What is employee motivation?

If you work backwards, profit is impacted by performance, which is impacted by productivity, which is impacted by the often-overlooked motivation.

The importance of motivation and what it can help to achieve is clear. Achieve high levels of motivation and it will certainly support a high-performance culture.

The impact of employee motivation

Using evidence from our motivation platform mojo we have been able to see a clear relationship between motivation levels and productivity/output.

Normal Zone: There is pretty much a 1:1 relationship between motivation and productivity. So, if someone is 60% motivated, they’ll be 60% productive.

High Performance Zone: Productivity can rise steeply and isn’t capped at 100% as people can smash their targets. People in this zone can feel unstoppable.

Presenteeism Zone: These people don’t want to be there, and productivity usually drops off a cliff. They can also start to impact upon the productivity of others as they can become disruptive, and start making major errors.

Highly-motivated people will have the right attitude and are more likely to embrace change. So, clearly motivation links to a high-performance culture. Being aware of people’s motivation levels is important, as it will help to decide how to performance manage individuals, as outlined below.

The trick is how do you fairly monitor and measure motivation? Ask people to verbalise their own sense? Listen to the opinion of their line manager? Fortunately, there is a simple and effective way to measure motivation levels.

Map your team's motivation

Mojo is an employee motivation and productivity platform, which is powered by Motivational Maps, an ISO accredited self-perception inventory that not only provides you with a detailed description of what motivates each person, but also measures how the individual feels that each of their core motivational drivers are being met through their work. This provides valuable insights for the individual, as well as the manager and leader of a mapped team. The maps come in individual or team formats, and mojo is available on a desktop or a mobile.

Mojo is based upon:

Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Edgar Schein’s Career Anchors

The Enneagram, a personality profiling tool

There are nine recognised motivators.

How the mapping works

Participants take a 5-10-minute self-assessment, they then receive a score for each of the nine recognised motivators, as well as any changes in motivations since their last map.

There are a couple of key points to make about the nine motivators.

Firstly, all motivators are valid and equal, and this is powerful in and of itself, as it gives employees a shared language to talk about their drivers without risk of judgement.

Secondly, we know what you’re thinking: I bet most people have ‘Builder’ as their top motivator. However, in a sample of over 5,000 employees in 10 sectors, only 7.7% had this as their number one motivator, whereas 40.8% had Searcher as their number one.

Other metrics include the satisfaction of the Top 3 motivators, an overall mojo score as a percentage, a Risk Index which analyses the motivators to calculate an individual or team’s attitude to risk and change, and a Cluster analysis which shows if an individual or a team are more focussed on relationships, achievements or growth.

The level, or importance, of each motivation is also calculated.

The whole premise of mojo is that if your main motivators are met, then you’ll certainly be happier and healthier. And more productive, of course.

mojo benefits employees: All employees want to be happy and productive at work. Not all employees can articulate what they need to be happy, though. Mojo reveals what's really important to each of them in a visually striking way. As a result, employees understand their intrinsic motivators. Their managers can see if these needs are being met and track motivational changes in real time.

mojo benefits managers: For the first time, perhaps, your managers will understand at a deep and intrinsic level what every member of their team needs to be happy, fulfilled and productive. They will have access to mojo's reward strategies plus action plans to implement a continuous improvement approach to employee motivation.

mojo benefits organisations: Highly motivated employees are more productive and more innovative. They deliver a better customer experience. They have more resilience. They suffer less stress and burnout. The impact on performance and culture is transformational, giving your organisation a tangible competitive advantage when it comes to attracting and keeping the best people.

mojo benefits customers: To elevate your customer experience, you need to elevate your employee experience. It's as simple as that. As the saying goes, 'look after your employees and they will look after your customers'. Naturally when your customers are happy, this has a dramatic effect on revenues, loyalty and reputation.

If you’d like to be able to drive productivity, boost wellbeing and build resilience, then do contact us about mojo via@ mojo@brandexperiences.com. You can view the dedicated mojo website here.

For more on Employee Experience frameworks, view this page.