Employee’s Motivation During COVID-19

Motivation is the key factor. It’s the feeling of satisfaction, the level of energy, commitment, and creativity that the employees bring to their job as an individual in the organization. Motivation is one of the factors that drive employees to work harder, helping them to improve their efficiency and productivity. But Covid-19  has affected employees’ motivation negatively, which can lead to a decline in creativity, commitment and productivity of an organization.

Employee’s motivation is a major part of any organization so that it can help them manage its standards easily. But due to this pandemic, lack of motivation and stressful conditions have affected the mental health and performance of the employees. It is a growing challenge for the organization to maintain the motivational level of employees.

As this pandemic causes far too many difficult situations, organizations and employees try to overcome this situation. Organizations were overwhelmed trying to manage business functioning while keeping employees engaged, positive, and motivated towards their work. The new normal of working from home has become the way of working in modern work-life. In this new way of working, keeping track of employees’ motivation has become hard for the organizations; however, they can increase the motivational level and can help the employees in their performances through a few simple tips.

Here are a few tips to increase the motivation of employees during this difficult time:

1. Effective Communication

Communication is the key to every problem. You should keep good or effective communication with the employees so that they know what the organization is expecting from them and what they have to do to meet the organization’s expectations. With the help of technology, organizations can still keep effective communication by having online meetings with the employees for the discussion of their work, keeping a friendly nature and being available for the employees whenever they require any help. You should support them in their work.

2. Showing Empathy

Try to put yourself in their shoes and understand their situation. Show them that you support them and care for them. You can also encourage them and help them whenever required. Additionally, showing them that their thoughts, opinions and contributions are very much valued will be an important addition to their motivation. This will ensure that they can feel that level of satisfaction that keeps them motivated for effective work.

3. Engagement

Employee engagement is important in boosting employee motivation. Organizations can engage the employees in many ways like having a team meeting to share their thoughts, opinions and discussion, scheduling a meeting to discuss the challenges, opportunities, professional development and the growth of the employees. Try to keep the meetings interesting by having some quizzes or question-answer sessions in between so the employees won’t feel bored.

4. Be Positive

Try to be positive in stressful situations and focus on the successes your company has had during the crisis. Focusing on the good side of this ungrateful situation and communicating the good things like how they had helped the organization to overcome this pandemic with their hard work is a supporting gesture that shouldn’t be overlooked.

5. Create A Happy Environment

Try to create a happy environment for the employees so that they won’t have the feeling of stress and burnout. During work from home, you can have an online gaming session with the employees, a yoga session or maybe just a casual meeting where everyone will be discussing and sharing their problems and trying to find the solution to them. Try to understand what motivates your employees and create sessions or programs accordingly.

6. Reward

Reward them for their hard work, praise them and give them recognition for their work. If the employees get recognized and praised for their work it will highly motivate them and encourage working more creatively and productively.

7. Prioritize Employee Safety

After the pandemic, offices are reopening cautiously and the major factor which decreases their level of motivation is safety. Employees are concerned about their safety so to increase their motivation level and to decrease their concern about their health and safety, keep the office sanitized and clean. You can also regularly assure them that they are completely safe and their safety is the priority.

In conclusion, a highly motivated employee or workforce will always give the required and desired results to the organization and the employees motivated is the job of every organization.