How To Keep Employees Motivated
Do you want the best efforts from your employees all the time? The obvious answer is yes, but it isn’t obvious how you make it happen. Funny enough money is rarely a significant motivator. More often it is something else; something unexpected. Here are 15 tips from the TPE community on how to keep your employees motivated:
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1. Silence Is Not Golden
How To Keep Employees Motivated: Recognize your employees with a smile, an authentic compliment or even a hand written note. People need to know their efforts are what you, as the employer, desire. In this case, silence is not golden. Thanks To: Leanne Hoagland-Smith of ADVANCED SYSTEMS |
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2. Tell ‘em Why They’re Great!
How To Keep Employees Motivated: Ask people what they’d like to be acknowledged for, what they wish their boss (you)noticed or appreciated about them better. Then acknowledge them clearly and completely for whatever they said. I’ve seen this bring grown men to tears. Works at home, too. It’s a simple use of the Pygmalion Effect. People live up (or down) to expectations. You don’t always have time to notice what they’re proud of. Save time and just ASK! Thanks To: Scott Degraffenreid of www.NecessaryMeasures.com |
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3. Reaction Is Everything
How To Keep Employees Motivated: The one thing we do have control over is how we react to changes in business. Keeping a positive attitude and mind set will help your team performance. Example: After receiving bad news from a client on Monday morning I called my team for a meeting in the building hallway. I shut the lights off and shut the doors. I told them we are restarting our day both mentally and physically. I opened up the doors, flipped on the lights, and said “what a great day!” Later that day we landed a different big project! Thanks To: Ken Williams of Medix Staffing Solutions |
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4. Slay The Stress-dragon
How To Keep Employees Motivated: Collectively Slay the Stress-Dragon Several times a year, ask for such contributions to a stress survival kit. Decorate the box and leave it in an easily accessible spot. Encourage the kit’s rotation among department members or place it in the middle of the conference table Thanks To: Marlene Caroselli of Center for Professional Development |
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5. Open & Active Communication!
How To Keep Employees Motivated: Keep employees in the loop. Gossip & rumors cause morale to plummet. Schedule meetings for employee/management interaction, to keep employees current on expense reduction initiatives, marketing & client service plans. Empower employees to participate in the success of your company. Create opportunities for employees to participate in the decision making process by listening to their ideas & strategies to solve business problems and/or create new programs. Thanks To: Dale Little of Business Strategist |
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6. Care To Connect
How To Keep Employees Motivated: Amid our uber-connected, high-tech, fast-paced world, we can often be so connected that we forget to care. “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” John Maxwell Silence your cellphone. Stop the IM-Tweet-Facebook-email onslaught. Turn off the computer. Spend 5 quality minutes, connecting with an employee. Ask great questions, then listen. REALLY listen. Don’t solve their problems, simply care. Thanks To: Camille Preston of AIM Leadership, LLC |
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7. Keep Your Employees Motivated
How To Keep Employees Motivated: Keep your employees informed with weekly communication updates discussing: the current situation with the company and Thanks To: Janet Boulter of Center Consulting Group |
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8. Hello & Smile
How To Keep Employees Motivated: A simple way to keep employees smiling is to acknowledge them. 1) Make sure to say hello and smile, most are guaranteed to smile back. 2) Say please and thank you often. 3) Create a recognition program: award premier parking or lunch with the boss. This helps to improve self worth as well as feelings of being valued. This also has a compounding effect that builds with each positive interaction. The better one feels about themselves, the happier they will be and morale will be improved. Thanks To: Chappale Linn Burton of Monday Smiles |
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9. Lunchtime Hockey Achieves Goal
How To Keep Employees Motivated: When employees suggested lunchtime street hockey, management at CityMax.com jumped on board. Armed with nets and extra sticks, we began challenging local companies to our parking lot skirmishes – complete with a goal judge, sirens, screaming fans, and tons of interested passersby. With 90% of the company playing or cheering, it’s turned into an exciting weekly challenge that our staff looks forward to. Our dream of becoming the healthiest and most fun workplace is happening, one goal at a time. Thanks To: Patrick Lok of CityMax.com |
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10. Creativity Keeps ‘em High
How To Keep Employees Motivated: Creatively deliver: 2. Learning contests w/prizes. Pick hot industry topics and get employees talking over lunch. Tap into podcasts and webinars on professional development topics. 3. Fun surprises: Karaoke break, lunchtime dance party, Friday off, etc… Thanks To: Kate Nasser of The People-Skills Coach |
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11. Celebrate Everything!
