How to motivate employees without incentives – the experts weigh in

By August 18, 2020August 18th, 2022Employee motivation, Employee engagement

How to motivate employees without incentives - the experts weigh inThe question of how to motivate employees without incentives is one that often comes up when the economy goes belly-up.

Business owners want to ensure that their teams are still being productive, despite the fact that circumstances make it impossible to up the ante with all sorts of rewards to grease the wheels. 

Here’s the good news – employee recognition and rewards are only the cherry on top of a whole engagement sundae that makes for great metaphorical eating. 

If you do the groundwork to nurture a healthy business culture based on inclusion and empowerment from the outset, your team will have plenty of motivation to bring their A-game every step of the way even when times are tough and budgets are tight. 

 

Here are a few insights on how to motivate employees without incentives from a variety of experts on the subject:  

 

Pave the way for work-life balance 

Franziska Alesso-Bendisch, Ph. D. is the Founder of Well Work Solutions, an employee wellbeing consultancy that helps companies create work environments that enable people to thrive. She believes that one of the simplest ways employers can motivate employees without added incentives is to create an environment that allows for a healthy work-life balance 

Millennials, especially, look for roles with enough flexibility to thrive outside of their day jobs. As such, they tend to challenge the norms of what we consider conventional office life. For instance, their preference to work off-site has led to an unexpected rise in productivity and led to companies offering more remote positions. Interestingly enough, it’s the businesses that were early to adopt to this notion that are now reaping the rewards at a time when most companies are operating with a remote workforce whether they intended to or not.  

Focus on intrinsic motivation  

Merge Gupta-Sunderji is a speaker, author and consultant based in Calgary. As a well-respected leadership expert, she is known for her unwavering belief in the power of intrinsic motivators when it comes to employee engagement.  

She states findings from a now-classic study conducted by Frederick Herzberg in 1968 (which was subsequently revalidated in Harvard Business Review in 2003) to explain that job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction are not opposites of each other. I.e. The factors that produce job satisfaction are separate and distinct from those that lead to job dissatisfaction.  

So, while adequate compensation and monetary rewards will keep a person from being dissatisfied from their job, it will never lead to complete job satisfaction on the whole. To achieve that, a person’s job has to tap into intrinsic motivational factors like achievement, recognition, responsibility, growth, and advancement. 

Go big on social recognition 

Peer-to-peer recognition is a great example of a motivational tool that doesn’t have to cost a cent. By fostering a company culture that encourages employees to give props to their team members for a job well done, you are tapping into age-old wiring in the limbic systems of their brains that underpins the trust principle and knits a team together to a cohesive, motivated whole.  

A SaaS-based employee engagement platform with built-in social recognition functionality makes the process almost effortless. Take a look at what the bountiXP platform offers, and sign up for our FREE trial to try it on for size before you invest. 

Read more: 8 Tips to successfully implement social recognition today!

Focus on autonomy, mastery and purpose

Daniel Pink, an American author and authority on the subject of human behaviour, is perhaps best known for his book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, in which he explains that people, in general, are motivated by three things – autonomy, mastery and purpose.  

As employees, we want control over our own work, the ability to grow in our positions and get better at what we do, and to know that we are contributing to something bigger than ourselves in a way that aligns with our personal values. When all this is in place, motivation follows naturally. 

Read more: Values-based leadership is good for business, here’s why! 

 

Join employees in giving back 

Even when you don’t have a lot of funds to spare to contribute to charitable initiatives in your community, you can still donate your time as a team. Volunteering holds countless benefits for both the body and mind 

It can reduce stress, combat depression, keep employees mentally stimulated, and provide a sense of purpose. The benefits do increase the more you volunteer, but even infrequent efforts in this regard will evoke a deep sense of contentment that can really tie a team together as a unit.  

Depending on the nature of your business, you can even leverage your goods or services to make a difference. For instance, if you’re an accounting firm, you can offer to look over the accounts of a charity of your choosing. Or if you sell stationery, you can supply a creche or small school with pens, pencils and other day-to-day necessities.  

Now that you know how to motivate employees without incentives, all you have to do is go out there and implement these newfound insights. Go on – you’ll be amazed at what a difference the resultant boost in employee morale can make. 

 

An employee recognition programme will take your business to new levels of productivity and purpose. 

bountiXP combines the power of goal-based and values-based recognition to align strategy and culture for improved people performance. And it works!
We’re offering your business a FREE 14-day trial today. 

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