How to Increase Engagement and Motivation Within Your Team

The Great Resignation has proven just how important employee engagement is to ongoing talent retention and the delivery of high-quality results within organisations. It’s no wonder so many leaders are focused on driving engagement and motivation within their teams – when employees are under-motivated or under-appreciated in their teams, their reasons to deliver their best work only continue to diminish.

Strategic leaders understand that a focus on improving employee engagement and motivation can create a win-win scenario, increasing work satisfaction and improving the team’s ability to deliver on key metrics. These simple behaviours will help build your team so that their everyday work experience can be enhanced, prioritised and valued.

Practice transparent communication

There are few things more frustrating in the workplace than ill-considered communication. Too many meetings without clear agendas, confusing workflows, a lack of protocols – when communication isn’t prioritised, the wheels can quickly fall off the wagon.

By considering how each employee’s communication preferences can be respected and utilised within the workplace, small shifts in communication habits can lead to significant increases in employee satisfaction.

Be active in seeking feedback

When employees know they can approach their boss and will genuinely find a listening ear, their likelihood to engage critically with the challenges at hand increases significantly. Open-door policies can be key in developing engagement and motivation through the genuine recognition of the value of employee input.

Consider how one-on-one conversations can invite quieter employees to contribute to organisational-wide conversations, creating opportunities for all kinds of personalities to be heard and valued.

Provide professional development opportunities

If your team members are looking to upskill, why not support their continued learning within the workplace as a key value? By encouraging employees to engage with training programs, individuals can continue to further and refine their skills. This may take the form of providing fee support, allocating work hours to the course requirements, or opening relational doors for further mentorship.

Provide necessary support

How in touch are you with your employees’ workload? By seeking useful feedback from each member of your team, you can make sure they’re equipped with the tools and resources they need to successfully tackle the business challenges in front of them. Sometimes a simple change in the allocation of tasks can set individual team members free to find more satisfaction within their work lives, all while contributing to the organisation’s key outcomes.

This demonstrates a commitment to their personal and professional needs, encouraging open communication and ongoing engagement.

Think outside of the box

If the last time your team gathered was over cupcakes in the staff room, it’s time to immerse them in a shared experience that can reinvigorate the status quo. Red Leaf’s Tracking Virtual Adventure takes teams into the complex, ancient world of animal tracking, putting them side-by-side an expert tracking team as they fight to protect wildlife. Set in Southern Africa, this virtual adventure is a high-energy, high-impact learning tool that uses the Tracking Success Pathway to embed the Trackers Mindset.