Any HR specialist would be astoundingly familiar with the buzzword ‘motivation’. It is one of the driving factors behind a successful employee life cycle, from recruitment to onboarding to employee retention – it pays to know the psychological factors behind motivation. An employee’s thought process, their goals, ambitions and ideals must align with the company’s own vision for the future, and failure to understand them can result in layoffs, terminations, and early resignations. They’re all driven by ‘motivation’ which has a direct influence on an employee’s behavior both on and off the job.
A monotonous job
Monotonous jobs characterized by too much repetitive work results in employees ‘zoning out’ frequently. The saying goes like this; the job is so boring for most employees that they inadvertently end up botching their tasks despite them being extremely simple and trivial.
An example would be the quality department at large manufacturing plants which require grueling work hours and strenuous physical labor. Despite the monotonous nature of the job, employees tend to get bored or ‘zoned out’. Even after having gone through six months into the job, they find it hard to get motivated. A weekly or monthly paycheck no longer serves as the primary factor.
Symptoms of a boring job
One of the frequent tell tale signs of a boring job is that it almost takes ‘an eternity’ to pass. This is accompanies by psychologically grievous feelings of lethargy and lack of concentration. A paycheck, no matter how hefty, is unable to involve such employees with the company for the long haul.
So what could be the factors behind a demotivated employee?
A monotonous job isn’t always the main culprit behind a disengaged employee, but identifying these factors can always help to improve relations between the employee and employer. While the blame is commonly leveled towards a lack of salary, this rarely is a factor.
Here are the common factors for a well engaged, stimulated and motivated employee
Communication
Managers should hold regular meetings between departments and all the hierarchies in a company to help foster and strengthen relationship which will allow employees to fully reach their maximum productivity. It also helps to enact career development programs which closely but unobtrusively monitor levels of productivity and motivation in staff.
Decision making process
Employees should be given the opportunity to help with the decision making process at all levels of the organization. Every worker should be allowed to express their opinion, suggestions and improvements to the organizational structure and vision of the company. Being part of the decision making process does wonders to their motivational levels.
Job rotation
Burnouts, or exhaustions are a real phenomenon, a common headache faced by most employees who are stuck with the same job function day in and day out. The biggest advantage of job rotations is to reduce this feeling of burnout, a perpetual feeling of boredom which is only aggravated by exhaustion. Managers should try to rotate their jobs at all levels in their businesses, it is particularly advantageous to deploy it during lower levels.
