18% of Australians aren't motivated at work

A new study from global employee engagement company Reward Gateway has found that nearly one in five employees across the country don't feel motivated in the workplace and that their managers need to do more to stimulate and inspire them. 

The research, which surveyed over 2,000 employees across Australia, detailed the effects that a lack of motivation has on employees, including that nearly one in five (18  per cent) Australian employees don't feel motivated in the workplace and over seven in 10 (74 per cent) Australian workers say their managers should do more to stimulate and inspire them. 

Moreover, a lack of motivation impacts both performance and mental health. 

The top five effects found were:

●    Bad mood (64 per cent)
●    Declining mental health (55 per cent)
●    Reduced productivity levels (54  per cent)
●    Reduced quality of work (41 per cent)
●    Poor diet (34 per cent) 

"Almost a third (29  per cent) say their relationships with family and friends suffer, and almost one in five admit to drinking more alcohol when feeling unmotivated," the research said.

"Despite the ill effects mentioned above, apathetic Australians are staying in their roles for an average of 10.98 months before moving on." 

When asked about their feelings towards their current job, most agreed that it just pays the bills (56 per cent), whereas only 26 per cent agreed they were in a great place with a challenging and exciting role.

The top reasons for employees feeling unmotivated are: a bad manager (46 per cent), feeling invisible or undervalued (43 per cent), boring or unsatisfying work (43 per cent), and a lack of recognition (42  per cent).

But the research has also noted that the simple things are making the biggest difference to employee motivation. The top reason that people were motivated in their current workplace was because of good working relationships with team members (49 per cent), followed by job satisfaction (43 per cent) and then having a purpose (36  per cent).

Commenting on the research, Reward Gateway group director of product and client success Rob Boland 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 businesses with whom we've worked, the companies 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 their employees, and surveying their people regularly to understand how to constantly improve and adapt their strategy." 

"To continue to help our clients motivate and engage their workforce, we've worked hard to make sure our products support what today's employees crave at work: respect, purpose and relationships."