Three Techniques to Boost Employee Motivation in the Workplace

By Fatmata Kamara, Specialist Mental Health Nurse at Bupa UK

After the new year, it’s normal for our motivation levels to dip, especially as the weather gets colder.

The benefits of a motivated workforce are manifold; businesses with motivated employees tend to be more productive, there’s less absence at work, there is likely to be improved talent retention and finally, improved engagement levels. Motivation is the driving force behind how we act and behave and is an important factor of employee wellbeing in the workplace.

Fortunately, there’s lots of new ways to boost your team’s motivation, according to Fatmata Kamara, Specialist Mental Health Nurse at Bupa UK. Analysis of search behaviour has revealed UK employees are turning to Google for workplace motivation tips since the start of the year, with a:

53% increase in Google searches for ‘upskill training’

50% increase in Google searches for ‘career mentoring’

40% increase in Google searches for ‘what is time boxing’

Here are three techniques to boost employee motivation, according to Fatmata Kamara:

1. Encourage upskilling

Upskilling is the process of learning new skills, allowing employees to advance in their career. Whilst upskilling offers the opportunity to learn additional skills, employees can also expand their current skillset – becoming experts in their role.

Managers can support the upskilling of their team by sharing any further learning opportunities with their team. For example, putting a team member forward to attend a learning session, industry networking event or qualification course.

2. Offer workplace mentoring

Workplace mentoring offers the opportunity for employees to learn skills from senior colleagues. A mentor can share knowledge, offer advice and support, helping a mentee to set career goals and develop professionally.

Mentoring is central to supporting motivation in the workplace. It can help build employee resilience and talent retention, as well as boosting employee wellbeing.

Mentoring schemes can also support workplace diversity and inclusion, especially for minority groups such as BAME and female employees, both of whom are likely to report mentoring as very important to their career development.

There are lots of ways employers can introduce mentoring schemes to their business, firstly by defining the purpose and goals of the scheme, for example, facilitating diversity, leadership development or support for new starters. To matching mentors and mentees on similarities such as knowledge or skills the skills they would like to learn. Evaluating the scheme, to measure successes and evaluate any feedback can help a business’s mentoring program to develop and grow over time.

3. Encourage time boxing

Time boxing has increased in popularity over the last few months with Google searches for ‘what is timeboxing’ increasing by 40% since the beginning of 2022. Time boxing is a time management technique which allows employees to organise their workload by blocking out time to work on tasks in their calendar.

Scheduling time to work on projects not only supports workplace productivity but also engenders effective communication. It can allow employees to schedule future works and projects whist accommodating varying workloads – supporting team collaboration and increasing motivation.

Employers can encourage their teams to trial timeboxing in their day-to-day work through offering training sessions and timeboxing best practice techniques.