Sometimes I would like to reply: "It's best to avoid demotivating your employees!" I very often see managers using deterrent methods to keep their team in line: They threaten and punish them to the point of making you fearful.
There are countless studies that advise against this type of "motivation". This is because employees resign for these two main reasons: because they are not appreciated and because of poor internal communication. And more than 70% of respondents say this.
In contrast, more empathy from line managers would help to retain staff in the company. 92% (ninety-two!) of employees would stay with their employer if their boss showed a little more empathy (source: Businesssolver). Surprise!
So what does "empathy" mean?
Wikipedia says: "Empathy refers to the ability and willingness to recognize, understand and empathize with the feelings, emotions, thoughts, motives and personality traits of another person. A corresponding general term is empathy."
Empathy versus content as a means of bonding
Paradoxically, 9 out of 10 managers believe that their ex-employees resigned because they were offered a higher salary elsewhere. But this is not the case. According to CareerBuilder.com, only 1 in 10 employees quit because he or she wanted to see more money in their bank account at the end of the month.
Sure, a decent salary is important. Even more so in times like these. But it is by no means the No. 1 motivating factor; it ranks "below the rest".
In the media, the word "skills shortage" circles through the information jungle. Yes, in the electroplating industry in particular, many companies are struggling to find a few well-trained plant operators, electroplating technicians, production managers, plant operators and personnel for work preparation. Today, the priority is to keep employees in the company.
"But how do I keep my employees? How do I bind my team to the company?"
... managers are certainly asking themselves now. First, our interim conclusion: salary secures the livelihood, but only marginally serves to motivate employees.
Empathy, i.e. the empathy of the manager, comes to the fore. I experience far too often that only figures, data and facts are important for the executive floor. Little or no time is given to management tasks. Instead, managers are expected to carry out specialist tasks. It is a shame that management tasks are neglected. After all, they were very well trained and recruited for this purpose.
Unfortunately, soft skills training falls by the wayside far too often. And the time to apply them to employees. Yet it is precisely these "soft" skills that are needed to lead people.
Many managers tear their hair out and ask desperately: "How am I supposed to juggle everything?", "How am I supposed to motivate my team?", "Actually, I would also like to have time for my hobbies, for my family, for my friends ...!" "Where is my work-life balance?" They are stressed and feel like squeezed lemons the more the new team leaders find themselves in a sandwich position.
So what can you do to keep motivation high?
To keep your best employees and highly qualified top performers in the company, you should take their desire for appreciation and effective internal company communication very seriously. Because unhappy employees are unproductive employees.
My tip for you today: ask your employees!
My favorite tool for employee motivation is active listening.
This means
- Your ears are your most important tool
- You regularly take time (approx. 10 minutes) for each of your team members
- You make eye contact and nod from time to time
- You ask comprehension questions
- You avoid criticism. There are other tools for this.
Possible questions could be
- How are you?
- How are you doing with your work?
- How satisfied are you with the current situation?
- What would you improve?
- Is there anything that is still close to your heart?
Your benefit from active listening ...
Your team members feel valued by you. You get to know your employees very well, learn about their strengths and weaknesses, get new ideas from the team, learn about mistakes more quickly and can react to problems more quickly.
By actively listening, you build up a good, appreciative working atmosphere in the long term and receive valuable information. And the productivity of your team increases. Most importantly, you will notice that the number of sick days is reduced and the staff turnover rate drops.
The bush drums are tireless: information about a good working atmosphere and respectful treatment of employees gets around very quickly. Especially in such a small niche industry as surface technology. This is a very attractive reason to apply to your company. Away from a demotivating working atmosphere with many bad weather fronts - towards an empathetic working atmosphere with lots of good weather periods.
You may be frowning now and thinking to yourself: "Where am I supposed to find the time?" Schedule regular times in your calendar for "active listening" and just do it.
Not doing so would simply be too costly.
There are studies on this and the Stress Report Germany 2019 also states: "With the consistent use of contemporary psychological motivation principles, work performance usually increases by 20 to 40 %".
