One of the biggest and most expensive mistakes companies and teams alike make are the opportunity to create buy in with their teams. Rather than asking employees to buy in to the company culture created, there’s a different question that needs to be asked. Here’s the million dollar question – What motivates you at work?

This is the question I began posing to my co-workers for the last month. I have three different roles in the workplace, one being the training manager. We’re constantly thinking of ways to raise levels of engagement and equip current employees with new skills to succeed, as well as on-boarding and training new employees. I studied Organizational Leadership and have formed a lot of thoughts around different leadership styles. I truly believe employees are the greatest asset a company has. My drive behind asking employees this question was to raise awareness, with the end goal to empower them in designing their role to reach and maintain high levels of engagement and buy in.

We had a training activity last week using iDrive Etertainment slot racing cars. I highly recommend them for a team building activity, and I’m not just saying that because I won the $100 contest at the end of the training. After we spent time building comradery and testing our competitive nature while racing slot cars, we began to discuss as a group what motivates each unique individual in the workplace and why. This is the key to companies acquiring employee buy in. I believe the great companies have cracked the code to creating buy in or to increasing employee engagement. Average, or even good companies have not. No, I’m not talking about stocking the break room with snacks. No, I’m not talking about putting a ping pong table in the middle of the sales floor. I’m talking about actual authentic buy in. Here’s how you do it.

Companies must venture to find out what motivates their employees in the workplace. The tricky part is, it’s not a one size fits all activity. Each employee is going to have unique identifies that make them more engaged at work. Leaders must find out what these are, then collaborate with the employee to drive this forward. Ultimately, the company will benefit as employees becoming increasingly more engaged in the office, or as they are working remotely, as we are finding out has increased benefits for both the employer and employee. Here’s three steps employers and employees can take together to begin devising the ideal situation for increased motivation levels at work.

Make a list

Have the employees make a list of their top 3 work motivators. This puts the ball in the employee’s court to raise their awareness and nail down what matters to them. Too often we say we aren’t happy in the workplace, or we would be happy with certain things, but we don’t know what those are. Take some time to really think and reflect on what motivates you in the workplace.

Collaborate

Once you have your list, employers and employees can work together to devise an outline and plan on how they can achieve these in their day to day role. Leadership now knows what motivates the employee, and the employee has now been able to verbalize what will motivate them to buy in. Goals can be set to benefit both sides through achievement.

Follow through

Now that you have a list and goals attached on how to achieve motivation in the workplace in lieu with your employer and employee, 1 on 1 meetings can be held to determine progress and follow through on promised perks for achieving agreed upon goals.  

Creating buy in, increasing engagement and calling on motivation in the workplace works on an individual basis. Ironically, as investments are made into employee engagement initiatives, the company will reap the long term rewards.

What are your main motivators in the workplace? Drop them in as a comment and let’s continue to discussion.