Key Factors of Your Employees’ Motivation for Remote Working

Which Motivation Type Is Better for Employee’s Performance?

Psychologists distinguish between intrinsic and extrinsic types of motivation. 

Intrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation is something that encourages us to do something just because we enjoy the process and seek to get a result. We do it for our own sake regardless of other people’s reward or approval. For example, a person stays at the office till the evening not because they want to impress their boss but because they’re really engaged and enjoy their work on a current task. This type of motivation appears when we’re passionate about doing something.

Extrinsic Motivation

Extrinsic motivation refers to the kind of behavior when a person is looking forward to getting a benefit for doing something. Thus, they’re not guided by their interests or inner desires, but by the will to get a reward or avoid punishment. An example is that an employee asks for additional tasks not because they’re striving for self-development, but because they want their employer to think they’re engaged and valuable workers and get extra perks. 

An intrinsic motivation type can’t be lost for some external reasons. And extrinsic motivation is something that can reduce for a certain cause or even disappear. Therefore, it’s something you should work on to control.

What’s the Difference Between Motivation and Engagement?

Team leads should know the difference between these two concepts and be able to recognize both of them in their employees. 

Motivation concerns a person’s desire to succeed, in this context, in their career. It’s an inner will to do something to satisfy one of the basic needs.

Being engaged means being interested and involved in the company’s processes, sharing its goals and trying to do their best to help them achieve it.

Can a person be motivated but not engaged, and vise versa? Of course, they can. These phenomena are both essential to the business’ success, so you as a team lead or a manager should take care of making your teams motivated and engaged at the same time. 

In other words, motivation is a self-centered phenomenon, and engagement is a team-focused one. When your employees are engaged, they all work like a well-oiled machine but primarily they’re doing it just because they have to, not because they’re driven by their desire. 

On the other hand, even if an employee understands the company’s goals and shares its main ideas, their efficiency will be low without motivation. So, motivating the workforce is one of the essential tasks to work on for any company owner or manager.

Things That Can’t Keep Workers Motivated for a Long Time

Money

Everyone believes that money is the best motivator for any employee. But is it really so? Money does have a great impact on people’s motivation but as soon as they get it their motivation reduces. According to Doug and Polly, guest writers for Entrepreneurs, “only the prospect of receiving money in the near future is a strong enough motivator to change behavior”. So, it’s an endless process: people will always want more money, it’s just a matter of time. And besides, money encourages workers to perform their duties more efficiently but it doesn’t mean it really gets them motivated. They won’t enjoy their work more just by getting a bigger salary.

Penalty

Yes, it may sound odd, but many employers use a carrot-and-stick approach to keep their teams motivated to perform better. But does it work, either? There’s no doubt people will be afraid of being punished, especially given that the penalties can be rather strict: either a one off decrease in salary or even firing. Well, there are two categories of people: the ones who are guided by motivation to succeed, and the ones guided by motivation to avoid failures. Penalty as a motivator can be a good way to engage the second type of workers. 

Things That Will Definitely Demotivate Your Employees

Too Complex Tasks

Many people would choose solving difficult tasks, especially during the first months after getting their job to demonstrate their skills. But then a constant addressing of too complex challenges becomes a burden, especially if a company doesn’t care about an employee’s upskilling and doesn’t provide them with any opportunities like this, or doesn’t give extra perks for doing difficult tasks.