They think that because their employees may be having money issues, putting up some kind of monetary reward system would make them more inclined to “competing” for the prize, thereby increasing profits. Here’s why this approach rarely works;

Daniel Pink wrote a book titled ‘Drive.’ The book mainly talks about what really motivates people and throughout his findings, money wasn’t a part of that list.

He found out that the three major things that boost motivation is; autonomy, mastery and purpose.

And in this article, I’ll be talking about how you can use mastery in the form of feedback to get your employees motivated to work.

A lot of employees, roughly 98% actually disengage when their managers seem frugal with the level of feedback they tend to give. And according to a worldwide Gallup survey, a performance review isn’t enough. But employees need feedback to find maximum engagement at work either once a year or once every six months.

And to boost employee productivity, research shows that the fastest way is through constant constructive feedback and recognition.

Yes, giving feedback may seem to be overwhelming and hard, but I will be showing you a list of do’s and don’ts that would be very effective. However, you shouldn’t lose sight of being positive about feedbacks and recognition.

What you should do

1. Ask for their permission

“Aren’t they my employees?” You say. Well, they are. But you want to show that you also respect them well enough. Just as you won’t barge into someone’s house without knocking, show them that courtesy when you want to discuss a delicate topic such as job performance.

2. Personalize your feedback

This one happens a lot where one person in your team makes a mistake while it was obvious who actually did. And then the manager drags out the entire team and starts addressing that issue while generalizing the issue. Avoid that “one-size-fits-all” feedback because it doesn’t help anyone. Rather, you talk to the individual one on one, and that would definitely produce better results for the whole team as well as the individual who made the mistake.

3. State clearly what you observed

You should try as much as possible to avoid personal judgements. Use specific examples based on what you observed rather than labelling them wrongly based on your conclusion. An example is “I noticed that you aren’t really energetic when working. What’s wrong?” as opposed to “You are just plain dull and absolutely lazy”. You also want to learn how to keep it specific and avoid generalizations.

4. Explain the impact of their actions

Make the employee aware of how their actions affect customers, the team and the company as a whole. People will tend to pay more attention when they realize that they are actually causing a lot of harm to other people if they don’t work on a particular aspect of themselves.

5. Always follow up

Don’t bring up feedback and keep it dead afterwards. They will never know how much they have improved if you don’t make them aware of it. Schedule a follow-up talk and be willing to discuss the problem and possible solutions. Make them see that you are also there to support them.

What you shouldn’t do

1. Never bring up more than one negative behaviour or issue.

Too much information could be overwhelming, and changing too much at once could be revolting.

2. Never be too critical or negative.

If your feedback makes the other person give up altogether, then that’s poor feedback. Great feedback should push that person to want to do better.

3. Never avoid real problems.

If you have an issue, you should state it and discuss thoroughly.

4. Never interrupt your employee

Give them some time and space to respond. You want to make them feel that they have a voice and can actually contribute to brainstorming ways on which to improve.

Studies show that when managers focus on workers strengths, those workers are 30 times more likely to be engaged. But always make sure that you don’t always bring up something negative. You are also recognizing behaviour that you want to encourage.

And according to Taskworld,

“Companies that implement regular employee feedback have a 14.9 per cent lower turnover rate and 69 per cent of employees said they would work harder if they felt their efforts were better recognized.”

You should also understand why big companies spend a lot of money building incredibly beautiful structures and spacious offices which are incredibly organized and designed by professional internal decorators. They understand the impact of the workplace on productivity. And although you don’t have millions of dollars to invest in incredible workplaces, I will be showing you incredible tips on how to increase and improve productivity by creating a very productive workplace that would encourage your workers to get more work done and help increase your profits.

Spatial Arrangements

In a survey that aimed to measure employees’ performance and innovation to how they interact with their environment, the highest performing candidates had a greater variety of workplaces.

Solution: To help employees find and reserve workstations as fast as possible, you could harness the numerous productivity software and productivity tools that now exist. Those productivity tools can also help employees understand and use the options you have already provided to help them be as comfortable as possible whilst increasing employee productivity.

Regulate Noise

Open offices – which have become popular after the 1950s seemed to have directly impacted noise levels. Which could sometimes increase productivity, ambient sounds like the almost silent bustle of a coffee shop also ranked as one of the very biggest complaints.

And being cited as one of the main culprits preventing employee and workplace productivity, overheard conversations are very disruptive. And research shows in 14 studies linking noise levels to productivity that quieter working conditions experience 1.8% to 19.8% per cent gains in individual productivity.

Solution: Beyond noise-cancelling headphones, the use of sound absorbing materials could be very helpful. Use smart building tech like productivity tools (e.g. productivity planner apps) that help measure and control acoustics throughout the office, sensor networks, room reservation apps that could enable individuals to identify the availability of a room for their changing needs.

Regulate Lighting

Just as it affects general health and well-being, better lighting and access to natural light can boost office workers’ productivity. Research shows that in 12 studies relating lighting to performance, that increased productivity of 23% is achieved when exposed to natural lighting.

Solution: Tech has advanced so much as we now have LEDs and responsive lighting to make indoor lighting more cost-effective. And smart windows are making it easier for occupants of a particular location to enjoy natural light without having to be uncomfortable with people glaring at them from the outside.

Regulate Temperature

Recently, a lot of people have complained about how the temperature seems to be hot in a lot of places, especially indoors. You should already have an idea of how temperature could affect one’s comfortability in a location. And posing serious risks of impaired cognitive function, an office place that is either too hot or cold could lead to unwanted distractions. A study done in 1996 from the International Centre for Indoor Environment and Energy in Denmark showed that “providing workers with ± 3 degrees of individual control would increase performance for logical thinking and very skilled manual work by 3%, and increase typing performance by 7%.”

Looking at it closely, those gains in productivity improvement could directly impact how much more money a business makes. A 2004 Cornell study puts the figure to around $4,000 for just one full-time employee for a year.

Solution: You could begin to use building software that allows workers to regulate the internal temperature in their work space, to help improve comfort and productivity.