According to new research by management consultancy Lane4, 44 per cent of employees under 35 years old say that a lack of motivation has been hindering their performance at work since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
One thousand employees over the UK were surveyed – the survey being carried out by YouGov – and the results showed that the performance of the under 35 year olds is twice, at 44 per cent, as likely to be affected badly by lack of motivation than that of 45-54-year olds, at 22 per cent. The average for all age groups is 28 per cent.
Other factors impacting the performance of all workers in the current climate were shown to be - 21 per cent distractions from working at home; 19 per cent stated lack of connection or communication to colleagues within, and 14 per cent stated lack of connection or communication to colleagues outside, the people’s team.
Distractions from working at home were found to be most likely - at 30 per cent - to impact between the ages of 35 and 44 years. A lack of connection to colleagues within their team is cited by 26 per cent as most likely to impact the performance of people under 35 years.
Employees are speaking to fewer colleagues since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Prior to the virus, 56 per cent of employees had face-to-face or virtual conversations of at least five minutes with three or more of their colleagues, but this has dropped to 37 per cent since the pandemic.
Cited by 70 per cent of under 35-year olds is that encouraging better communication is the best way for organisations to establish trust between managers and employees.
Adrian Moorhouse - Managing Director, Lane4 - commented:
“It’s crucial that these findings are not misconstrued as the latest ‘evidence’ in support of the long standing – and deeply flawed – ‘lazy millennial’ stereotype. The pandemic has impacted us all, but an increasing number of studies show that younger workers have been some of the hardest hit when it comes to furlough and lockdown loneliness, both of which affect motivation.
There’s a lot of research into the psychology of motivation and what drives it. When considering these drivers, such as belonging and autonomy, in the context of remote working, it’s clear that young people may be disproportionately affected. We know, for example, that there can be a natural tendency during times of crisis for leadership and management teams to become very task focused and take on more responsibilities themselves. This can impact the sense of autonomy, and as a result motivation, of their often-younger colleagues.”
He continued:
“It’s understandable that in the early days of the pandemic a lot of organisational focus went towards keeping the lights on and implementing technologies to enable people to work remotely. But attention now needs to turn towards the behaviours that are crucial to enabling people to perform their best in the new world of work. The good news is that motivation and connection can be enhanced. We know that one of the most effective ways to do this is through managers. Because they speak to their team consistently, managers are in a unique position to understand and enhance the different factors impacting the performance of their individual team members.
