The Happiness Index is a place where there’s always much to discuss about the different psychological studies. Clive Hyland, a neurological psychologist, coach for human performance and author, is one of our psychologists who has contributed to the team’s knowledge and passion.
We are a team of bright minds, so it is no surprise that we consider many theories in order to maximize the impact of our employee engagement technology on our users.
Deci and Ryan’s theory on self-determination is one theory that can help us understand staff motivation and the key drivers. Although it’s not the only theory that we think about in the field of motivation, it is the most powerful. This theory focuses on the importance of creating the right environment for motivation.
WHY CHOOSE MOTIVATION
Motivation is key to organizational success. Motivation is key if you want to build a loyal and productive workforce that will work hard for you and your company.
- Increased employee satisfaction and commitment .
- Increase in retention rates.
- A decrease of staff turnover and absences.
- Improved company culture.
- Increase in employee efficiency and engagement.
- Loyal brand advocates.
WHAT IS SELF DETERMINATION THEORY?
Self-determination theory is about motivation and the key drivers that drive it. This theory suggests that everyone is naturally motivated and driven, but it requires the right conditions to enable this to happen.
SDT recognizes the difference between intrinsic and external motivators, and how they can influence motivation.
- The intrinsic motivation is found in completing an enjoyable and interesting task. Let’s suppose that one of your teams enjoys working on a project. It won’t be hard to complete the task, as long as they are enjoying it.
- Extrinsic motivation refers to the feeling of being motivated by the reward or fear of repercussions. Imagine a team being assigned a task that they don’t enjoy. The team will still complete the task, but their motivation may be different. They will be motivated by the rewards (recognition and bonuses, impressing peers, or fear of being reprimanded).
THREE INHERENT DRIVERS FOR MOTORIVATION
1. Competence is the ability to be effective and take control of the situation and the end result. You can capitalize on this by making sure everyone is in the right role and has enough training. You must give your workers opportunities to showcase their talents and strengths.
2. Autonomy is when a worker has full control over how and when they fulfill their duties. SDT suggests that autonomy is not synonymous with independence. This simply refers to having the ability to make decisions and follow your gut when it comes time for tasks. Managers can capitalize on this by encouraging them to trust others and to avoid micro-managing.
3. Relatedness: This is the need to have personal relationships and feel part of a social group. This can be tapped by encouraging integration at work, celebrating victories and grieving together.
HOW DO YOU USE SDT AT THE HAAPPINESS INDEX
Motivation for our staff:
- Peer-to-peer mentoring is encouraged to increase staff competence. This allows people at different levels of seniority to coach one another. This helps to strengthen skills and encourage knowledge-sharing, which in turn empowers workers. Lunch-time learning sessions are also offered where any member of the team can lead sessions and teach others a new skill. This promotes cooperation and relatedness and encourages team cohesion.
- We promote team spirit through group night outs, lunches, quizzes, and awards for employee of the month.
- We also allow our employees to work remotely, allowing them to have flexible work schedules. This creates trust and ensures a healthy work/life balance.
We help our clients motivate their employees:
We always think about how each question will motivate the recipients to give the information their employers need in order to make action plans that really do make a difference.
These are our suggested questions to show this:
- What are your personal motivations to make this organization succeed?
- What are your top ten most memorable moments at work?
Specific SDT questions:
- What systems and processes do you use to accomplish your job? (Competence)
- (Competence).
- What do you think is the value of your opinions? (Relatedness)
- How positive is your relationship with coworkers?
- What freedom does your job allow you to work? (Autonomy)
- What do you think about the remote work opportunities that your job offers? (Autonomy)
You’ve now seen how SDT works. Let’s now look at strategies that will help you capitalize on it.
SUFFICIENCY TO YOUR WORKERS’ NEED FOR CONTENTENCE
Investing in staff training: This is the best way to motivate people through competence. If you invest in staff training and your employees’ futures, they will reciprocate by showing improved skills, greater motivation, and better performance.
Reverse mentoring is encouraged: Workers of different ages, experience, and seniority mentor one another to build knowledge gaps and share their expertise.
Build a fluid workforce: You can train your employees to work in a system that shares knowledge and competencies. A marketer, for example, will no longer be expected only to fulfill a marketing role. Instead, he/she is expected to work closely with people from different departments.
Case Study: Sport clothing specialists Lululemon have a workplace culture that is centered around setting goals. Employees are taught how to achieve goals, even if they are not related to the company’s goals. This is a great way to empower employees and make them feel confident and competent.
SATISFYING WORKERS’ NEEDS FOR AUTONOMY
Establish boundaries: Freedom is key to creating an autonomous workforce. Too much freedom can lead to failure of the initiative. Your leaders and you should guide and support your team through this process… but avoid giving orders, controlling or delegating.
Allow workers to manage their own work schedules Giving your employees autonomy and focusing on results rather than time spent working, will show that you trust them. You show your employees that you trust them and value their skills. This gives them the confidence and motivation to succeed in your business.
Give people freedom to choose their tasks Ask your people what they would like to do. It is important to set boundaries and ensure that the task can be accomplished (competence). People will choose the task that they are most capable of handling.
Case Study:Tech lords Google allow their employees to spend 20% of their time on their projects. They have been very successful in this endeavor, as Gmail and Google Translate are both products of this initiative. This shows that people who are given autonomy don’t become lazy, but they do become more creative and ingenious.
SATISFY YOUR WORKERS NEED FOR RELATEDNESS
Promote integration: Your main goal in building a cohesive team is to get your people to work better together. You can boost your company’s culture by making time for social events such as birthdays, lunches and outings. You can increase the enjoyment of your employees’ work and improve the quality of their performance by allowing them to interact and build meaningful relationships.
Encourage trust: To make a team cohesive, all members must have mutual trust. To promote trust, you can model the behavior you want. This will make it easier to spread the message throughout the company. You can also conduct trust-building exercises and inspire people to be open with one another.
Encourage feedback: To encourage the development of teams, you can encourage everyone to provide feedback on group dynamics and share the results. This will help you identify the obstacles that need to be overcome and make sure everyone is part of a cohesive group.