When it comes to job satisfaction, financial rewards may be lower on the list than most people think. Being happy with your job often depends more on intangibles such as feeling part of a team and feeling valued and appreciated. In fact, these factors consistently outrank money when employees are polled about job satisfaction.
As a case in point, “Bill” is a very competent project manager at a software development company. He was hired a few months ago and is already thinking of looking elsewhere because he gets no feedback from his manager and does not understand how his work fits into the company’s overall goals. His motivation and morale are also low because he receives no feedback on his performance. Although his hours are much better than they were at his last company, he is not as engaged in his work and does not care as much. As many managers know, Bill’s story is not unique. So here are some tips and strategies for motivating and retaining valuable employees. Many of them may sound like common sense, but you would be surprised how many managers neglect to follow them.
Step 1: Clearly Define Your Vision. Make sure that you communicate your vision to employees and they understand the steps you and they will be taking.
Step 2: Give Employees The Tools They Need. Do not just assume that each of your employees is receiving all the tools, training, and support they need from supervisors. Check with them personally and find out.
Step 3: Communicate Constantly. Perhaps the most important part of a good manager’s job is communicating effectively. Creating a culture of communication in which managers and employees share common goals and work together can make a good company great and turn around a non-performing company. Use channels such as email, newsletters, training sessions, and all-hands meetings to present your vision to your employees. Make sure to ask questions, and if they are confused, explain it differently.
Step 4: Get everyone engaged. Figure out a way to get all of your employees engaged in planning and decision-making. This way, the project becomes their baby and something they want to make a success. Ask for input and use their ideas as much as possible so they have a vested interest in seeing the project succeed. This can not only empower and motivate employees but can lead to new and more productive ways of working that normally would be overlooked.
Step 5: Coach For Success. Feedback is another great motivator. Offer feedback as often as possible instead of waiting for periodic reviews. Both positive and negative feedback should be given immediately to encourage more of the same performance and allow employees to take corrective action. If you can, schedule weekly meetings with individual employees to provide an opportunity to discuss ongoing projects and issues. These meetings do not have to take a lot of time and they can build strong working relationships. Do not forget to say “Thank you!” for a job well done. It is a powerful motivator and should be done in person if possible. Publicly acknowledging employees’ contributions is even better.
Step 6: Act Fairly, Respectfully, And Create Trust. Use your judgment, wisdom, and experience to create a supportive environment. When problems arise, analyze the situation, understand the context, and then pass judgment. Respect and trust your team and you will get the same in return. If you make a mistake, apologize and admit you were wrong. This will allow your employees to relate to you better, and they will appreciate your honesty.
Step 7: Trust And Verify While Making Work Fun. Good bosses pay attention to the big picture and the details and care both about the product as well as employees. A good way to show that is to be involved in the creation process and to pay attention to what is going on. And remember to do this with a smile on your face. Lighten up! Making work fun pays off since people get a lot more done when they are enjoying themselves.
Step 8: Engage High-Potential Employees. High-potential employees always have other opportunities—even during a recession, and studies show that is they are anxious about their future they will most likely be making plans to leave. To keep them engaged, consider putting more resources into career development and training. Or perhaps you can give them new projects that will help the company adapt to the changing market, grow, and develop.
Step 9: Be Creative To Avoid Downsizing. An employer that treats employees as true partners makes every effort to avoid layoffs. Employees should be able to trust that management is doing everything possible to retain them including taking voluntary steps to reduce costs. This step may sound far-fetched, but you would be surprised at how reasonable people can be about pay cuts and/or working overtime as part of a crisis strategy if they know it means they still have a job.
Step 10: Implement Incentive Programs. You should consider incentive programs no matter what kind of business you are in because it has been proven that they motivate employees. And a major benefit is that the cost can be based on actual performance and paid out only after an employee has reached a desired goal. Sending the message that if you do well, you will be rewarded makes a positive impact on the company as a whole and employees will work hard to meet the target.
When employees feel their work is valued, turnover tends not to be a big problem. Whenever a company supports its employees, turnover rates drop significantly, and recognition, praise, and special incentives are tools that you can use to show employees their work is appreciated.
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39 Comments
Evidently, the risks of pre-employment screening which is not done thoroughly are not a new story for most of us. Along with other things, such careless and incomplete pre-employment screening opens a dodge which the wrong people can have access in the organization as employees.
Hi there, thank you for your article. I really enjoyed reading your article as is very informative and motivational. I hope your other readers will enjoy as much as I do. Thank you.
Eric I just found your article. This is a great article and could be the underlying ethos of our system…good employee engagement and communication is undervalued but can change the efficiency and motivation of staff almost immediately. You will always get the doubting Thomas’s but either they will always be like that, they are in the wrong job or eventually even they will get swept along or leave.
Thank you ever so for you article.Thanks Again. Really Great.
good
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This is a very lovely article. I enjoy ready it, in fact I will apply what I learn here to motivate my worker at the next meeting board as well as study the information to pass my exams. Thanks a million.
I found your article when I was looking for motivational ideas for a paper I was writing.
What a great article it is Eric. I was able to incorporate your thoughts in a positive way
so that my classmates will be able to read your article as well. Great Job!
eskill reader,
Clarice Turner
1-20-15
I really enjoyed reading this! There was so much to take away and into any organization! Great blog! We too recently wrote on sweet ideas for employee engagement and I think that it would be something of your interest! You should check us out!
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nice article!
