10 Ways to Motivate Your Employees

Do you have employees that are unproductive during their time in the office? It could be a motivation issue. Managing how motivated your employees are is an important HR role for various reasons and the ways to accomplish it are just as varied. With that said, pulling this endeavor off can still be difficult because of the different circumstances that HR professionals can find themselves in. Before you act, let’s consider the prime methods available to you.

10 Ways to Motivate Your Employees

By now you’re aware of the more common ways to motivate employees. On paper, each of these ways makes sense, but the reality isn’t always so clear cut. It pays to have a more in-depth knowledge of what these motivational acts are and why they work. Without further ado, let’s start with the first of ten ways for you to motivate employees.

Create Competition

There’s no harm in a little competition. Many are naturally competitive and that stimulates their motivation to perform. If a reward and recognition are on the line, then that makes this method all the more successful. Be wary of how you facilitate these competitions. Make sure not to create an environment where competitiveness becomes toxic. Try to make it so that it helps foster employee engagement, where coworkers encourage others rather than drag them down.

Set Small and Measurable Goals

To create employee motivation, one way to do it is to make a goal that the people can work towards. Through survey and evaluation, find out where your employees stand regarding performance. What you can do is have a meeting with your staff and discuss what they can do to improve. From their response, set appropriate goals both individual and collective. Doing so is a great way of providing not just motivation, but also a boost in productivity.

Offer Flexible Schedules

Sometimes the reason why an employee is not motivated to work is that they just can’t function so early or late in during office hours. One way to mitigate this problem is to offer flexible schedules that allow them to start their work at a time when they are ready. It is an effective employee management technique to let your employees start at their own time when they feel motivated. It takes care of their lethargy without doing much work yourself; a win-win situation.

Offer Rewards and Recognition

People love it when they get prizes. When employees know that their work is going to be recognized and rewarded it gives them a reason to come to work and do their best. Think of things that will make your employees happy, like additional benefits, monetary rewards, or even paid perks. Offer it to them with certain conditions. Not only that but giving all this positive reinforcement is a great way to maintain employee relations and inspire loyalty as well as satisfaction with the company.

Appreciate the Employee

People like to continue doing things whenever someone appreciates them for doing it. Sometimes all you need to do to keep an employee going is to say thank you. You don’t have to throw an event to thank them, sometimes it is the little things that go a long way. Ways you can show appreciation to your employees include giving them a token or free food. Maybe in the next performance review meeting, you can take the time to praise your employee with the work they have done. All these are enough to give your employees the motivation to keep going.

Recognize their Work

Even though motivation is an issue, do not forget to recognize any of the work that has been done by your employee. Focusing on what’s missing can bring down an employee’s motivation, it is much preferable to commend the employee on what they’ve done so that it encourages them to do better. Ways you can recognize their work is by giving them positive feedback and helping them improve their productivity and performance. Showing that you care enough to check on an employee’s work makes them feel valued and motivated at work.

Make Them Understand the Company’s Mission

One way to motivate your employees is to tell them about what the company’s mission is about as well as the standards they have set up. Have a meeting with your employees and discuss what the company expects of them from their work. This can help your employees find the motivation to do their best at work.

Invest in Employee Growth and Career Development

Nobody likes it when they feel they are stuck in one place. When people feel that their job has become a routine, it can lead to a lack of motivation at work. One way to deal with this is to offer employees a chance to grow and acquire new skills as well as responsibilities. Take the time to look into your employee’s current standing in the company and see if they have a chance to improve themselves. If they show potential you can implement a career development plan for them as well as give training and development so that they can grow professionally.

Empower Them

Employee empowerment is when the company gives its employees the freedom to do their work however they want, with the condition that they meet the daily demands of the job. Giving employees free rein on how to approach their work is a great way to encourage motivation. Some people find it difficult to do their work when there are a lot of restrictions so it is more helpful to give them leeway.

Let Them Know You Trust Them

Some employers think that to keep employees motivated they literally need to be there breathing down on their necks to get them to be productive. That is not a great way to make everyone want to do their jobs so never resort to that kind of management. What you can do is communicate with them about your expectations during work hours and tell them that you trust that they will be responsible in doing their jobs.

Managing your employees to motivate them to work hard can be a tough endeavor. However, as long as you effectively communicate the importance and the consequences then a good employee will understand. The methods mentioned above are great and effective ways to encourage motivation because it shows that you are willing to meet halfway with the employee and willing to do your part in helping them with the work they have to do every day.

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