When you think about it, the success of any facet of your business can almost always be traced back to motivated employees. From productivity and profitability to recruiting and retention, hardworking and happy employees are thought of as an image leader, that are supposed to lead to success.

Unfortunately, motivated employees are very few and motivating people is quite an art that is very far from an exact science. It is difficult, it is not a secret formula, nor some set calculation, nor some work sheet to fill out. In fact, motivation can be as individual as the employees who work for you. One employee may be motivated only by money while another may appreciate personal recognition for a job well done. Still another may work harder if she has profit-sharing in the business. This is why, the way to motivate one may not be effective on others and fact is most companies cannot afford huge amounts of money on just accomplishing this task.

But you can bring down employee motivation to one basic ideal – finding out what your employees want and finding a way to give it to them or to enable them to earn it. This may require a lot of useless effort and expenses, because all motivation may be only temporary.

You can find a de-motivated work force almost everywhere. Very few companies run a totally motivated workforce, due to the fact that most employers cannot afford to pay decent salaries or treat their employee right. Infringement of rights and benefits and a sense of deprivation can also lead to de-motivation.

There are many signs of a de-motivated workforce. These days, one of the persistent problems that managers and executives face is motivating their employees. And regardless of all of the work that has been done on all of the incentive plans that have been developed, motivating employees is almost always a problem in need of a solution.

Well what I believe and what my experience tells me is slightly different. The problem is trying to motivate employees, but what seems better is that you should try to de-motivate your employees. There are usually seven signs of a de-motivated workforce as follows:

The first sign of a de-motivated employee is a feeling of powerlessness. Employees who feel powerless over their lives tend to be satisfied with less. Because they feel like they have no control over their lives, they feel like anything they do can possibly create even bigger problems than the ones they are experiencing now, so they tend to be satisfied with whatever they have got.

The second sign of a de-motivated employee is that they tend to feel like they are victims of a hostile fate. They feel like any changes they might make are going to be like going into an even more serious problem. Therefore, due to this fear of change they tend to be very loyal to the organization. This can save the company a lot of money. Due to their loyalty, the turnover is reduced and as a result of reducing turnover, the company saves money. Hiring new employees is always costly due to the training costs. Although new employees are very upbeat, optimistic, and enthusiastic about the new job, they have a lot to learn. You know the usual stuff about who knows who and who knows what, and the do’s and don’ts of company politics. All this takes place at the company expense, till the employee becomes productive, it is an extra cost.

Unfortunately, as the employee becomes more skilled and competent, the air goes out of their motivational sails and as a result boredom, stress and negativity creeps in. These workers still do their job but productivity flattens and likely decreases. Such employees may start missing work, arriving late, complaining more, making mistakes, becoming accident prone, and even start becoming ill. Time seems to take its toll on motivation for a variety of reasons.

The third sign of a de-motivated worker is they tend to feel low self-esteem. Now we have all been taught that low self-esteem is a bad thing. But the benefit of this is it tends to eliminate the need for employee recognition. Employees who have low self-esteem tend to want to avoid the spotlight. Consequently the last thing they want is a recognition program, and we know how expensive these programs are. So eliminating those tends to help the bottom line.

The fourth sign of a de-motivated worker is acute defensiveness. As a result of their feeling defensive, they do extra work as a means of ingratiating themselves to executives. Now any time you can get an employee to do extra work, without any complaints or problems, that’s a good thing.

The fifth sign is employees feel acute self-doubt. As a result of their self-doubt, they will work very hard as a means of salvaging their identities. Most of such people are workaholics who try to rebuild their identities at work, by putting themselves to too much work.

The sixth sign of a de-motivated workforce is the employees tend to feel a lack of emotional resilience. Now, this is very important, because employees do not want to feel badly about themselves, and so consequently they will work extra hard to avoid humiliation. Though they tend to avoid seeking recognition, they will work very, very hard to avoid humiliation. They will work faster and better than the rest.

And then the seventh sign of a de-motivated workforce is intense risk hatred. And this is very, very important, because employees are so unwilling to take any risks on their own. They will tend to be satisfied with simply being an extension of executive ambition. As a result of that, they will essentially do whatever you’re asking for, and really that’s what employers are looking for.