The Most Unique Ways To Keep Employees Motivated

Want to keep you employees motivated?  Here is the stuff you already know: Pay them well.  Give them praise.  Challenge them.  Reward progress. Bla. Bla. Bla.

 I am not suggesting that stuff doesn’t work.  It surely does.  The thing is, any good entrepreneur will follow that advice.  But, I don’t want you to be a good entrepreneur who simply follows, I want you to be a great entrepreneur who leads!  When it comes to motivating entrepreneurs, here is a method I have used that blows peoples minds and turns motivation into a level of undying loyalty that is rarely experienced.

 First, I do all the above stuff. It is important and it is habitual, but then I turn it up.  The trick is in recognizing the employee’s spouse.  Yep!  The better half.  They have tons of influence over your employee’s motivation. 

 Could you imagine every morning, your employee heads to work, while the spouse barks out “How much longer are you going to work for that jerk?”  What do you think that does for motivation?  Exactly, it destroys it.

 But now imagine every morning your employee hearing “I can’t believe how lucky you are to being working at that company! Have another great day!!!” as they rolled out of the driveway.  That surely motivates employees and gets them jazzed up about your company.

 So start rewarding the spouse, for God’s sake.  Send them a card on their birthday. Send a gift on their anniversary.  Or how about this one… send them a $100 “bonus” with a note saying how much you appreciate their support for their spouse.   That will blow their minds. And the motivation you see from your employee will blow yours!

By Mike Michalowicz, Author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur

Category: Managing Focus, Skill Toolbox, The Right Actions
Tags: , , , , , .

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  • http://www.embercarriers.com Mary Hladio

    That is a unique way to increase employee motivation! Another one I like is… Make coming to work fun and nurturing. Have a costume party at Halloween. Run a food collection drive. Pick a monthly charity to help. Three years ago a small team at a medical device company once adopted a rural school in the foothills of Kentucky. They collect monies and donations for art supplies, sporting equipment and books for the library. To this day, people still talk about the school and many on their own send supplies and equipment each year.

    • http://www.ToiletPaperEntrepreneur.com Mike Michalowicz

      @Mary – Thanks for that tip! Party time….

  • http://www.winningworkplaces.org Mark

    That’s certainly an innovative tip, Mike, thanks. But what do you suggest as the best tip for employees without spouses? And do you suggest doing what you wrote for significant others who are NOT spouses?

    A related question: It seems employees are good at knowing which benefits go to a certain group of staff if it’s not them (eg, childcare assistance to those w/ children). It seems like even if a CEO does your tip, through word of mouth employees w/out spouses could learn about that and be jealous (even if they’re only jealous of a greeting card…it’s the gesture that counts). What do you suggset a CEO do if they hear their staff w/out spouses are grumbling about not getting anything extra? Or do you think this is not a concern?

    • http://www.ToiletPaperEntrepreneur.com Mike Michalowicz

      @Mark – Significant other, can just be the most significant person in that employees life. So if they are not married it could be a girlfriend or boyfriend. If they are not dating it could be a best friend. Or perhaps even a parent. But the goal here is to have the person leaving the home, motivated to come to work…. so if the person does not live with their significant other, I would consider a bonus for that employee that is something they will likely keep at home and see often.

      For example I had an employee who was a 21 y.o. male and his big time leisure activity was video games. His bonus was a brandnew X-Box and a few of the hard to get video games. He went ape crazy over it… AND…. he told all of his friends. And they wanted to come work for us after they heard what we did. So I think that is another form of motivation.

      In regards to others…. yes the word will spread. But remember this is a bonus for work well done, not a cross the company bonus. So it should be to done when the employee goes above and beyond.

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