How to motivate employees? The case of the Usetech company.

Introduction

The motivation of employees can be called the level of energy and determination with which they perform their work. The higher the level of motivation, the higher the level of productivity and involvement in the company, and this is important for modern business. Employees with low motivation are dissatisfied with their work, tasks, feel superfluous, do not take the initiative. For business development, they don’t feel involved in it.

Therefore, it is not surprising that motivation has become one of the pressing issues for most companies. This is no longer a trend, it is a necessity. It directly affects HR and marketing indicators, even if you are not engaged in measuring them, as well as closing business tasks.

Organizations are constantly asking: how to motivate and involve employees in work? Various methods are used, both tangible and intangible: training at the expense of the company, additional discounts, extended VMI for family members of the employee, and so on. These practices are widespread in IT companies and not only. In this article, we want to share a case of increasing the involvement of employees of the Usetech IT company.

About Usetech

Usetech is an international IT company engaged in software development since 2006. The company employs 650+ people.

Why do employees lose motivation?

Here are some of the reasons ‌employees lose motivation:

1) Lack of flexible processes in the company and work-life balance.

Work-life balance is one of the priority issues in many companies. The inability to offer an employee a day off, constant overworking, an unstable schedule — all this leads to burnout, and, as a result, to a decrease in motivation and engagement.

Usetech monitors the work-life balance, and therefore is against overworking. And if they do happen (which is extremely rare), they are paid with an appropriate coefficient. We often gather with colleagues to play mafia or other board games, sit in a bar, go to team building. This promotes team cohesion, and just helps to distract after work.

2) Lack of goals and an individual development plan.

Not only money is the main motivating part for an employee, no matter what they say about it. Most employees want to have clear career goals and an understanding of what they need to do to grow in the company. For this, there are individual development plans (IPR). The IPR can be written for either six months or a year. Goals, in turn, can be short-term and long-term. This allows the employee to actively work on achieving the predicted results.

In our company, in this case, there is an IPR for employees, where goals, methods, and deadlines for their achievements are prescribed. The goals and IPR are discussed with each employee individually within the framework of a semi-annual or annual meeting with the head and HR manager.

3) Lack of opportunities for career growth and development.

This point echoes the previous one — the lack of goals and IPR, but here I want to talk about something else. For example, about additional training opportunities. Many employees appreciate the constant learning potential and the feeling that they are expanding and improving their skills. If a person stands in one place for a long time and does not develop, the workplace and tasks become boring and uninteresting, which leads to a decrease in motivation.

We provide employees with training at the company’s expense, as well as access to a corporate university and a library that has literature for every taste: both for work and for personal development. Employees often hold meetups or webinars and share their knowledge and experience with colleagues: this is also one of the parts of learning.

4) Lack of recognition of merit and feeling “undervalued” or superfluous in the team.

It is important to celebrate the success and praise the employee, otherwise soon there may be a feeling that his efforts aren’t recognized and appreciated. There will simply not be enough energy and strength for new achievements.

The successes of our employees do not go unnoticed: we report any achievement on the corporate portal and in the newsletter to all employees, and also thank the person with valuable prizes.

How did we solve the issue of motivation and involvement in the company?

We have faced this problem since the beginning of the pandemic. Unstable situation, stress, quarantine regime, transition to a remote work format… Despite the fact that the company’s work processes were automated, after 4 months of working in a remote format, we noticed that we were losing touch with employees. The level of employee involvement in projects and the level of job satisfaction were falling. Why did this happen? To find out, the HR department implemented pulse surveys, 1to1 to get feedback from employees, and at the same time studied the practices used in the market. It turned out that there are no solutions on the market that would cover all our needs. And we have developed our own loyalty program based on gamification, which has shown effective results — Teal HR.

Teal HR is a mass-market solution for HR process management. We have made a modern and affordable HR product that allows you to reduce the cost of attracting employees and increase their productive stay in the company by encouraging useful activities in the game format. Teal HR allows you to maintain a productive work-life balance in companies, but at the same time achieve business goals.

After the introduction of this practice in the company, we noted an increase in the level of employee engagement to 87%. The employee satisfaction Ratio (eNPS) does not fall below 78%. The number of employees willing to take part in the life of the company has increased: 6 brand ambassadors have appeared, the number of speeches at profile events, in podcasts and meetups has increased.

The loyalty program allows you to engage employees playfully and encourage them with an internal corporate currency (we called it UseCoins), which can be exchanged in the company’s online store; achievements that are reflected on the corporate portal in the employee’s personal account and ratings. This works for motivation.

Employees can receive intra-corporate currency in the first minutes of their appearance in the company, for example, for publishing a photo with a Welcome Box on social networks or after passing a quick interview. You can also get currency by participating in meetups and conferences; for mentoring and replenishing the corporate library; earn money in contests and flash mobs; of course, for the birthday of an employee and the company; for publishing an article on the company’s blog; for a cool idea through the “Ideas Box”, participation in a referral program, etc. There are over 50 activities in the program, so every employee will find something interesting for themselves.

You can spend currency in an online store for any merch (from a pack of stickers and branded socks to backpacks, hoodies, and sports equipment); equipment from the best manufacturers (yes, masks are there too) and many other goods. There are over 40 unique positions in the store. By the way, thanks to this program, the company has its own mascot — a rubber duck (this is the second most popular product in 2021).

We organize internal quizzes and contests for participation, in which you can get Usecoin’s and valuable prizes. For example, now we have a step-by-step tournament, and by the Children’s Day we have launched a children’s drawing contest.

After achieving the goals, the employee automatically receives an attache in his personal account and can share it with colleagues. At the end of the year, employees who have shown the best results are awarded by the CEO of the Group of Companies within the framework of the Usetech Awards event. Agree, how nice it is when your achievements are evaluated in front of the entire company!

Conclusion

It is extremely important to listen and hear your employees, not devalue their work, support them in uncertain situations, and respond to emerging needs. Early recognition of demotivation signs and their rapid elimination will allow you to keep employees and team engaged.