How To Keep Employees Motivated: My favorite way to motivate people is to find their “Love Language” and speak it to them. Read the book, it’s not just about romantic love. If you can determine an individuals love language, you can show your appreciation to them in a way that will resonate on a deeper level. Some will get up early and stay up late for recognition, some strive to earn a prize or award while others revel in a high five or pat on the back. Words of affirmation are constant in our world. We celebrate everything. Thanks To: Jill Koenig of GoalGuru.com |
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12. Dress Up Your Morale
How To Keep Employees Motivated: You don’t have to have a big budget to keep morale high. Dress-up days give co-workers a chance to go back in time to “Remember the 80s,” or get in the mood for a season. I’ve found these days not only add variety, but also keep the environment fresh, fun, and exciting. Co-workers never cease to find creative ways to illustrate their personalities or remember special events, making these days fun to see and be seen — just see the picture of the Michael Jackson Day! Thanks To: Lara Morrow of Beryl |
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13. Keep Your Employees At Home!
How To Keep Employees Motivated: Telecommuting improves work/family balance, manager/staff relations, job satisfaction, worker retention and productivity. It reduces stress, absenteeism and recruiting, office and parking costs! Its important for young staff: 51% of GenXers said they’d quit if another job offered them telecommuting; Employees offered jobs by competitors stay citing telework as a key factor. For on-site staff consider flextime. Its also green: Telecommuting will cut CO2 emissions by a half million tons by 2020. Thanks To: Jennifer Kaplan of Greening Your Small Business |
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14. Build Trust
How To Keep Employees Motivated: In a recent study, we confirmed what previous studies have shown—that it is important for managers to earn subordinates’ trust. More importantly, the research showed that employees shine when they feel trusted. We found that trust from both sides of the relationship is vital for managers who desire employees to perform well and extend pro-organizational behaviors beyond just doing their jobs. In fact, employees in trusting relationships are more likely to stay with their organizations. Thanks To: Dr. Holly Brower of Wake Forest University |
15. Wishlists
How To Keep Employees Motivated: Ask each employee for a list of 10 things that would improve their work environment or make them more productive with a cost of $100.00 per item or less (or set your own budget). If you have 10 employees you will have 100 ideas that are cheap and usually easy things to do. Implement as many as possible, then ask for a new list of 10 things. Do this at least monthly until they run out of ideas. Thanks To: Greg White of HealthStatus.com, Inc. |
Compiled by Mike Michalowicz, Author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur
September 24th, 2009
Some great ssuggestions – some could be grouped together under ‘being transparent’, a significant cause of demotivation is when staff are kept ‘in the dark’ over the direction of a company or a team, a common cause of dysfunction in teams I have worked with or taken over. I start by being really open and engaging in a two-way dialog over what can be improved.
I also suggest ‘walking a mile’, a technique I have used in every management/leadership role, involves stepping into an employees job every so often. Maybe once a month or quarter, spend a day on the phones with the support team, go on some client calls or become an IC on their project.
It’s a win/win – you can get clear insight into potential improvements, and it helps your credibility with staff, both of these contribute to positive motivation.
September 24th, 2009
Keep mindless meetings to a minimum. If it can be said in an email, do it. When meetings are necessary–keep it brief and to the point. Don’t take an hour to say 5 minutes worth of info. I bring this insight from my previous world of teaching. Nothing was worse than working all day and then the notorious meetings. Ick, grr, and yuck. Keep it short, sweet, and worthwhile.
September 25th, 2009
Sandy – as always thanks for participating!
- Mike
September 28th, 2009
Hey Matt – Yes some of these could definitely be grouped together.
THANK YOU for the tip. You are spot on. Once you walk a mile you have a new appreciation for them, and they have a new appreciation for you.
- Mike
September 30th, 2009
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