picture, motivation (and performance) can suffer.
At Credit Karma, transparency and open communication form the basis for the company’s culture. The company has an “open door” policy, encouraging people to ask their managers questions. Honesty is present in every conversation; managers don’t hide things from their employees, and employees are encouraged to share information with each other. Management is always upfront about why decisions are made and how they affect the company and its employees.
Related: The Global Impact of Social Entrepreneurship Companies [Sponsored]
Customer-centric mission
Customer satisfaction is critical to a business’ success.
According to statistics compiled by Salesforce, 89 percent of consumers stop doing business with a company after a poor customer experience.
Forty-five percent abandon online transactions when their customer issue isn’t resolved quickly.
In order to make sure customers have a good experience and remain satisfied, companies must become customer-centric. This means making the customer experience a part of your company’s core mission and values, prioritizing the customer experience over other concerns. It’s also vital to ensure that employees understand how their work impacts the customer experience and are rewarded when they provide a good experience for customers.
Empowered employees and leadership at all levels
Richard Branson of The Virgin Group famously said, “Take care of your employees and they’ll take care of your business.” A big part of taking care of your employees is allowing them to be in control of their own lives at the company.
Empowered employees can make decisions about how they accomplish their goals and have control over their day-to-day experience at the company. Empowered employees are also given the support and tools they need to do the job. They’re given training, authority and access to resources that allow them to be effective in their roles within the company.
Great performance management process
To improve employee performance, you must be able to measure that performance. A performance management process does just that. By using metrics that are measurable and meaningful to the company, you can track employee performance, make corrections as needed and reward employees for good performance.
Related: Sign up to receive the StartupNation newsletter!
Invested in employee growth
Investing in employee growth has many concrete benefits for companies. In addition to building necessary skills in your workforce, an employee you’ve invested in is more prepared for promotion and can start taking on more and more responsibility within the company. Such employees also tend to be more loyal; this is vital to increasing employee retention. The cost of employee turnover is high, and it’s usually better for a company to invest in existing employees rather than find new ones.
A business degree, like the online MBA at Campbellsville University, can give you the tools you need to create a dynamic, high performance culture at your company.
Content sponsored by Campbellsville University
