In South Africa in 2020 alone, more than 350000 people have lost their jobs. Many people have been struggling financially, with companies resorting to placing employees on shorter hours and unpaid leave to try and make ends meet and save jobs in the long run. Over and above this, it has been predicted that the unemployment rate could reach up to 50% by the end of this year. These statistics will invoke anxiety and stress in the majority of people that read them, people have bills to pay and families to feed.

This leads us to the fact that many employees are feeling insecure at the moment, especially within their jobs. The future has become so ambiguous and unpredictable, that people are unable to make plans for more than a month or so at a time. This insecurity has a detrimental effect on motivation, which in turn will have a detrimental impact on many organisation’s abilities to generate income.

It specifically refers to the amount of effort and persistence employees put into achieving organisational goals (Subramaniam, 2013). Job security and has been proven to have a direct correlation with employee motivation and performance (Subramaniam, 2013). Thus, even in the best of times, organisations go to huge lengths to ensure employees feel secure in their roles because they do not then many employees will seek a new job. The difference now during this pandemic is that employees cannot simply seek a new job, as the job market has taken a dramatic hit. Thus, many unmotivated employees will stay at an organisation but their performance will not be on par with what it once was.

1. Help them manage their time

One thing that this pandemic has done is that it has caused the majority of the population to work from home. This means that individuals have had to take their work context and their home contexts and merge them together. This can cause ambiguity for individuals and can decrease motivation because employees may begin to struggle to separate their two contexts. They will then have a paradox where they will be at ‘work’, but their mind will be on ‘home issues’. Alternatively whilst they are not working, their work will start to creep into their downtime and their family time. This can cause difficulty for employees who are not strict with their time.

The first way we can help employees is by educating them on managing their time whilst working remotely. This can be done through a workshop where tips and tricks can be shared with them, and where they can be assisted in creating a working space at home.

2. Ensure that their roles are clear

The pandemic has caused many to take on extra roles and do additional tasks that they were not expected to do in the past. This can cause role ambiguity and a lack of role clarity. Role ambiguity occurs when people are unclear or uncertain about their expectations within a certain role. Clarifying employee roles and management expectations can help reduce stress and anxiety and allows employees to understand exactly what is expected of them.

3. Manage their performance in a relevant manner

A huge issue for managers and employees alike is that performance can no longer be monitored as it used to be. Employers may think that their employees are not working when they are or vice versa. In the past, employees would typically see their managers every day, and feedback on poor performance was instant. Now that employees are working from home and not being monitored as closely, they may not even be aware that they are not performing because they are unsure as to what constitutes acceptable performance. There needs to be a shift to managing performance-based on outcomes and on goal achievement. This promotes productivity and makes it easy for employees to know whether they are performing or not.

For more information on this, please contact an Orgro Consultant who can support you in bolstering motivation within the workplace.