Motivated employees are elementary to spot. They have a positive attitude, meet targets, support their colleagues and go above and beyond. For this reason, leaders want to understand how to motivate employees. A well-motivated workforce offers excellent benefits. They enable a company to perform better, solve problems, and innovate. Therefore, employees have lower absenteeism and turnover rates.
Landing that workforce, however, involves more than offering a solid salary. Money can meet basic needs, but once that need is met, money starts to play little role in motivating employees. Instead, intrinsic needs give us that motivational force, such as learning new skills, feeling valued, and understanding how our role helps the organization achieve its goals. Here we are going to tell you several effective ways to motivate employees.
1. Thank You
Employees want to know that they are doing their job well and that their efforts are valued. Words of praise only require a little effort and significantly impact employee motivation. Acknowledging their team’s contributions also helps them feel respected, engaged, and content.
Some ways to do this are to share positive feedback and verbal praise for success through an awards program. Also, consider a peer recognition program. This is very helpful in identifying silent achievers. You can also use your staff intranet or social media channels to recognize employees who go the extra mile.
2. Communicate The Big Picture
Regularly updating your staff on the organization’s mission, vision, and performance helps maintain interest. It ensures that they fully understand the purpose of the organization and why. It means a more outstanding commitment to those objectives. You must also clearly communicate your expectations with your role and performance and work as a team to achieve objectives and goals.
It allows employees to perform their tasks because they understand the purpose of their job and how their functions fit into the bigger picture.
3. Trust Your Staff
Another essential component of employee motivation is a culture where employers trust their team to achieve their goals rather than micromanage their people. Communicating your vote of confidence, backed by their actions, generates sympathy and therefore increases motivation.
4. Give Your People
Another factor to consider is allowing your team to share their ideas, solve problems and make decisions that will improve their work.
It is essential to know that motivation can be affected by an unfavorable work environment. Employees may not want to raise these issues publicly, so provide feedback anonymously and act on their feedback.
5. Improve Skills
The world is constantly changing with technological and industry advancements, which provide new tools to perform existing jobs. Therefore, committing to your people’s continuous learning and improvement not only ensures that your people have the necessary skills to remain as productive as possible but is also a critical factor in keeping their motivation high.
What could be better than feeling supported to become the best possible version of yourself?
Upskilling your employees can be inexpensive. For example, you can offer opportunities for tutoring and take advantage of free online learning resources. There are many ways you can help your staff without breaking your budget.
6. Offer A Clear Path Of Progress
It is not enough to improve the skills of your employees. A major motivating factor is showing your employees they can progress in their careers with you long-term. One component driving turnover is the need for progression opportunities that people see in their current organization.
Therefore, talking to your employees one-on-one about their interests and career ambitions and offering them a clear promotion path is essential. Many times some employees are not motivated by promotions, but others are.
Look for a good middle ground if your promotion aspirations need to be achieved. For example, greater autonomy or a move to another department, or the opportunity to be transferred to another office abroad could boost your motivational strength.
