Can we use behavioral science to help us understand how to improve remote/hybrid work for teams?
I have been doing some research on the future of work recently.
I have also been talking with a few companies who want to motivate their employees, be it in the office, in a hybrid setting, or even remotely.
"The role of motivation is often overlooked when designing and implementing technology in the workplace, even though technological changes can have a major impact on people’s motivation" - Gagne M, et.al
Motivation is probably one of the most complicated things to get right. Yet it is critical to have a good understanding of a theory of motivation to help you get on the right path and provide a better experience to your employees.
In the theory of motivation I'm looking at (called self-determination theory) we see that employees have three basic needs
Autonomy
They need to feel in control of their behaviors and goals
Competence
They need to gain mastery of tasks and learn skills.
Relatedness
They need to experience a sense of belonging.
If these needs are fulfilled it means you will most likely increase employee well-being, and performance and have more positive outcomes for your organization.
In addition, "according to meta-analytic evidence, more self-determined (that is, intrinsic or more internalized) motivation is more positively associated with key attitudinal and performance outcomes, such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job performance, and proactivity than more controlled motivation (that is, extrinsic or less internalized)"
The theory can "help predict the motivational consequences of future work and these motivational considerations should be taken into account when designing and implementing technology"
Behavioral Science isn't always about biases (though we can use that work for other areas)
What hinders:
-->Controlling Leadership -->Excessive Workload -->Work-Life Conflict -->Abusive Supervision
What helps:
-->Job Autonomy -->Social Support -->Performance Feedback -->Skills Variety
Hope this gives some inspiration to leaders who are working with teams remotely and who are implementing technologies for say remote work to think about and design for the needs of your employees.
The paper and image credit by Gagne M. et.al
#servicedesign #productinnovation #digitaltransformation #futureofwork #changemanagement #hr #behavioralscience #behavioraldesign