Articles and Research

Source: Careerbuilder.com

Are your employees performing at an above average level? Or, do you sometimes feel like they are working too slowly? What about quality, does your staff strive for excellence, or are they satisfied with mediocrity? Applying a few simple employee motivation techniques can make a huge difference in your team’s level of performance.

The job of a manager in the workplace is to get things done. But the manager can’t do it alone. He or she requires employee contribution in order to carry out a company’s objectives. For the manager to be successful, he or she must be able to motivate employees both intrinsically and extrinsically.

That being said, how well do you motivate your employees? Do they come into work each day ready to go to work, or do they seem to move in slow-motion from time-to-time? Having a team of motivated and hard-working employees working for you is critical for the success of your company. But if your employees become unmotivated, they and your company become less productive.

Below are five tricks to lighting a fire under an employee who lost his or her motivation, or simply maintain the flame in the overachieving employees on staff.

1. Point Employees in the Right Direction

Your employees want to advance their career just as you did. Working to help them establish a plan focused on growing their career should create the motivation they need to remain productive. Providing them with something to work towards will keep them engaged in their day-to-day activities.

2. Communicate the Impact

Employees who feel passionately about the purpose of their job are much more likely to perform at an above average level. It is a manager’s job to bring the purpose of his/her employees’ jobs to life.

Make it Real: I started at CareerBuilder.com in 2002 as a web developer. In the first few months of my employment, I thought that my job was to build attractive and functional web pages. In the fall of that year, I coded an error into the website that broke job searching for about an hour. In that hour, over 42,000 people attempted to search for jobs and were unable. At that moment I was humbled and my eyes were opened to see the true impact of my job. The work that I was doing impacted hundreds of thousands of people every day. These men and women were searching for jobs to make life more satisfying, to feed their families, to pay their bills, and to have their own impact on society.

Find the real impact of your job and the jobs of every person in your team. Communicate the impact and bring it to life.

3. Acknowledge Achievement

Praise is always good for motivating your employees. Whether for something big or something small, your employees want to be acknowledged for all of the good things they do. This is perhaps the easiest method of employee motivation, so take advantage of that and be generous with your compliments.

4. Monitor Performance

It is important for your employees to know that you sincerely care about the work they are doing. Be careful to not micro-manage, but ask questions and try to find ways that your employees can improve. When you find improvement opportunities, communicate carefully to ensure that your employee feels supported and encouraged rather than corrected.

5. Establish Incentives

Encourage your employees to perform well. You can do this by offering small rewards like movie tickets or gift certificates to a well-renowned restaurant, or you can give larger rewards like performance based employee bonuses. Some companies recognize an “Employee of the Month”, which can also go a long way towards motivating your employees to produce more for your company.

6. Get Out from Behind Your Desk

Your employees should see you mingling around the office at least a few times each day. Maybe first thing in the morning to check on how every one is doing, or in the afternoon, when your employees seem to hit that three o’clock slump. Be sincere and let them know you are on the same level, working towards the same goals. A manager who is well known by his or her staff is usually well respected.

7. Get Personal

Give your employees a little insight into your personal life and show some interest in theirs. If your employees have children, know their names and ask about them by name occasionally. If an employee is going through a difficult situation personally, be encouraging, understanding, and flexible while remaining focused on company objectives. A manager should not be an employee’s best friend, but should be vested in his/her employees to the point that he/she cares passionately about each employee’s personal growth and success.

8. Encourage Fun

Every one appreciates a manager with a good sense of humor. This does not mean you have to put on a song and dance, or rehearse your stand up routine. It just means know how and when to laugh. Those companies who learn to work hard and play hard are often more productive than the ones which never let their employees come out to play.

Applying these eight tips is an excellent path towards motivating your employees. The result will not only establish a good working relationship with your staff, but boost you company’s productivity as a whole. Just remember, as a manager, it is up to you to motivate your employees or risk the chance of failure. That should be all the motivation you need.