The Role Of HR In Employee Motivation And Performance

by Sophia Young, owner of Content Studio and HRHQ contributor

Employees are the foundation of a good and successful business. Anyone running a business would tell you that it is important that the people you hire are happy and well taken care of, and because of this, having great and effective human resources (HR) management is crucial. 

The Importance of HR In Employee Motivation And Performance 

The HR department works with people in the company daily. They handle everything from the recruiting and onboarding of employees, their training and development, discussing and negotiating pay and benefits, assessing performance, and reinforcing the values of the company.

A positive work environment fosters an organizational climate that helps motivate employees and increase their productivity, camaraderie, and creativity. Motivation in the workplace can be distinguished as the forces, internal or external, that initiate work-oriented behavior. A study conducted by Social Market Foundation revealed that companies can experience a 37% increase in sales when there is an improvement in team happiness and motivation.  Productivity is also 20% higher in happy employees than in their unhappy colleagues. 

On the other hand, when HR fosters a negative work environment full of dissatisfaction in the employees, companies can experience a rise in absenteeism, quick and increased turnover rates, and a reduction of productivity and performance in the employees that do stay. Because employees are the lifeline of the company, when companies invest in their employees, the benefits are tenfold. 

How Can HR Increase Workplace Motivation and Performance?

The human resources department holds an important role in the organization as the strategist that takes care of the employees while helping the company achieve its large-scale goals. Through their activities, they can protect the individual employees and promote individual and team performance which in turn produce the results aimed for by the company. Here are some specific strategies HR can implement to improve team motivation and performance:

Managing Talent

Recruiting and hiring the right person to fill in roles in the company is the first step to fostering a workplace environment that motivates its employees to perform well. Having an individual not only be the right fit for the job but also work seamlessly with the rest of the team makes managing the team easier. When training the new employees, it is also best to establish the values and attitudes that are considered important in the company, this also ensures that a positive work environment is maintained and thriving. 

Making sure the employees stay in the company is also another thing HR must be diligent with. Offering the right incentive and benefits packages, creating a warm work environment, and prioritizing their well-being create a company culture that encourages employees to not only stay in the company for longer but continue to perform their best throughout their time with the company.

Performance Goals

Setting individual and team performance goals is one of the most effective ways to encourage employee motivation. These goals must be realistic enough to be achievable, but ambitious enough to stimulate and encourage the employees. Creating unrealistic goals can only lead to dismay and may cause problems among the team. Once these performance goals are met, the employees can be awarded prizes, bonuses, career promotions, and other incentives that help the employee grow.

Positive Feedback and Encouragement

One of the easiest ways to motivate employees is to recognize positive attitudes. When employees see that they are valued and their performance is positively noticed, then they are more likely to continue with the said performance. Other employees who witness the positive feedback and work-centered compliments may even take it upon themselves to change and develop the right attitudes to earn the same recognition as well.

HR should also make it a habit of providing performance feedback consistently. This practice can help employees focus on the areas they could improve on as well as continue with the satisfactory work they are already performing. These feedback loops can be done formally or informally, face to face, or in quick virtual meetings. Setting these expectations for the employee and providing encouragement can help guide the employee to better performance. 

Professional Training and Progress

Another strategy HR can implement to encourage improvement in employee performance and motivation is professional training. The department can arrange meetings and events that help promote employee development as well as provide professional training like postgraduate schooling, language courses, technical training, and the like. Employees that feel like they are recognized, appreciated, and invested in will feel more motivated to perform well in the company.

A career plan is also another way to encourage progression and retention in the company. The plan highlights how an individual can get promoted and advance in the company. This provides employees with a guide on how they can perform in their current roles to progress to the positions they aspire to. 

Open and Transparent Communication Channels

The human resources department must be in tune with the employees. The HR managers specifically must be willing to talk and listen to employees about any issue and deal with them promptly and appropriately. These can be talks about their own professional problems, or even organizational problems like equity, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace. By showing employees that they are heard and taken seriously, they feel safe in the workplace. 

The Human in Human Resources

With the fast-paced way businesses operate, it may sometimes be easy to forget that employees are humans. The human resources department is in the unique position to focus on the human nature of the employees while some departments may be too focused on the numbers and hard data. These strategies ultimately provide the company with a plethora of benefits, sure, but it is also important to remember that these strategies affect the employee as a human being. By supporting them professionally, they can improve their quality of life and the standards of living outside the workplace setting.

About the author

Sophia Young recently quit a non-writing job to finally be able to tell stories and paint the world through her words. She can also easily kick ass with a thousand-word article about the latest marketing and business trends, finance-related topics, and can probably even whip up a nice heart-warming article about family life. Sophia also loves talking about fashion, weddings and travel