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How to Boost Employee Motivation in a Post-COVID World?

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How to Boost Employee Motivation in a Post Covid World

COVID-19 has forced organizations and their employees to adjust to new routines of how, when, and where they work. The crisis has resulted in a decline in their morale, which can impact their work efficiency and performance negatively. Hence, it is not surprising that organizations are exploring means to boost employee motivation in a post-COVID world.

What is the Need to Boost Employee Motivation in a post-COVID world?

Vaccine

Whichever way one looks, people seem to be stressed, anxious, and in most cases facing a deep sense of insecurity.

Employees are worried not only about their health and well-being but also about their loved ones.

Work from Home

They are further stressed by the possibility of job loss due to the pandemic, with many businesses announcing layoffs.

This is impacting the morale and motivation of the employees. This, in turn, is causing a dip the productivity levels across organizations, which they want to avoid.

Hence keeping employees engaged and motivated in the post-COVID world has become one of the topmost HR priorities.

How to Boost Employee Motivation in a Post-COVID-19 World?

All businesses are adjusting to a completely new model of work – employees are either working remotely or in staggered shifts.

In each case, organizations need to reassure the employees in these difficult times. They need to improve their motivation levels to ensure better productivity.

few key steps that organizations should look at taking:

How to Boost Employee Motivation in a Post-COVID World?

1. Create a sense of belonging

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To motivate employees during and even after the pandemic, organizations should reassure them that they are still an integral part of the organization.

Organizations need to communicate extensively with their employees and share any significant updates without delay.

The organization should deal with employees in an empathetic and patient manner. 

Also, they need to provide clear and precise information to employees about any changes in their roles, responsibilities, and expectations from them

2. Listen to what the employees have to say

Mentoring

Organizations should encourage employees to express their views and opinions about various issues.

Hence, seeking ideas from the employees as inputs for products, policies, and processes can make them feel valued and improve their motivation levels.

This will help increase their involvement in the business operations and decision-making of the organization and motivate them.

3. Focus on improving Teamwork and Collaboration

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Organizations need to focus on improving teamwork and collaboration between their employees in the post-COVID world.

These can have a significant impact on driving employee engagement.

Organizations should make use of various online tools and platforms to make it easier for their remote and on-site employees to stay connected and enhance teamwork.

4. Seek Regular Feedback

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Seeking regular feedback from the employees has gained even greater significance in the current times.

By doing so, organizations can understand their concernsespecially if they provide negative feedback to vent their frustrations.

In such cases, organizations must provide appropriate counseling to reduce the stress of such employees rather than criticizing them and breaking down their confidence even further.

5. Be sure to Appreciate and Recognize Employees

Virtual Awards Ceremony

Another initiative that has gained greater significance during and after COVID-19 is that of recognizing the hard work of their employees.

Hence, effective and timely employee recognition can provide a big boost to the motivation levels of the workforce.

Organizations should consider recognizing employee behaviors and efforts made by employees in light of the various challenges faced during and after the COVID-19 crisis. 

6. Provide Employees with the authority to make decisions

Work from Home might be the New Normal Post-COVID

This is the right for the organization to check the decision-making capabilities of the employees.

In addition to assuring the employees that they enjoy the trust of the management, such initiatives provide them with the requisite learning required for taking up leadership roles.

Therefore, employees can feel more responsible and motivated.

Bottom-line

In a post-COVID world, where employee engagement and productivity levels are likely to see a significant decline due to the negative news in the business environment, pay cuts, layoffs, and remote working; organizations need to work on various initiatives to boost employee motivation.

Sagar Chaudhuri

Lead author: Sagar Chaudhuri, the Co-Founder and CEO of HiFives. He is an HR Tech Evangelist with over 25 years of experience in the corporate world and entrepreneurship. In the past, Sagar has worked with companies such as Genpact, Infosys, and ICICI Bank, in leadership roles. He has an engineering degree from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM Lucknow. Connect on LinkedIn

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HiFives is a global employee rewards, recognition and engagement SaaS platform that enables organizations to digitize, automate and transform their employee experience. It is used by 100+ large enterprises, small businesses and startups in manufacturing, retail, technology, financial services and media, across 25+ countries.