Thomas Edison, the renowned inventor who gave us the light bulb, among many other innovations, claimed that he had never failed, but just found ten thousand ways in which something didn’t work. To achieve such an attitude requires a fundamental ingredient: motivation. It’s what drives us forward in our personal and professional lives and is an intangible asset in organisations: if we don’t know how to motivate employees, we won’t be able to improve their well-being or achieve a positive organisational culture.
In today’s changing work environment, employee motivation is a crucial factor that determines the productivity and long-term success of companies. A motivated employee is more productive, creative and committed to their work, resulting in higher talent retention and a better organisational climate. One of the most effective strategies to achieve this is effective recognition.
In this article, we will look at how various motivational strategies positively impact employee performance and retention, as well as the psychological theories that can support an effective employment policy.
How to motivate an employee: four psychological theories
Before implementing any measures or evaluating motivation policies, it is useful to understand some basic mechanisms of human psychology that are intimately linked to job satisfaction. To do so, we’ll turn to four of the best-known theories that explain how to motivate employees. All of them can be considered, to a greater or lesser extent, complementary.
Positive reinforcement
First, there’s the basic concept of positive reinforcement, coined by B.F. Skinner as part of his behavioural psychology model. This approach holds that a behaviour will be repeated more often if it’s followed by a positive stimulus. In short, positive reinforcement involves presenting a reward or incentive after a desired behaviour to increase the likelihood that said behaviour will be repeated in the future.
For example, praising a person for a job well done can motivate them to maintain or improve their performance.
In the workplace, recognising and rewarding good deeds encourages employees to repeat them and improves overall performance.
Equity theory
John Stacey Adams’ equity theory focuses on the perception of fairness in the workplace. According to Adams, employees compare their contributions (such as effort, skills and time) and rewards (such as salary, recognition and benefits) with those of other colleagues. If they perceive inequity, i.e. that their contributions are greater than their rewards compared to others, they may become demotivated and dissatisfied.
Effective recognition can help balance this perception and ensure that employees feel that their efforts are fairly valued and actively listened to.
Self-determination theory
Edward Deci and Richard Ryan’s Self-Determination Theory (SDT) argues that human beings have three basic needs that revolve around autonomy and responsibility:
- Autonomy: the desire to take responsibility for one’s own actions and decisions.
- Competence: the need to feel effective and capable of meeting challenges.
- Relationship: the need to feel connected and respected by others.
When an organisation implements effective recognition policies, employees will feel that their decision-making is valued, that their achievements are validated and that they have a connection with others in the organisation.
Expectation theory
Victor Vroom developed his expectancy theory to explain why people choose one behaviour or another. The result of his research was a formula in which the multiplication of the following three factors resulted in total motivation:
- Expectation: the belief that effort will lead to good performance. If a person believes that he or she can perform a task successfully, they’re more motivated to aim for professional growth.
- Instrumentality: the perception that good performance will be rewarded. If employees believe that meeting targets will lead to the desired rewards, they’ll be more motivated.
- Valence: the value a person places on rewards. If the reward is valuable to the individual, his or her motivation will be higher.
Effective recognition: five surprising statistics
There are many ways to recognise a person’s work in order to enhance motivation and contribute to professional development. And it’s often a question of how that recognition is conveyed. For example, a Gallup study indicated that receiving recognition from senior managers in an organisation is more memorable for a quarter of respondents.
The same study also noted that providing individualised recognition based on the characteristics of the individual has a much greater impact. Regardless of how employees are motivated, there are a number of striking statistics regarding the impact and conditions of recognition:
- A Globoforce study shows that employees who enjoy ongoing recognition are up to eight times more engaged.
- Millennials need greater and more frequent acts of recognition than previous generations.
- 66% of people in teams with high levels of recognition say they trust each other, which results in a better working environment.
- According to Delloitte, a company’s productivity improves by up to 31% when its employees are happy.
- A Gallup survey indicates that the best way to recognise the work of employees is to do so at least once a week.
In conclusion, recognition should be an essential part of a company’s culture, whether it is interpersonal behaviour or long-term incentive programmes. The main objective is to make employees feel recognised and rewarded for their work and to make them feel that the company cares about them. Of course, motivation will also depend on other working conditions such as opportunities for growth or leadership, among other factors.
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