Identify When Your Employees Lack Motivation

Many managers have accepted as fact that they are doomed to have a couple employees that drag about the office.  Most will argue that not all employees will be self-directed and highly motivated.  However, accepting even a couple lowly motivated employees could be negatively affecting your business.

Motivation’s Effect on Productivity            

A telltale sign that one of your employees lacks motivation will be his level of productivity.  You may observe his productivity is slipping through an increased number of project deadlines.  The quality of his work may suddenly appear sloppy and lack attention to detail.  A highly motivated employee will work diligently to complete assignments on time.  His work will reflect a high standard of quality in the areas of accuracy, completeness and appeal.  Evidence that you have a motivated employee is the pride taken in the presentation of his work. 

Motivation’s Effect on Creativity

Advertising or marketing agencies depend on the creativeness of their employees for original campaigns.  An employee lacking motivation will have trouble coming up with creative ideas.  In fact, almost every job requires the employee to have some level of creativity to do the job sufficiently.  The ability to be creative is necessary to solve problems and satisfy customer complaints.  The lack of motivation hampers the ability to do these responsibilities well.  On the other hand, motivated employees thrive in creative work environments.

Motivation’s Effect on Others

Any employee with low motivation will have conflicts in their work relationships.  These conflicts will be very evident when dealing with co-workers especially in a team.  Teams depend on everyone pulling their own weight.  Lowly motivated employees are perpetually behind on work and lack the energy to put forth the best effort.  Therefore, their team members are the ones who suffer and usually someone else on the team must take up the slack.  This creates a resentful atmosphere within the team and the office in general.  In addition, the lack of motivation will result in poor customer service.  The diminished motivation will cause diminished interest in helping customers and in being a positive representative of the company.  Anyone lacking motivation will not have the energy to go the extra mile for your customers.  In contrast, a motivated employee will seek anyway he can to assist your customers and will have less conflict with his co-workers. 

Motivation’s Effect on Work Ethic

Poor quality of work is a sign of low motivation.  Your employee’s reports will exhibit increased errors, lack of fact checking, poor writing, and a lousy appearance.   In addition, the employee will take more sick days than usual.  Showing up late, leaving early and taking long lunch breaks are all exhibits of a lack of motivation.  In general, the employee will not have a desire to come to work or interact with anyone at work.  Normal employee to employee socializing during work hours will cease and the lowly motivated employee will keep more to himself. 

Motivation’s Effect on Decision Making

One of the most troubling aspects of an employee with low motivation is his inability to make critical decisions.  In business it is important that an employee be able to make proper decisions at critical times based on correct information and facts.  An employee with low motivation may be missing several of these necessary pieces.  Due to the lack of energy, the employee will usually not have gathered the information on time.  Lacking the necessary information can mean not being able to make the proper decision at the critical time.  The employee would then have to gather the necessary information wasting valuable time or make a decision without the information risking making a costly mistake.  Either way the lowly motivated employee may be costing your company critical time or money due to his debilitated decision making.