It’s great when engineering teams meet expectations, carrying out their tasks and responsibilities and achieving their defined goals. When a team is clicking along and doing the minimum, everything runs smoothly, but in order for the company to gain a true competitive edge, employees need to go above and beyond. How do you motivate people to take those extra steps and put in extra effort to move outside of their minimum requirements? Use these strategies to motivate your team to push themselves to the next level.
Lead by Example
If you want your employees to put in extra effort, they need to see you doing the same thing. If you come to work late, if you avoid rolling up your sleeves and helping out with tasks outside your core responsibilities, or if you head out every afternoon at 3:00 to hit the gym, your employees won’t feel motivated to go above and beyond. Employees will mirror the behaviors they see in their leaders, so take the time to go the extra mile and your employees will follow suit.
Connect Employees to the Organization’s Mission
When it comes to engineering projects, team members understand how their daily tasks help achieve specific project goals. But do your employees know how they fit into the larger organizational picture? Do they understand how even their most mundane tasks help the company achieve its goals? By connecting people to the larger picture, it allows them to see how a little bit of extra effort can go a long way.
Helping engineers and support staff feel like they are directly contributing to goals and objectives creates a sense of value. They feel like the work they do is bigger than just a simple set of tasks, and it helps them feel like they are a critical piece of the organizational structure.
Recognize Exceptional Achievement
Even if employees understand how their work helps the company achieve its goals, they still want acknowledgment that their efforts are noticed. The first step is to say “thank you” when someone goes out of their way to help another employee, pick up slack on a project or when they step in to do tasks no one else wants to take on.
Employees who put in extra effort should also be praised and recognized in front of others. Not to shame others into doing more, but to show hard workers you appreciate their efforts enough to share their success with the group.
Are You Looking for Motivated Engineers?
If you regularly hire engineering talent and you’re ready to partner with a top engineering staffing firm to find the most motivated pros in the field, reach out to the expert recruiters at Selectek today. We will work closely with you to develop effective strategies to help you connect to top talent quickly and achieve your professional staffing goals.
