Recent studies show that effective motivational techniques can help employees be more productive. Yet, if you miss the mark with your motivational methods, it could have the opposite effect.
That’s why it’s important to consider each employee’s preferences when choosing ways to increase motivation. Are you all out of ideas?
Keep reading for tips on how to motivate employees and help your business thrive.
1. Provide Positive Feedback
When you praise employees for a job well done, it can help improve motivation in leaps and bounds. This shows that you recognize their contributions and care about their progress.
Managers and directors who take their employees for granted end up with unmotivated workers and lackluster performance. After all, if you aren’t interested in what they do, why should they be?
It’s easy for individual efforts to pass unnoticed in both large and small companies, leaving employees feeling like they’re just another number. Recognize the importance of every employee and show them you value their input.
Demonstrating respect toward every employee goes a very long way toward motivating them.
2. Recognition Can Motivate Employees
If you want your employees to consistently exceed their daily goals and strive to excel in their positions, it’s important to recognize those who go the extra mile.
Pay attention to those who produce outstanding results and hold them up as an example to their peers. A low-key weekly or monthly performance awards ceremony lets your top performers stand out and can motivate others to follow their lead.
There are many affordable ways to recognize these leaders in your organization, such as certificates, custom lapel pins, or a small floating trophy.
Remember to keep a look out for those low-key individuals who’ve made significant improvements in their work, even if they don’t stand out in the crowd.
3. Stop Micromanaging Your Employees
Nobody enjoys having a supervisor or other superior breathing down their necks all day. Treat your employees like responsible adults and they’ll enjoy much higher levels of job satisfaction.
Subjecting them to stringent timetables and soul-destroying criticism over minor things will only stun their growth and eradicate all motivation.
Rather, implement flexible work policies regarding the pace of work, the order of task completion, and time off. Widespread remote work in 2020 showed us all that you can get the work done without watching your employees’ every move.
Try releasing the reins a little at a time, and the results will surprise you.
4. Revamp Your Review Process
Performance reviews are an important tool for assessing employees’ abilities and helping them improve on weaknesses. They’re intended to assist with goal setting, training, and engagement.
Unfortunately, in many companies, employees dread this process and find it adds no incentives to improve.
If you want your performance reviews to have a positive impact, rather make them more frequent and less formal. Let them evolve into a genuine appraisal of areas for improvement and offer constructive advice on how to achieve better results.
Instead of sitting in the review process checking off items from a list and rating your employees as you go along, use this interaction as an opportunity for engagement and getting to know them better.
5. Get Employees Involved
When your employees know what’s going on in your business, they feel more invested in it. Secrecy quickly leads to rumors and feelings of unease.
Share data with your employees regularly. They might have insights on how to improve in weak areas and feel motivated by the ways they’ve contributed to your success. Remember, no one knows your customers better than the people that work with them every day.
When your employees understand their role in growing your business, they feel more invested in it.
Share new ideas and get their input. After all, your business impacts them just as much as it affects you.
By pooling your resources, you could end up with some brilliant concepts that help take your business to the next level.
6. Promote Your Best Workers
As your business grows, you’ll need to hire more people. Stop right there.
Unless you’re hiring for a highly specialized, and new position, rather promote from within the pool of workers you have. There’s no substitute for experience, networks, and insider knowledge when it comes to finding the best person for the job.
Allowing your employees to grow within your organization is a huge motivator for them to stand out in their existing roles. A bigger paycheck is part of the attraction, but it’s the knowledge that you trust and believe in them that promotes motivation.
When you promote people within your company, you avoid dealing with the unknown, and you can train them according to the unique needs of your business.
7. Upgrade Your Office
Nobody wants to be a little gray worker in a little gray office. Dingy, boring spaces and dull desks don’t inspire anyone to reach for the sky.
Instead, work with your employees to create spaces that they find comfortable, ergonomic, and aesthetically pleasing. Their workspaces should be clean, inviting, and inspirational.
Make sure they have all the tools they need to complete their daily tasks. Update your computer hardware and software regularly, and spend time researching and implementing ways to make their time at work easier and more enjoyable.
Grow Your Business By Nurturing Your People
Now that you know how to motivate employees, you’re well on your way to establishing an effective and productive workforce with a low turnover rate.
Are you ready for the next steps? Browse our blog for more effective tips on how to grow your business.
