More Than Money: Confidence is the Currency of Productivity

During times of change and uncertainty, organizations wrestle with how to retain and engage people. While compensation and financial incentives still matter, it takes more than money to optimize a workforce that is afraid and uncertain.

At ADVISA, we say that confidence is the currency of productivity. When people are enabled to meet their inner motivating needs at work, both performance and productivity increase. Here are some practical ways to invest in building your employees’ confidence.

Invest in Development

Lack of access to development opportunities is one of the most frequently cited reasons for voluntary employee turnover. Bright, capable people want to grow, and they want you to help them. You’ve probably heard, or maybe said yourself, “What if I train them and they leave? What if I don’t, and they stay?” Employee development is an investment in your future: the people you help to grow today are more likely to be the ones helping you grow in the future.

Running a traditional employee development program can stretch the resources of SMEs, but there are other options. Some firms, for instance, are trialing “micro-learning,” an approach that trains employees in 20- to 30-minute chunks, usually at the start of the day.

Others are experimenting with integrating learning into the employee experience. The idea here is to teach valuable skills on the job while offering value to customers at the same time, minimizing losses. Businesses are finding that training in a real-world context is often more valuable than training in a separate training environment.

Talk with Them

Leaders should not underestimate the importance of speaking with employees on an informal, personal level. Many still do not hold one-on-ones with their employees to check-in and see how they’re doing, not as workers, but as human beings.

Company leadership can sometimes forget that mental health challenges abound in many firms, and people can feel lonely, even when surrounded by colleagues. Firms that spend time checking in with employees, listening to their concerns, and providing quality interactions not only improve their wellbeing but can boost their confidence too.

Healthy relationships between team members and managers assist in overcoming the challenges of the day and give bosses better oversight of realities at the operational level. Management can then use these insights to improve confidence and productivity.

Double-down on Job Fit

Our engagement research reveals that 51% of employee engagement is attributable to job fit, the extent to which a position allows people to deploy their strengths and skills. When work aligns with an employee’s natural aptitudes and motivations, their confidence increases. When work calls upon their weaknesses, they suffer.

At ADVISA, we can help you benchmark the behavioral requirements for success in every role in your organization, collecting individual data on motivating needs, and then showing you how to achieve maximum job fit.

With a company like ADVISA by your side, you can:

• Create and execute a talent strategy that directly supports your business strategy
• Hire objectively for job and culture fit
• Develop leaders who know how to coach and inspire performance for maximum employee engagement

Learn how ADVISA partners with organizations to create effective teams, leaders and cultures by clicking here.

To read more from ADVISA’s President, Heather Haas, check out her article “Be the Organization People Love, not the One People Leave”.