Feel the Pulse!

In today’s world, one of the major challenges for a HR person is to keep the employees charged, motivated and going. It is a well known fact that a motivated employee is more productive and has better ideas. However, keeping an employee motivated is not an easy task.

 

Every individual has a different set of motivational factors. It could be good recognition, rewards, social popularity, a comfortable workplace, friends around, learning or learning opportunities, growth, work itself or a combination of two or three of the above. It is very clear that the motivational needs of every employee differ from one another. Now, ensuring that all the motivational needs are met for an employee is not an easy task. The challenge here for the HR partner is to ensure that he/she knows the set of professionals he/she manages. It’s important to understand their psyche and what really keeps them going. This is because what works well with one set of people might not work well with another set of people. So, understanding the pulse of the team is the key.

 

 

It’s also important to communicate and associate with the professionals and be one among them. We need to, at least, partially understand the technology they work; to understand the challenges they face. Do they like working in that particular job or they are just doing it because they landed there while their interest lies in something else. So, the right measurement of their strengths and interests and putting people in the right job might help them be more productive than what they will be otherwise. For example giving an employee an opportunity to train others internally could be a good boost for his stay in the organization. For few others, handling customer visits or making presentations would give them a kick. I was once amazed to realize that there are few employees who get a lot of comfort & motivation just working behind the scenes and not being made to face any customer.

 

Similarly, employee interests may vary a lot. It need not just be related to work. Few of them look at office as a ground for meeting variety of people who share common thoughts. Few of them would like to have fun along with work. To a large extent we have professionals who get charged if given a platform to showcase their latent talents such as dancing and singing. So, bringing in the right mix of activities is very important. It creates a good working environment which directly results in increased employee morale.

 

One should note that all the above initiatives are secondary and will create a positive impact only if the ‘basics’ are right and in place. Taking care of employee ‘essentials’ such as compensation & benefits, rewards and recognition, maintaining smooth running processes, quick turn around time, good communication channel with the employees happen to form the foundation of a healthy HR practice.