Even with an excellent performance management program, above industry standard incentives, and a pleasant working environment, you can still lose valuable team members. This is because these are all extrinsic motivators which can only go so far in retaining your talent. Even with all of these perks and benefits, people will still leave your team.
We have looked at extrinsic motivators last week and the different ways you can use them. However creative your total benefits package is, these do not guarantee that you will retain your talent. You need to complement your extrinsic motivators with intrinsic ones—motivators that are within their control, and are a result of their own decisions. These are factors that drive your team to act and do the work because they find fulfillment in the work in itself.
First, you need to start with the right talent for your team. You need to identify how your team works and the prevailing team culture that you have developed. This is important if you want new members to fit in. In assessing possible members of the team, the required skills set is the minimum. You also need to look if their personality goes well with the rest of the team. A good people manager needs to evaluate how potential members will complement the working style and temperaments of their existing team. Once they become part of the team, you can start looking at the different intrinsic motivators you can use to retain them.
The most basic of all intrinsic motivators is one driven by biological functions. You cannot expect somebody to do their work well when they are hungry or if they feel unsafe. If you recall Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, physiological needs form the base of the other needs. This means providing a good compensation and benefits package that is acceptable to them. It is easy to lose people when their only motivation is compensation because there will always be other organizations with better compensation.
In an earlier job, I lost several team members because of better benefits and it became all the more disheartening to know they would be receiving better compensation that I was getting at the time even in the higher position I had. Your first consideration in identifying intrinsic motivators are your team’s salaries. As part of your market monitoring, you need to benchmark with other organizations in the same industry so you can discuss with your HR the best compensation package for new team members, and even discuss salary adjustments for existing team members. Because once one of your team members discover greener pastures, they will be tempted to find out more and eventually leave.
Others are not motivated by salary alone but by altruistic reasons. They do the work because they are happy doing it, as in the case of nonprofit organizations and volunteer groups where salary is not their primary motivation. You can use this motivation to appeal to your team’s sense of being able to help someone because of their work. As a course developer before, my team and I would sit in training sessions and see firsthand how our materials helped adult learners understand new tools and processes, and how they became better at what they did. This encouraged my team to find value in what they do and help them strive to become better course developers. As a people manager, you also need to show the impact of your team’s work in the lives of others, so they find meaning and purpose in what they do.
Some people are compelled to express themselves artistically. I have never been artistic, nor have I considered myself to be particularly artistic. But last year, I was forced to create my own materials for my team’s communication project. Since I was only using PowerPoint, I had to make do with it to make a number of animated videos. Surprisingly, I had fun doing them and I used different animation styles. Sometimes, you need to push your team out of their comfort zones so they can explore how creative they are in problem-solving. Give stretch assignments that continue to challenge your team’s creativity.
Other people find motivation from developing their skills or learning something new simply because they want their curiosity satisfied. These people find satisfaction from using a new tool or process, and using it to make their work easier. Keep them motivated by asking their opinion on problems or issues you encounter and involving them in the decision-making process. Doing so will make them feel valued and appreciated, and help keep you grounded on the team’s general sentiment.
Some people are driven to succeed because of a set goal. Your role as a people manager is to identify the personal and professional goals of your team and, provide the necessary support for them to succeed, especially their career development. Knowing their personal goals will help you forecast factors that might make them leave, but helping them in their professional goals will help keep them engaged and productive. Helping your team achieve their goals and succeed is the true mark of being a good people manager. And when they see how supportive you are for them to succeed, it gives them the added motivation to not just do more but excel as well.
As a people manager, you will consistently find yourself torn between the organization’s bottom line with your team’s needs and wants. Motivating your team and keeping them engaged involves a balance of knowing your team’s engagement drivers with the company’s business objectives, and how you reconcile both in your team’s deliverables. And you do this by finding the right mix of extrinsic and intrinsic motivators to keep your team at the peak of their game.
Image credits: Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash