How to motivate your employees
If you are a manager and want to motivate your staff, there these are some simple steps to take to move towards making your employees feel empowered and motivated at work.
- Make sure your employees are recognised and you pay attention to them. Recognise what they have done especially if they have done it well. This will help to raise their confidence in their ability and perform better.
- Make a fuss about good work by giving them a reward and letting others in the office know about their success. This will make them feel like they have done a great job.
- Training makes employees feel worthy and that they mean something to you as a boss and the company. It also helps them to develop their skills and abilities and perform their job better. Training is on-going and invaluable.
- Make the office and area where you work look nice and feel nice. Put pictures and targets on the wall, have plants on the tables, allow comfortable chairs etc It is amazing how this can make employees feel motivated and happy at work.
- Allow people to lead or manage projects or tasks from time to time. This makes people feel important and stimulated.
- Organise social events for the team. It allows people to get to know each other on a personal level and when you get to know people better it forms better working relationships.
- Dress down days boost morale on the actual day and can boost performance.
- Give members of staff additional responsibility every now and then. It makes them feel like they can perform their everyday task and more and can empower them.
- Allow your staff to take the breaks legally required and have a decent amount of time off work to relax. If certain goals are reached then allow them to leave early or extend lunch periods as a short term perk.
- Jokes and fun are important and can make the office a more enjoyable place. Maybe give your staff funny items as a gift if they do a particularly good job. Creating a vibrant and fun atmosphere can motivate people and increase their performance levels.
- On occasional days buy cakes or pizzas for your staff as this is just a small thing to help everyone stay motivated.
- Provide a solid career path that the employees are aware of and understand. Make sure they know what levels they can work towards and how they can get there. It creates aims and objectives and motivates them if they know there is something to achieve.
- Provide goals and objectives with incentives. This is so important so people know what they are doing and what they have to do. It allows them to measure their abilities carefully and once certain levels are achieved it can be extremely motivating.
- One to Ones. Make sure you meet regularly with each of your employees to provide them with feedback on their performance. People need feedback in order to improve and this can help to motivate individuals to achieve new targets set in each meeting.
- Competitions create a buzz and atmosphere between staff. It motivates them to make sure they achieve their targets and compete against their colleagues. This is a great way to motivate and increase performance levels.
