Lack of motivation at work: causes & solutions

Gallup reveals that demotivated employees have 37% more absenteeism, 18% less productivity and 15% less profitability. When this is translated into euros, we see the cost of 34% of the annual salary of a demotivated employee, or three thousand euros for every 8,900 euros they earn. The figures refer to the North American reality and reveal how much a demotivated employee really costs. In an article for Forbes, Karlyn Borysenko, an organizational psychologist, explains. The average annual North American salary is 42.000 euros. Now, 34% of 42,000 euros is 14,280. That’s the cost of a single demotivated employee, almost 15,000 euros a year. Applying the formula to an entire organization, if we consider an average business that employs 250 people, and if we use Achievers’ data, we come to the conclusion that 198 employees are demotivated. Taking the average salary as a reference, this demotivation costs the company more than three million euros per year. Scary?! We shouldn’t be complacent either. A first step to solve the problem is to recognise it and take measures. And then involve the team. But, still according to Karlyn Borysenko, part of the problem is that many managers and leaders leave a lot to be desired when it comes to asking for, listening to and responding to employee feedback. Just as important as asking for feedback, is showing real change. Acting on the results and not hiding them. All this takes time and resources, but the investment will always be less than 34% of the annual salary of demotivated employees. On the other hand, according to Gallup, more than 70% of the transformation efforts fail due to lack of engagement and resistance to cultural change, where 24% of the employees are actively disengaged, 63% are not engaged and only 13% are actively engaged. Changing this reality is the challenge for companies.

One solution, four aspects

Bearing in mind these numbers, and the impact they have on business performance, Bearing Point and GFoundry are already working together in the development of some projects that will change the bases of some organisations and make them more efficient in terms of managing the engagement and talent of their employees. João Carvalho, co-founder and CEO of GFoundry explains that this platform was “created to support companies, helping to initiate or support digital transformation processes, through the “fun” of Gamification, the “influence” of Social, the “availability” of Mobile, and the “insights” of Analytics, to create a simple, intuitive, powerful and rewarding experience for employees and customers. GFoundry’s fully customisable modules cover various areas, from training to recognition, from performance evaluation to the promotion of innovation. And contributing not only to the attraction but, above all, to the retention of talent. This platform intends to “revolutionize the way companies motivate and promote greater engagement in their employees”, guarantees Manuel Lopes da Costa, managing partner of Bearing Point, who points out that, “for the new generations that are entering the labour market, games are part of their daily lives, they grew up with Call of Duty, Fortnite or SimCity, so you can’t motivate these people with arguments from the 70s, even because the available technology is different. Before, people found technology in companies far superior to what they had at home. Now they don’t. And so they enter the labour market and they don’t expect onboarding to be done by handing them books to read about the company’s mission, values and strategic objectives,” he says. “The generation coming out of college is highly dynamic, hyper-connected, they like challenges and scoring. This should be used in companies to create engagement, sense of belonging and leverage knowledge about the organisation. This platform uses a language that these talents are used to and promotes healthy competition.” Being a solution in which all the modules can be customized, added or removed, according to the format that best applies to the company’s reality, this is where Bearing Point comes in, whose role is to get to know the company, the challenges it faces, the KPIs (key performance indicators) it wants to improve and what goals it wants to achieve. Based on that, the project is designed. Aligned to this strategic consultancy, the contents are defined and a communication plan is assured, as well as monitoring, after implementation. “It’s an integrated solution”, says João Carvalho.

Another great advantage of the GFoundry platform in terms of People Management is that it allows you to “take the pulse” of the organisation, through regular questions, focusing on various themes and KPIs, and thus have a kind of “employee engagement thermometer”, understand the evolution, find weaknesses and act accordingly. “We don’t believe in surveys in which, once a year, the Human Resources director is pestering everyone to answer”, says the person in charge. “Our platform allows, every week, or every month, through short and simple questions, to understand the motivation of employees, what are the most pressing issues in the organisation, and make a history, understanding the evolution and trends, and, also benchmark, not only with your industry, but more generally. The answers are anonymous, to ensure the “ease of answering”, he emphasises. João Carvalho also highlights the importance of the direct recognition of employees, “which, through the platform, is very easy. I can give medals, qualifications or make comments”, he explains. “And this can have a material translation. For example, whoever accumulates x points is entitled to a trip. Whoever acknowledges can also be rewarded. We must not forget currently one “lives” on Facebook and Instagram, making likes to each other; companies should take advantage of that. It may seem innocuous, but if a colleague is helping me on a job until two in the morning and then I can publicly acknowledge him for it, and he also gets rewarded, it can mean a lot.” GFoundry also encourages communication. “Companies can no longer limit themselves to suggestion boxes,” warns GFoundry’s CEO. “It ends up covering, almost transversely, the most relevant themes of People Management, using, as has already been said, a current language, with which people identify. Competition is almost inherent to the human condition, we all like to be recognised and rewarded.” The challenges that the companies that have sought this solution are diverse. João Carvalho shares, “A client wanted to know, of all the items it produced, which was its most innovative product. They used the internal “voice” of thousands of employees and used the “comparisons” module to choose their “star” product. Another company, Portuguese but with most of its workforce made up of young foreigners, from the fields of applied mathematics and engineering, had onboarding as a challenge because, with so many nationalities, they didn’t want the company culture to be lost.” “The most important thing – reiterates the person in charge – is to understand what management problem the company wants to see solved, be it Human Resources or other. In the end, the objective is that there is a greater engagement of employees, to generate loyalty behaviour with the company and respect and mutual help with colleagues. And our employees have received this solution very well”. João Carvalho concludes, “Companies have been trying to solve these problems we’ve talked about here, using manuals or loose solutions, and what this platform offers is an integrated solution, which responds to various challenges of modern organisations, many of them motivated by digital transformation, which has much more to do with people than with technology; that is, putting technology at the service of people.”