Finding ways to motivate employees is one of the biggest concerns for managers. Even if you’re working with a veteran team, you need to implement various tricks to keep your staff engaged and productive.
Unfortunately, many companies believe that giving a big paycheck is enough to keep people in line. As you realize sooner than later, you also have to show genuine care, treat your staffers with dinners, and provide positive feedback.
In this article, we’ll first list all the benefits of employee motivation. After that, we’ll go through various strategies that can help you improve team’s productivity. Hopefully, you’ll have luck using some of these secrets for your staffers!
Why Should You Motivate Employees?
When people do the same job for years and years, they easily get into a rut. Even if the work is challenging, they may become complacent and disinterested. Because of that, you have to freshen up the work environment and introduce incentives that will wake them up from their winter slumber.
When employees are properly motivated, they tend to:
- Produce faster results
- Work smarter and harder
- Achieve higher levels of cohesion
- Avoid common workplace conflicts
- Pay attention to details
- Experience higher satisfaction rates
- Welcome new challenges
- Bring a positive attitude to the office
Positive motivation is not only good for the company, but also works for employees. They will feel less stressed while in the office, while opening new opportunities for progress. Ultimately, this can lead to better paychecks, better team communication, and improved work experience.
8 Secrets for Motivating Your Team
There are lots of small things you can do as a manager to make employees’ lives easier. Here are 8 best methods to make them more involved and happier:
- Share Company Goals
Transparency is vital in motivating your team. Your employees have to know in which direction the company is going and what will their role be in the future.
Through transparency, the staff will feel their contributions are appreciated by the top brass. More importantly, they will become more productive as they understand why specific actions are essential for the company.
- Provide Autonomy
Once employees get some experience and practice under their belt, they’ll be able to execute various tasks without hand-holding. While they’ll still need instructions at the beginning of a project, most of them will appreciate having some autonomy.
Those who micromanage too often quickly lose the trust of their team. On top of that, using a hands-on approach will stifle creativity and make things harder for your staffers. Autonomy also increases employees’ confidence and makes them more proactive.
- Introduce Awards
Award ceremonies are one of the best ways of rounding up employees’ work year. You can organize these events every December or January as a way of remembering the best moments from the year prior.
Managers can tinker with all sorts of awards, ranging from “Employee of the Year” to “Best Colleague,” “Most Improved,” as well as giving out custom awards. Award ceremonies are also an excellent way to show people you appreciate their dedication and that you’ve noticed their performance.
- Encourage Communication
By improving internal communication, your staff will feel as if you hear and respect them. They will develop a sense of cohesion and feel as if their feedback matters. In turn, employees will produce better ideas and increase their overall creativity levels.
Communication creates a sense of camaraderie between employees and closeness with management. It tears down barriers and ensures a higher focus on tasks.
- Introduce Flexible Work
Many employees struggle to balance work and private life, usually because they have limited time on their hands. Because of that, most of them would appreciate the option of hybrid or remote work.
Keep in mind that you don’t have to offer remote work for the entire week. Allowing employees to work from home on Fridays and potentially Thursdays can significantly improve their productivity and motivation.
- Balance Workload
Thing that often happens in the office is that several guys perform majority of the work for the team. While you might think this is ok as long as they finish the task, it’s everything but.
Managers have to ensure that the workload is properly balanced between various employees. That way, no one will feel fatigued or exploited. You can easily do this with scheduling software and by tracking staffers’ performance.
- Provide Bonuses
Although you shouldn’t rely on financial bonuses excessively, they can still come in handy. Always remember that some people prioritize money over everything else, with many of them having kids they need to feed.
You can give out a 13th paycheck or quarterly bonuses. Staffers might also appreciate some other non-cash incentives, such as gym memberships, free tickets for games and events, or extra free days.
- Commend Good Work
Lastly, don’t forget to commend good work. A tap on the shoulder can go a long way in building someone’s confidence and will also show that you appreciate their effort. Make sure these commends are well-placed as you don’t want to overdo is with praises.
