Motivate Your Staff

Big or small, it is imperative to an organization to have motivated, hard-working employees.  When employees lose their motivation their work tends to suffer; they become less productive, less creative, and less valuable to the company.  At the end of the day it is the business that suffers from lack of motivation.  So what do you do to ignite that spark?

We have some pointers to help motivate your staff and create a positive and productive working environment.

• Start by building a strong foundation.  Make sure all your employees are aware of the company’s history, the mission statement and future goals of the organization.  Make sure you are also aware of your employees expectations and their own career goals.  When you make employees feel like they are part of the team they will feel invested in the company.

• Promote a positive work environment.  Leave office doors open and let your employees know they are free to approach you with any concerns or questions.  Make sure all employees feel valued and appreciated; creating this positive atmosphere will lead to an efficient and productive office.

• Give employees direction.  Set goals for employees to work towards.  Many employees are looking to advance and grow within the company.  Work closely with employees  to develop a career path that develops their current skills and focuses on their future goals.  When employees are excited about future possibilities they become more engaged in their day to day work.

• Educate your employees.  The best way to improve your employees’ professional skills is by providing on-the-job training or in-house career development.  Encourage them to attend seminars and workshops that are related to your industry.  You may consider sending employees to night classes as well.  Employees feel valued when a company invests in them and will naturally improve work performance.

• Remember to leave room for fun.  Every now and then you need to put work aside and do something nice for your employees.  You don’t have to go crazy either, treating the office to pizza, allowing a casual day, or letting everyone out early on a Friday can go along with employees and is a nice way for you to thank your staff for all their hard work.

• Recognize your employees’ contributions.  You can easily boost employee morale with a small token of appreciation.

• Promote incentives.  Incentives can be small; such as a gift certificate, handing out “Employee of the Month” plaques or larger incentives such as performance based bonus or salary increase.  These incentives will really motivate employees to work towards their own career goals and the organization’s goals.

• Know your employees strengths and weaknesses.  Improve employee motivation by improving employee confidence.  Assign projects to employees based on their talents. When an employee can successfully conquer a project they will gain the self-confidence to tackle the next project with positive energy and excitement.

Tags: Morale, Motivate Employees, Positive Environment

Category: Employee/Business Relationship, Motivate Your Team