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Keep your employees motivated

Guest post by: Rene Truter

Article Overview: Keeping up your staff morale is important whether things are going well or not so great with your business. Motivated employees make for better business all around. Let's look at various ways you can keep your employees motivated.

Keep your employees motivated

What is motivation about?

• Motivation is based on giving people an appropriate blend of rewards; money, recognition, friendships, security, the challenge of new projects or a sense of doing something worthwhile
• Employees must be aware of the possibilities for them at work
• Most people need to feel they can influence results by their actions
• For many people, the chance to achieve ambitions is very inspiring

We're in this together

The key to successful motivation is your attitude.

• Treat employees as partners in the business. Keep people informed about business performance and management decisions. Ask them for their input on decisions that affect them. Create a good working environment and provide training and equipment for the job
• Build an atmosphere of trust and teamwork. A company run on defensiveness and fear is a miserable place to work. Employees will avoid making decisions in case they are wrong, so accept that mistakes are an inevitable part of the learning process. Encourage people to ask for help when problems arise.
• Keep communication open and honest. Schedule regular appraisals to review progress, problems and plans. Encourage employees to do most of the talking during these sessions, by using open questions like: 'How well do you feel you are doing?'
• Take an interest in people's lives. Be prepared to chat about the things your employees are interested in. Listen actively, and be consistent and fair, in your approach.
• Build team spirit with regular briefings. Hold brief daily or weekly meetings to plan work, establish goals and discuss any special events and deadlines. Share any news and problems and give employees credit for their achievements.

What are your goals?

Your employees will not be motivated if they don't know what's expected of them. The goals you set for the company need to be turned into achievable goals for the people working in it. If employees can see how their success contributes to the big picture, they'll feel motivated and part of the team.

• Always agree on realistic goals that directly benefit the business. Ensure employees can influence the results they are being asked to achieve. Agree on targets against which you and the employees can monitor performance, and reward goals that are achieved.
• Give everyone a chance at success. For example, a bookkeeper is more likely to stop debtors taking liberties if he or she has responsibility for bringing the figures down. The book-keeper also needs to know why this matters so much. If employees understand problems, they often come up with solutions themselves.

Praise and criticism

Let your employees know when they're doing well and when they're doing badly.

Remember why you are giving feedback: to improve performance, help learning and build employees' motivation and self-esteem

Respond to people's successes and failures quickly, so they can make adjustments. Say exactly why you are congratulating someone or wanting to help them improve. Don't save up praise or criticism for reviews, or for when you lose your temper

Avoid getting personal. Describe the negative consequences of an action, rather than criticising the person. Keep your praise and criticisms messages. Once the message has sunk in, encourage the employee to brainstorm with you how better results could be achieved

Frame criticisms constructively, in ways that will help people to improve. But aim to praise people's achievements ten times as often as you point out mistakes

Make the work interesting

If you apply your mind, this is not as difficult as it sounds. You need to know which individual employees are ambitious and which are content to stay in the same jobs.

• Identify which employees have the capacity to learn new skills, and help them to do exactly that
• Increase the variety of tasks to make the work more stimulating
• Giving employees the chance to shoulder more responsibility increases their sense of involvement
• Swapping people around, so they can try each other's jobs and appreciate each other's roles, develops versatility and team spirit
• You risk losing talented employees if they are under-used, frustrated or bored
• Ask employees the key question: 'If you could improve just one thing about your work situation, what would it be?'

The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow

Remuneration packages play an important role in motivating employees, but extra money may be scarce and is not the only way to reward your staff. Rewards or employee benefits can include:

• The most visible or obvious part of any remuneration package is the salary. Salary can be made up of several elements including basic pay, commission, bonuses and profit-sharing schemes
• Many employees appreciate company contributions to pension, insurance or medical aids
• Company cars or petrol allowances are a popular perk for many employees
• Consider offering staff discounts on your products or services. Subsidised meals and accommodation can be attractive benefits to many
• Company events and days out can be very effective and you can use them to reward specific achievements. It's a useful way of rewarding groups of people, building team spirit at the same time

You can now see how important motivated and inspired people are to the success of your business. Make sure it's part of your employee management approach.

Copyright© 2010 Business Partners Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Article Tags: better business, employees, morale, motivate, motivation, staff, uplift



Related Forum Posts
Keeping employees motivated - Great story Shri! Was there anything else besides getting in the trenches with the employees that you did to keep them motivated and working together as a team?
Motivating - I've seen a lot of employees working for others and loosing their motivation because of a owner/supervisor/manager that didn't do their share or pull their weight. Its horrible to see a motivated employee lose that spark because of the way they are treated. Chris
Work With Them and They'll Work! - I agree!! Working with your employees is a huge thing, and if you show them that you're willing to put the same work, the hours, and the raw effort into what you're doing as what they're doing, they'll soon respect you more. Evan -- I found that keeping someone on Elance.com more motivated to work is being motivated yourself. Stay upbeat about the project, and make an effort (Again I pull back to this) to be involved in the project. I know that for at least small companies, those who are working with you appreciate being involved and helping them, instead of just giving them details and dropping the project from your thought base. And with large projects, or projects on a strict time frame, try using a rewards system -- an extra $20-$50 if they get it in by such-and-such a time, or if they go over so many words, etc. Although it sounds almost degrading, if you're worried about time frames, it's really the best way to work, and motive who ever you hired to get it done. Hope this helps! Marie
Re: Should you hire ambitious workers or employees with no goals - Good question Kevin. I would tend to hire people based on what they love to do. I prefer to work with employees who are highly motivated in their work because they are doing things they find fulfilling. It also creates a more positive and productive work environment. [Link removed by forum admin]
Re: Should you hire ambitious workers or employees with no goals - [quote="TannyL":2oeqeykp]I don't know if ambitious worker are more smarter, but they have more energy and they work better. He is right, because of their ambition they probably ask for more money, but I rather pay a few more dollars and have the work done on the best terms then mediocre job or maybe no job at all.[/quote:2oeqeykp] I agree completely Tanny. I'd rather have someone with ambition and drive who has the desire to do the job and do it right and they are worth more money. For years while I worked in construction I dealt with people with no ambition, no drive and who were punching a time clock- nothing more. Drove me nuts and it still does when I talk with my brother about his guys. I also agree with Jude - I never even called my most irritating employees grunts. I agree with the rest of your comment too. I've turned employees from unmotivated to motivated and its a beautiful thing to see. I've always paid people based on their value to me and clock watchers who have no ambition aren't worth much to me. In my current venture, I'm trusting my assistants to work closely with the client and I do not watch over them. I have to have people who do a thorough job and who give awesome service - otherwise they will be replaced. Shri


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