One of the biggest challenges facing managers is how to keep their employees motivated to work hard and efficiently. Unmotivated employees are not desirable in the workplace because they don’t perform properly on their jobs, which means lost productivity for the company. The first instinct of a supervisor is usually to decide to supervise these employees on a more personal level so that their mistakes can be corrected before they result to any bigger problems for the organization. The question is this: Is it possible to motivate employees by reducing supervision on them?
Why supervise?
There are several good reasons why supervision is a necessity in the workplace. Through this, employees are taught about the particular skills they need to possess for them to perform well on their jobs. Supervisors also guide employees to help them learn how to address problems even before they get worse. As a result, workers gain confidence in themselves and develop a great sense of motivation.
Supervision or Micromanaging
In cases where supervision becomes micromanaging, there is a negative effect on employee motivation and employee morale. This is because a micromanager looks into every single action taken by an employee, so the latter loses all his freedom to decide on his own. The unwillingness of a manager to allow workers to work on their own can be considered a strong criticism on the part of employees.
Maintaining the Balance
As a manager, you must be wondering how supervising your employees less will affect their performance. If you want to know if this is beneficial, what you can do is back off a little to see what this will result to. In short, give your employees a bit more room to decide and take action on their own. According to worker motivation experts, what’s important is for employees to have a clear understanding of what the company’s mission statement is. But more importantly, they need to be aware of how vital they are in the company in terms of achieving all its goals and mission. With this kind of awareness, they can easily be motivated to work hard, and their confidence will also increase.
When Things Don’t Work
If you see only negative results after reducing supervision on your staff, there must be another problem that you haven’t addressed. For instance, you should look into the kind of training received by your staff. There is always a possibility that they haven’t received enough and the right kind of training that will make them confident and competent in their positions. Addressing these problems first will make it easier for you to use career advancement as a motivation for your employees to be more committed to their jobs.
