EXCLUSIVE: More than seven in 10 (73%) UK workers want their employers to make more effort to motivate them, according to research commissioned by benefits provider Reward Gateway.
The survey of more than 2,000 UK employees, carried out by Censuswide in October 2018, also found that those who are not strongly motivated in their current job are most likely to say they derive motivation from their salary (41%), followed by good working relationships (37%) and having a purpose (21%).
However, respondents who class themselves as extremely motivated are most likely to say they get this from job satisfaction (52%), followed by feeling respected, having a purpose and good working relationships (all 37%).
Those who are extremely motivated tend to say they have a good understanding of their organisation’s business goals (55%), more so than those who are not well motivated (24%). In a similar trend, the majority of strongly motivated respondents stated that they take pride in their work (84%), compared with less than a third of those who are not motivated (29%).
The difference between those who are motivated and extremely motivated is also significant, with pride in their work dropping to 62% among the latter group.
The top five effects of poor motivation reported by respondents were worsening mood (60%), reduction in productivity levels (48%), declining mental health (46%), reduction in quality of work (40%) and a worsening diet (28%).
More than a quarter (26%) of employees felt that their relationships with family and friends suffered from a lack of motivation at work, while two in 10 (20%) admitted to drinking more alcohol when unmotivated.
Despite these effects, the research found that workers who are not motivated will stay in a job for an average of 11 months. The older an employee is, the more likely it is they will remain. Workers aged between 45 and 54 stay a mean average of 13.75 months in a demotivating role, while those aged 16 to 24 only stay for 5.34 months.
Rob Boland, group director of product and client success at Reward Gateway, said: “It’s clear that employers can be doing more to motivate and engage their people in the right way. From our research and our experience with thousands of [organisations] with whom we’ve worked, the [organisations] driving the greatest commercial results are the best at addressing employee motivation.
“These businesses centre their engagement strategies on strategically recognising their employees to boost visibility for great work, communicating openly and honestly with them, irrespective of location or demographic, and surveying their people regularly to understand how to constantly improve and adapt their strategy.”