If you want your business to be successful, you need to find different ways to motivate employees, so they’ll be able to give you the best results. A good employee is pretty hard to find and even harder to keep, especially if there are a lot of people who want to seal them from you. You need to find new ways to make them happy, so they can be more productive, this way, helping you reach your goals. Motivating your employees doesn’t have to be a challenge, you just need to look for ways to make them feel excited to come to work every day, because I’m sure you now that a happy worker is a productive worker. Even if sometimes it can be pretty hard to search for new ways to maintain productivity while still motivating your workers and providing them with the drive they need to maintain their high performances, it’s not an impossible thing to do if you follow a few easy steps. Here are a few very practical ways to motivate employees in order to increase their productivity:
One of the most efficient ways to motivate employees is by supporting new ideas. Be open to suggestions and ask for feedback! If one of your employees comes to you with what they think is a solution to one of your company’s problems, just listen to them and if their idea is good, put it in practice. Then, acknowledge their efforts and reward them for their hard work. Supporting new ideas is the best way to motivate your employees, even if their ideas are not always what you are looking for.
I know this is an easier thing to do in a small company, but if your company is large, don’t neglect this aspect if you want to make your workers more productive. Celebrate their birthdays, their personal achievements, their engagements or any other personal event that is worth celebrating and you will definitely earn their trust and loyalty. Show them you really care about them and let them know how important they are to you by paying attention to all those small details of their lives.
Always acknowledge their hard work and give them credit where credit is due. If they’ve done something truly outstanding, then acknowledge their professional achievements and reward them for their victories. Praise them in front of their colleagues in meetings and show them you really appreciate their efforts and their hard work. If you can’t afford raises, then you could simply consider performance-based bonuses where your employees would be rewarded if they bring additional profit to your business.
Be a good listener and really pay attention to what your employees have to say. Even if you are extremely busy or you are not in the mood to do it, make an effort and listen to them. They might need your help or your advice, so be there for them if you want them to maintain a high performance. Make sure they know that communication channels are open, so offer positive feedback as often as possible and make them feel comfortable in their jobs.
Make sure you create a friendly work environment, so all your employees can feel comfortable and nice while they are at work. They spend a lot of time there, so you should try to make the office as friendly as possible, so they will maintain a high productivity level. Make sure their space is not too cramped, nor too hot or too cold and create a pleasant ambiance through lighting if there isn’t too much natural light in there.
It’s always good to encourage some friendly competition among your workers, so they could come up with new ideas that could improve your company’s productivity. I’m sure you all know that “a competitive environment is a productive environment.”. Just reward them for their accomplishments and encourage new learning skills and creativity.
If you’ve set a target, make sure your employees will be able to attain it. Don’t do it just to show them you do your job and don’t set a goal so high that it’s impossible to achieve, no matter how hard they try. Encourage individuality, set an example and ask yourself if the expectations you set for your employees are the same as the ones you would set for yourself.
There are a lot of things you can do to motivate your employees and to make them enjoy coming to work every day. I just mentioned a few in this little article but I’m sure there are many more I forgot about. Can you give me a hand and tell me what other things an employer could do to motivate their employees? Please tell us what they are in the comments section!
Sources:
americanexpress.com
startupcollective.com
wikihow.com
theguardian.com