I enjoyed this article. I was able to see that there are some of the ideas I already incorporate with my team. Plus the blog was able to give me a few new ideas to work with. I really enjoyed the one about making sure that the employees have the resources they need and encourage personal growth. Thank you
I think the best way to motivate your employees and to keep them happy and content is communication. I’ve been in the marketing business for a year now. It’s a bit busy career but this never made me feel bored and unhappy because of how our employers make us feel. They talk to us normally; they give us feedbacks regularly on how we manage our work. They never made us feel inferior and stress because they communicate with us every day. And with that, employees can feel alive and part of the team. They want the salespeople and companies to communicate with each other privately. You might want to look at their site.
Great article. I am a profane on HR management but I find the article very simple to understand and moreover concise and precise. The only aspect I could recommend for improvement is more practical example.
Great advise, and I believe’engaged employees are happy employees’.
Touchable, usefull information that sure reach every employee. Engaged employees will contribute effective and will be more efficient with worktime. They will stay connected if we inspire, motivate them and handle them the necessary, support tools they need and can use. And the care they need to help employees to share positive work-experiences was another coach for succes.
I think step 9 is very crucial to keep morales up at work, your employees don’t want to work out of fear of losing their jobs. They need a trusting and nurturing environment to provide the best performance at work. So as managers, we need to be creative when it comes to cut backs.
Doing good is good business. Companies that support philanthropic causes by involving employees and management in volunteer projects see a direct increase in engagement and productivity. Working together to help others demonstrates that the company isn’t just about making money, but about making a difference in the world.
Thank you for your insight and useful information.
Thanks a lot for providing great information.
This is very insightful. Thanks a lot.
A good leader is play a very important role to engage employees in work and boost company success and sale. Thanks for sharing this informative post.
it was a great deal of information. keep it up
it was a great deal of details that are just good to go. wel done
Great insights and good information. I especially like step 7, and couldn’t agree more.
In addition to your post I would like to mention this post: sleeknote.com/find-hire-retain-talent/
It’s about how to find, hire and retain talented employees and it supports your post very well.
Employee motivation is one of the major factor for improving productivity of the business. Above article is really informational and going to be useful for business managers to motivate their employees.
Employees are the most valuable resource for any company. It directly affects your company performance and productivity. Thus, it’s really important to motivate your employees to improve the performance of your businesses that can also be useful for increasing ROI.
To learn some of the best motivational methods, we reached out to managers and CEOs to learn what worked for them and their employees.
I think the biggest, most meaningful initiative would be something that would enable employees to improve their chances of getting promoted or get the dream job they want. And when it comes to getting them from where they are to getting them to where they want to be, nothing beats a performance improvement program that includes self-learning and re-skilling.
I think self-improvement and learning is one of the most powerful tools to improve office attrition. I’ve seen dramatic improvement in my people after I encouraged them to take online courses (like those we found in Career Academy, link: (Project Management, Business Skills, IT & CyberSec Online Certification Training)) so that they can gain skills needed to move up the career ladder. Their skills sets have improved (especially the use of technology in improving reports) and they have been more motivated to work knowing they are in a better position to get promoted. The more I motivate them to not just be good at their line of work but in getting skill sets that can be used to transition to another post that they like, the more productive they become as they realize that their careers are not stagnant.
As long as they see that the company is giving them room to grow and is empowering them to take steps to achieve their dream jobs, employees will build loyalty with the company.
Thank you for your insight and useful information.
But further, I want to say that, if you want more and better then at least once get in touch with the motivational speaker which definitely impact your employee productivity.
Because,
Hard work may be the key to success in life but motivation is something that retains the success. The world is in dire need of people who can make people squirm in their chairs by inspiring them to come out of their comfort zones and do what is required.
Thank you for your insight and useful information.
But further, I want to say that, if you want more and better then at least once get in touch with the motivational speaker which definitely impact your employee productivity.
Because,
Hard work may be the key to success in life but motivation is something that retains the success. The world is in dire need of people who can make people squirm in their chairs by inspiring them to come out of their comfort zones and do what is required.
Would love to see an overall program of engagement and happiness monitoring to measure progress towards goals and end result maintenance. Interested parties should contact me to learn how we’ve implemented such programs for organizations.
Thanks for your input. Do you know if there has been any employee backlash, as far as monitoring goes? Are companies using your service outside of sales? Sales seems to be a natural fit since many companies base their renumeration on sales figures that are easy to trace.
Hello, Handond. Thank you for your questions. Can you be more specific as to what kind of monitoring are you referring to?
As far as your second question is concerned, eSkill covers a wide range of job positions, from Customer Service Representative, Data Entry Operator, and Office Manager. Our scalable solution is suited for organizations of all sizes and our skills assessments encompass many different industries, including Customer Service, IT, Call Centers, Healthcare.
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Hey Eric
I totally agree with what you said in “Step 2: Give employees what they want and need” because employees are the ones who care for your clients.
I think your article contains many useful information but I could add a few things:
There are various ways to find out what keeps your employees motivated. You might find these things helpful as well:
1. If you have a bit of cash (like 50$ per person), run a Belbin team roles test. This is a great exercise and I would recommend it to any team. As I said, it doesn’t come cheap, but totally worth it.
2. Run an MBTI personality type test for the team. This is a great way to find out what type of personality each team member has. You can find lots of them free on the internet.
3. Use a technique introduced in the book Management 3.0 called the Moving Motivators.
Basically this is a session you can run with your team to find out the motivators for each person.
Nice work with the article and have a nice day!
Today companies get to rethink their approach to talent management quite often. And relocation becomes more and more common. Learn more about relocating staff overseas best practices