022 April 2022

What harms the motivation of your employees, and how to avoid it? (Part 1)

María Camacho

In all the time you’ve been working in HR, you’ve probably seen two types of employees: those in the company just to get a salary and those enthusiastic about their work. The second ones are becoming more and more abundant. People are studying for a job they love and are not content to just put up with it. That is why employee motivation is becoming more and more important.

However, this motivation is not easy to maintain, and the Human Resources department has a key role to play in this. We will see below why employees lose motivation and what can be done to prevent it.

Aspects that undermine the motivation of your employees

Here are five possible reasons why your employees may be losing motivation.

1. Not seeing room for improvement

This happens in workers who have been in the same company for a long time, in the same job, doing the same tasks day after day, and they do not see that this situation is going to change. So this monotonous dynamic leads them to come to work unwillingly.

2. Unfavourable working environment

In companies, something similar to what happens at school occurs. Some people fit in well and make friends, but others don’t fit in, and this can affect them. In the worst case, you may encounter colleagues with an unfriendly attitude, and it goes without saying how unpleasant this can be in an office.

3. Lack of training

In many companies, the priority is productivity, to do things continuously, but this is not always the best thing. Some workers start producing with just enough knowledge to move forward. This situation is prolonged over time so that workers are still not adequately trained and therefore find themselves with difficulties that they do not know how to solve, which demotivates them.

4. Poor communication with supervisors

Sometimes employees do not feel comfortable talking to their supervisors, which creates insecurity, even fear when suggesting something.

5. Work-life imbalance

This is a problem that is happening during the COVID-19 crisis due to teleworking. Many workers do not manage this well, so they have a lot of interruptions and a mixed professional and personal life, which leads to a lot of stress.

The consequences of demotivated employees can lead to absenteeism, low productivity, loss of employees and the danger of creating a bad reputation for the company because those who have left speak ill of it.

It is clear that the Human Resources department must have sufficient weapons to restore the workforce’s motivation for the good of the company. In the next section, we will look at how to motivate employees.