5 Tips for Motivating Employees
Monetary rewards, such as bonuses, incentives, and pay raises act as good motivators. Everyone will work hard for more money. But motivation that really matters comes from something other than financial reward. It comes from employees’ pride in their job, their feeling of ownership and responsibility. And companies can provide this type of motivation. Here are some 5 helpful tips on how to do that.
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A Collaborative Environment Leads to Motivating Your Employees
When there is a collaborative environment in an organization, it changes the energy and the concept of hierarchy. Whether with decision-making processes or team projects, opening up collaboration from the top to the bottom empowers employees to become more involved and can go a long way towards motivating your employees.
This will allow employees to have a voice in what is going on around them, rather than simply having to accept what someone else is deciding for them. This will encourage engagement and ownership, and that will increase motivation.
2. Give Employees Responsibility and Autonomy
Providing employees with the opportunity to take responsibility and be autonomous in their work will again allow them to take ownership of their work. When this happens, they are more motivated to do a great job, to contribute.
You can do this by letting them run with innovative ideas, as discussed above. You can also expand on their workplace role to include greater responsibility. Obviously, the goal isn’t to overwhelm with too much work, but motivating your employees with increased responsibility so they can increase their skill set and contribute more is a good idea.
The collaborative environment discussed above also helps increase the level of responsibility and autonomy employees have. As they are able to have input on how things will work and are given the opportunity to fly with their role in the overall project/process, they will feel a sense of purpose. This increases motivation.
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3. Get to Know Your Employees
Your employees are people. They have families, hobbies, hopes, and dreams. They have professional and personal goals. Get to know your employees on this deep level. This includes keeping in touch with them through email, instant messaging, texting, social media.
These methods of communication will allow you to make small talk, as well as pass on information they need to do their job. And it shows that you are available to answer questions or talk whenever they need you. These personal relationships will build trust between you and make employees feel more valued. They will trust you more and actually like you, which means they will be motivated to perform better so they won’t let you down.
4. Offer Educational Opportunities
People always want to better themselves. There is nothing as demotivating as doing the same job day in and day out without any hope of doing something new and exciting. This isn’t just about advancement within the company—it’s about feeling like you can learn new skills and contribute in different ways.
Educational opportunities come in different ways. You can offer to bring training opportunities to the workplace, allowing willing employees to gain new certifications. You can also offer to pay for offsite training or conferences.
However, another way to offer educational opportunities is to have people cross-train within the company. If they work in the marketing department, they might have an interest in crossing over and learning about the communications department or product development. This will open up a lot more flexibility in terms of staffing and collaboration for projects and it will help break down silos within the workplace.
5. Recognition
Of course, simple recognition still plays a huge role in employee motivation. However, this recognition doesn’t have to have a dollar sign attached to it. Simple praise for a job well done is welcome by employees. You can announce that praise publicly, write a thank you note expressing your gratitude for everything they do, or show up at their workspace and interact with them there.
You can also offer special opportunities for employees who perform well. Perhaps they can be chosen to attend an event on behalf of the company or can be chosen to lead a new project. There are so many ways to recognize employees that make a much bigger impact than just paying them a few extra dollars.
More Than Just a Job
In the end, the best way to help with motivating your employees is to make their work experience much more than just a job with a paycheck. Sure, employees like to make more money—who doesn’t? But when their work means more to them than that paycheck, true motivation will take over and transform their performance in the workplace.