How to Motivate Your Team at Work? (10 Ideas)

Your team’s level of motivation can determine whether your organization hits its overall goals or not. Keeping your employees motivated should be at the top of your priority list. Here’re some ideas on how you can motivate your team at work.

1. Better training programs

Training programs are already a standard motivational strategy in most organizations. But, not all of them are as effective in boosting motivation as others are. That’s because these training programs often don’t take into consideration their development wants and needs. They’re mostly made with the organization’s targets in mind when in reality, it should be a compromise of the two.

That’s why number one on our list is creating better training programs. A more personalized career development plan makes employees feel that you’re dedicated to their career and personal growth. It also allows them to learn about new things that they’re interested in, keeps them engaged with their work, and makes career shifts within the organization a lot easier.

What better way to do that than by switching to SC Training (formerly EdApp)? This top-of-the-line LMS allows you to create, customize, and analyze your training programs in any way you want. It boasts a comprehensive feature list, such as a massive course library, interactive lesson templates, practical assessments, and a data-driven analytics tool. They also have a ton of third-party integrations such as Canva, SafetyCulture, Cornerstone, and Deputy.

Create better training programs by signing up for SC Training (formerly EdApp) today.

2. Create a company culture of recognition and appreciation

Creating a work culture based on recognition and appreciation is critical for inspiring employees and also for overall business performance. While a simple “thank you” is nice (and should be normal practice), developing a strong employee appreciation program or initiatives will greatly impact your employees. Because without it, it can negatively affect your organization’s growth.

Let’s say you have a top performer on your team who consistently goes above and beyond in their position. Despite this, this individual is never acknowledged or rewarded for his or her outstanding work. That top performer will ultimately understand that their efforts are unappreciated, resulting in a loss of drive. It might also push them to leave the organization to find a culture that sees and appreciates what they do. You can prevent that from happening by exchanging some kind words, providing an avenue to shout them out, and rewarding them for their performance.

3. Celebrate milestones

H ow do you motivate your team who has achieved great things at work? Celebrating milestones, whether it’s a birthday, a work anniversary, or the end of a project, is a terrific way to keep people motivated and appreciated. There are several ways to commemorate workplace and personal anniversaries. For example, if your organization has recently hired some new team members, send out a new employee newsletter introducing and greeting them.

If someone is celebrating a key professional milestone, such as tenure or promotion, have a boss deliver an employee appreciation speech highlighting their outstanding accomplishments. This way, they’ll feel appreciated by their leaders and recognized by their coworkers.

4. Engage with your team virtually 

With the growth of hybrid and remote work setups, many businesses are grappling with keeping employees linked despite being located in different places. If you want to keep your workforce motivated and efficient, you have to engage with them virtually. Of course, you’ll need your regular organizational virtual meetings, but consider including virtual team-building activities like a virtual happy hour or virtual game night as well.

5. Encourage bonding outside of work

With so many options to choose from when it comes to team-building activities, deciding which one is ideal for your team may be difficult, especially since they can be costly for your organization. That’s why encouraging your team to have small bonding sessions after work or on the weekends can be a better alternative to team-building activities.

Providing chances for your workers to bond outside of the office allows them to get to know each other better and contributes to the team’s trust. This trust will be reflected in the workplace, fostering a culture of transparency and collaboration in which team members can inspire one another.

6. Let your team set the rules

If your team members believe you don’t trust them and micromanage anything they do, they’ll end up being unmotivated to produce their best work. Instead, offer them greater control over how they operate and allow them to make the rules.

Schedule a meeting with your team and get input on their preferred process. When they have influence over the way they work, it’ll give them not only more confidence and motivation to get their tasks done, but also more satisfaction with their overall career trajectory. As a consequence, employees will be driven to work harder.

7. Provide supportive management

Employee motivation begins with leadership, as successful leaders become role models that others want to emulate. Great leaders listen to their employees in order to help them improve and advance in their jobs. As a competent leader, you can provide support to them by actively listening to them and giving them what they want that makes sense and if it’s within your power. For example, if they’d want to become better project managers, give them some scrum training courses. When employees feel like they’re being heard and catered to, they are more inclined to give their all at work.

8. Identify motivated team members and help them motivate the rest of the team

Some team members are inherently more driven than others. As a leader, those individuals might be one of the most effective team motivator tools at your disposal. Identify the people on your team who are the most optimistic and driven, and then spend your time and energy with them. Charge them with organizing team meetings, projects, and initiatives. Give them as many opportunities for leadership and mentoring as you can.

Giving your naturally driven staff a more visible and leadership-oriented job will spread their happiness and motivation to others in the team. As a consequence, the team will be more motivated and optimistic.

9. Give your team autonomy

Humans appreciate their independence. We all want to feel like we have control over our time and energy, and a lack of agency will doom your team’s drive.

Giving your team autonomy shows that you trust them, which will go a long way toward building the emotional link that you find in highly engaged organizations. In the long term, this creates more self-sufficient teams because they design their own processes. You’ll also be able to learn how to work with and for them.

10. Make room for side projects

If your team is given the freedom to work on projects that they’re enthusiastic about, it offers them a feeling of autonomy and allows them to develop their talents in a way that’s consistent with their objectives and aspirations. Working on personal projects provides your team purpose and potential, which will help to boost motivation. That employee motivation will flow over to the projects you need them to work on.

SC Training (formerly EdApp) is a mobile learning management system designed for today’s digital habits, delivering more engaging and effective micro-learning directly to learners anytime and anywhere.

Sign up for this employee motivational tool today.