Improve Employee Motivation

The workplace is changing as more and more companies begin to offer job sharing and teleworking to their staff as part of smart business strategies and as motivators.  Now, workers everywhere, have more freedom to act in the best interests of the company. To ensure themselves of high quality recruits, companies turn to psychometric testing to assess employee abilities as well as personalities. 

The incentive for keeping workers motivated, happy and productive is never going to change; how it is achieved, has.  When it comes to assessing the needs, frustrations and successes, Likert Scales, psychometric scales that give employers understanding into what motivates employees is one of the tools used to find those answers and make those important connections.  Managers need to connect with staff through increased communication, emphasizing teamwork and creating an innovative reward and recognition program.

Improving Employee Motivation by Increasing Communication

Use every type of communicating technology available to recognize and better communicate with staff.  Implement scheduled face to face meetings with all staff members and let the employee set the agenda. Nothing is better than one-on-one meetings to ask how things are going and to address their questions or concerns.  Simply making time available and acting to quickly resolve any concerns is a form of recognition.

Managers can’t forget to recognize their virtual workers.  Recognize the virtual employee via Skype or video conferencing. Send a client over to congratulate an employee for a job well-done. Reorganize office times to be present when the employee is in the office.  Positive communication is a cornerstone to recognizing employees.  Taking initiatives to find ways to communicate often to build relationships is key to making the right connection with today’s worker.    

Improving Employee Motivation by Emphasizing Teamwork

Successful adaptation means coming together as a group. Emphasizing team dynamic works to alleviate feelings of isolation by staff.  Arranging quarterly meetings, retreats and luncheons are good ways to bring a team together. 

During these team meetings make sure to recognize individuals as well as the whole team.  Find ways of complimenting employees for small tasks that led to project completion.  Recognize employees that take on and complete long and arduous, time consuming tasks.  Remember to recognize employees that have had birthdays or special events since the last meeting.

Improving Employee Motivation by Creating a Reward and Recognition Program 

Ninety percent of companies maintain some type of reward and recognition program.  When designed and implemented properly, reward and recognition programs have the potential to produce positive return on investment (ROI). A well-publicized reward and recognition program that reinforces an organization’s goals and values proves to be a most cost-effective and valuable tool. 

A reward and recognition program is developed to benefit employees so it is only natural that employees be given a say into its structure.  Economically, employees are coming up with neat ideas on how to motivate themselves: movie passes, 10 minute chair massages, dinner or theater gift cards are ideas for on-the-spot recognitions.  Move away from giving out cash gifts as they have been found to be impersonal, send the wrong message and are hard to maintain in a down economy.