How to Keep Offshore Teams Motivated and Competent

Team motivation is a subject that comes up again and again, across LinkedIn, industry websites and just about every sector you can name. It is not unique to offshore energy, it affects almost every workplace.

The Covid-19 pandemic is thankfully behind us, but the shift to remote and hybrid working left its mark. Many employers now find it harder to get staff fully engaged again, you may have heard the phrase “quiet quitting”, where unhappy employees do the bare minimum to keep their job and are unwilling to go any further for their employer. In an article from September 2022, the global analytics and data firm Gallup suggested that over 50% of the US workforce could be classed as quiet quitters. That is how disengaged many people had become from their employer and their role.

It is easy to picture these employees in soulless high-rise offices, hunched behind computer screens on humdrum tasks. It is less obvious to think about a lack of motivation in the maritime and energy sectors that MTCS primarily supports, yet the risk is just as real. Maritime roles carry significant responsibility, and personnel are keenly aware of the consequences of errors. That does not remove the need to keep our people motivated.

What is motivation and why does it matter offshore?

Motivation is the driving force behind human actions. It is the process that initiates, guides and maintains goal-orientated behaviour. In simple terms, it is what keeps someone doing their job well and caring about the result.

Beyond simply being happy in their role, a motivated employee is more likely to work to the best of their ability. They stay focused on the task, consider their colleagues, and go about their work in a competent and productive way.

Motivation brings clear practical benefits too:

• Motivated employees are more likely to stay loyal, so staff retention improves and recruitment becomes less of a challenge. Recruitment is a constant, time-consuming and expensive problem, so this matters.
• A happy existing workforce also makes it easier to attract new recruits.
• Motivated personnel are less likely to take spurious sick days, which helps continuity of operations and reduces disruption to scheduling and cover.
• Motivated employees tend to have better relationships with their managers. That is always helpful when it comes to assessment and feedback as part of a competence programme.

What is the Willing and Able model?

The Willing and Able model is a simple tool that describes four states a person can be in, based on their ability and their willingness to perform their role. People move between these states throughout their employment and their wider career.

There are many versions of the model used by organisations around the world. The version below is a simple one, and it is proven to be effective.

Unable and Willing. This might be someone new to the organisation, perhaps a graduate or someone fresh out of education, full of enthusiasm. They are highly motivated and keen to learn, but they naturally lack competence at this early stage.

Able and Willing. This is where we all want to be, and where we want our personnel to be. It is the logical progression from Unable and Willing. To get there, a person needs a well-structured personal development programme, including role-specific training, coaching, mentoring, assessment and feedback.

Able and Unwilling. This is the tricky one. The person can do the job but does not want to. They may once have been both willing and able, but something has changed. You have probably heard the phrases “It’s not my job to do that” or “I shouldn’t have to do that”. This person may feel a task is beneath them and better suited to someone more junior. That is quiet quitting territory, and HR intervention starts to feel close.

Unable and Unwilling. You might reasonably ask why anyone would do a job they can neither perform nor want to perform. That is a fair question, and the answer lies in how people shift between states.

Why do people move between states?

People move between states for reasons that are often practical rather than personal. The day-to-day reality of a role can pull someone away from being willing and able, even when they started out that way.

Common causes include:

• Complacency and boredom from doing the same, possibly repetitive, task day in and day out.
• Lack of support and recognition from management.
• Lack of refresher training and continuous professional development (CPD). CPD simply means keeping your skills and knowledge up to date over time.

Any of these can cause a slip towards Able and Unwilling. They can also push someone into Unable and Unwilling if they are given a new task they feel reluctant or unprepared for, often through a lack of training and guidance.

If an Able and Unwilling person is deprived of training and ongoing CPD, their knowledge and skills will fade. This is especially clear when new technologies or working practices appear. Over time, they will become both unable and unwilling.

The same is true in reverse for the new starter. A keen, enthusiastic recruit left without proper training, supervision and a development plan will become unwilling, because they are simply unable to do the job. They become disheartened, confused, overwhelmed and unmotivated.

How do we keep the workforce Able and Willing?

The solution is to motivate people, and then keep them motivated. Professional development sits at the heart of this.

There are many approaches to motivating people that go beyond this article. They often include reward-based incentives such as salary increases, performance-related bonuses, profit sharing and additional leave.

Beyond material and financial reward, there is real worth in personal achievement at work. There is still value in a job well done, and in the betterment of oneself and the wider organisation. We cannot assume everyone shares the same pride in their work, so it helps to think about how we support each individual.

Motivating an Unable and Willing person.

First, we assume the person wants to change and reach an Able and Willing state. If they do not, they may not be a good fit, and both sides need to reassess the relationship.

If someone is unable to do their work through a lack of skills, knowledge or experience, we need to help them become able. This starts with a training needs analysis specific to their role, carried out together with the individual, to identify gaps in their abilities.

From there, a role-specific training plan can be created, delivered in-house or by an appropriate training provider, and tailored to the person’s existing skills and experience. Ideally, they should see this as a starting point and understand that ongoing learning is part of their career progression.

Coaching and mentoring at the worksite keeps you in touch with employees. Regular check-ins help prevent a slip back towards Unable and Willing, and create space for honest, two-way dialogue where concerns can be raised.

Formal assessment and feedback give people clear objectives for achieving competence. An agreed process ensures reporting is based on set criteria, rather than straying into personal or biased commentary. Alongside this, experienced and competent supervision lets an Unable person carry out tasks safely and under control, so their confidence can grow as they become more familiar with the activity.

Motivating an Able and Unwilling person.

We must assume this person was once willing, so we need to ask what changed. Typical reasons include:

• Lack of recognition for their work.
• Lack of support from colleagues or management.
• Poor teamwork at the worksite, including supervision and collaboration.
• Poor working conditions.
• Inadequate equipment, or a lack of resources to keep equipment operational.
• Lack of training and professional development.
• Lack of SMART objectives, meaning goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.

Some of these points are operational and others are cultural. All of them can be identified and addressed with the right processes in place, which helps keep everyone in the desirable quadrant of the model.

In summary

Professional development is not the only driver of motivation, but it is undeniably a key one in keeping a workforce both willing and able.

People will naturally fluctuate between states. Regular engagement, dialogue and feedback help you spot issues early, so plans can be put in place to put things right. Three things make the biggest difference:

• Good supervision at the worksite that is consistent, experienced, impartial, knowledgeable and approachable.
• Recognition and input from senior management.
• Well-structured continuous professional development to achieve competence and maintain confidence.

A motivated, competent workforce is a safer one. That is exactly what independent competence assessment and structured development are designed to support.

Explore how MTCS assessment and feedback can support your team’s development at mtcsuk.com/support-centre/, or find out more about our Skills Assessor course at mtcsuk.com/mtcs-online/skills-assessor/.