Creating a purpose-driven workplace where your employees are engaged, happy and understand the “why” to what they do, can bring meaning and job satisfaction to your workforce. Building a company culture that shares its core values with its employees can encourage them to bring their best selves into the workplace and motivate them in a more purposeful way than a pay-packet ever can.
Below we discuss which non-monetary rewards can be used to motivate temporary and permanent staff, whether they are office based or non-clerical workers.
What makes for a great workplace environment?
When looking for a first role or next job, people are looking for more than how much money they will take home or what perks and benefits they can get. They want a workplace that will give them job satisfaction and meaningful work. A great working environment is one that fosters:
- A supportive work culture – where a company ensures its employees know that their work is recognised, meaningful and rewarding, embodies a supportive culture, and promotes mutual respect and trust.
- A purpose-driven workplace – an organisation that is driven by a greater purpose that is aligned with its employees and gives meaning to what they do and why they do it.
- Professional growth – the chance to be promoted and achieve success is important, and companies who focus on ways to grow based on their own employees’ passions and strengths will be rewarded with more enthusiasm and loyalty.
- Challenges and growth – challenging your employees to continually learn, evolve and grow within their roles can create a more engaged workforce and result in increased productivity.
- Liking your team – we often spend more time with our work colleagues than we do with our families, so it is imperative that teams like each other and can form a strong team who understand and support one another.
Creating a great workplace culture
What can be done to create a workplace culture that will foster trust, encourage engagement, and increases productivity? In an interview with Forbes, Author and Researcher Brené Brown, said that “if leaders really want people to show up, speak out, take chances, and innovate, we have to create cultures where people feel safe.”1
Employee/employer connection - Brown talks about the employee/employer connection, and how creating a supportive environment where people feel a sense of belonging, means managers and leaders are more likely to create an intimate connection within their teams. To build this workplace community, you need purpose and meaning, regular face-to-face contact, human connection, and empathy.
A sense of purpose - when employees understand the “why” behind what they do, this will give them more purpose. Taking the time to explain the reason behind each task, why it matters and how it fits in to the bigger picture of the whole organisation, will help your team to connect, engage, and understand the purpose within their roles.
Company culture and core values - finding a company whose core values connect with their own and a culture that fosters empathy, support, trust, recognition, and reward, will give employees the motivation to always do their best, be innovative, share ideas and become more engaged and therefore, be more productive as a result.
Employee support - it is important that the physical, mental, and emotional needs of all employees are being met. HR departments who are less focused on surveys and data, and more concerned with supporting employees as individuals with thoughts, emotions, and relationships, are more likely to see positive results. By helping employees to stay productive in challenging times, team leaders and HR departments will realise that playing a deeper role in the personal lives of their staff has a high level of positive impact.
Non-monetary rewards
Career progression, professional growth and recognition for work done well are examples of non-monetary rewards that people seek though their employment. There are many other non-monetary perks and rewards that can be used to increase motivation, employee engagement, improve productivity, and incite company loyalty.
For those who are office based, non-monetary rewards can include, the option to work from home, a four-day week or a six-hour workday and flexible work schedules. For those who are nonoffice based or work in the field, you can incentivise them with flexible shift patterns and branded workwear. Other rewards to consider for all employees are a subsidised workplace canteen, paid volunteer days, childcare vouchers or an on-site crèche, discount vouchers and experiential rewards, such as group outings or tickets to sporting events.
Offering your employees benefits such as gym membership or an on-site fitness studio, a bike to work scheme, smart watches that promote physical well-being, subsidised dentist and comprehensive eyecare, will let them know that their health and mental well-being is important to you.
Employee recognition is a powerful tool for incentivising productivity and boosting moral. From a simple “well done” to an annual awards ceremony, verbal and peer-to-peer recognition should never be undervalued. Any worker who knows that their efforts and contribution has been noticed is bound to feel a sense of pride in their work and workplace.How to ensure your company is a great place to work
Company loyalty and staff productivity are two key indicators to know if your company is considered a great place to work by your employees. In our previous post we discussed how happiness at work is directly linked to productivity and provided a questionnaire to measure staff happiness levels.
To establish if you have a people-centric and purpose-focused work culture, allocate time to speak to all your employees one-on-one to gain insight into them personally and their views on their role and responsibilities.
Ask your workers which items at work energise them, what do they look forward to and what makes them proud. Also ask them to identify their strengths and discuss any possibilities available at work where these skills can be used. By ensuring each employee enjoys what they do and is given the opportunity to learn and grow, then you can create a happy and more productive workplace.
Asking your team members to envisage their future within the workplace can help them to ascertain what is needed to achieve these goals. Having tangible goals should motivate them to become more productive and reap the reward of career progression and/or wage rises.
Help your workers to identify which tasks are most critical or high priority within their own workload, this will enable them to discover their inherent value as part of a larger team and the organisation. Knowing they are an integral part of something bigger will help them to feel self-worth and take pride in what they do.
Encouraging your employees to think about how they relate to others at work can make them realise that they are a meaningful part of a team. A valued and cohesive team are more likely to be loyal, productive, and happy in the knowledge that they are appreciated and that where they work is a great place to be.
In this series, we are looking to unlock the secrets behind empowering, engaging and motivating your entire workforce with the power of happiness. Although they are often under-represented within existing productivity and business development guidance, Blue Arrow believes that temporary workers are an integral part of the wider workforce driving businesses - so to find out more about how you can use happiness to improve productivity throughout your entire organisation, click here.
