How to Motivate Your Employees and Get the Most Out of Them
Your employees are the core of your business and can make or break its success. And as an employer, your job is to make sure you’re doing everything you can to motivate them and give them the resources they need to be successful. But how can you do that? Here are some tips on how to motivate your employees and get the most out of them.
When it comes to knowing what drives you, you should think about what motivates you professionally. Ask yourself why you go to work every day. Is it money? Is it recognition? These answers will help figure out which type of motivation works best for your company. For example, if you’re in a start-up or a small business where money is tight, then offering monetary incentives might not be an option. If that’s the case, find other ways to reward employees who are performing well—whether that means giving them extra time off or letting them take on more responsibilities. If you’re working with a larger team or in a more established business where there are plenty of resources available, try offering bonuses or commission-based pay instead. Whatever way you choose to motivate your employees and get the most out of them, make sure everyone knows exactly how they can earn those rewards so there aren’t any misunderstandings down the road.
To motivate your employees, you need to make sure that everyone is working toward your organization's top priorities. You do so by clearly defining your organization's mission and vision. If you can't clearly state why your business exists, it will be tough for people on all levels (employees, managers, etc.) to figure out what motivates them or what they should be doing. To get started with defining your organization's vision and mission, check out these resources: Write a Business Plan from Small Business Administration; Create a Vision Statement from Entrepreneur Magazine; Creating an Effective Mission Statement from Entrepreneur Magazine; Define Your Company Culture from Entrepreneur Magazine.
The mission statement can be as simple or complex as you want it to be. It could boil down your organization's reason for being into one sentence, or it could encompass a complex set of values that provide a guide for everything your organization does—or at least tries to do. In any case, having a mission statement is an important part of motivating your employees because it lets them know why they are putting in their time and effort; they are working toward something larger than themselves. For example, if they don't feel like they're serving a larger purpose, an employee might start asking why she should bother coming to work each day.
Let’s face it. Work is not fun, at least not all day every day. So you need an environment that helps motivate your employees and get them excited about their jobs. Try encouraging a sense of shared ownership so they feel invested in your company’s success. You can also try making a point to thank your employees for their hard work on a regular basis, as well as expressing gratitude for things they do that are above and beyond expectations. If you want to motivate your employees and get the most out of them, be sure to create an empowering environment.
While these goals will vary from employee to employee, they typically center around opportunities like taking on new responsibilities or being promoted within your company. For other workers, these incentives might include more flexible schedules or workplace perks like food options and gym access during normal business hours. Still, others might simply want extra time off or some sort of increased compensation package if they perform well during a certain period of time (such as six months). Whatever type of reward motivates your employees and gets them excited about their jobs is fine by you. Just make sure you offer something meaningful that people will actually appreciate! Also remember: no one likes to wait around forever for something good to happen—like getting promoted—so be consistent with how often you reward great performance and watch how motivated your employees become!
It’s much easier to get your employees working at maximum efficiency if you start by clearly defining goals. For example, if you have an employee who is in charge of organizing all phone messages each morning, make sure she knows exactly what it is that you expect her to do—or, more specifically, what success looks like. At a broad level, tell her how many messages she should be responsible for handling each day or week (to get a sense of how much work she has on her plate). Then be sure she knows what it means when a message is marked as urgent or has a specific priority assigned; without these guidelines, an important message might slip through while one with less importance gets prioritized.
A big part of keeping your employees motivated is creating an incentive structure that works for you. Think about which incentives are most important to you as a boss, what kinds of things motivate you, and how much you're willing to spend on incentives, and then create a plan based on those factors. Are cash bonuses important? Food prices? A more flexible schedule? Some combination? To figure out which incentive structure works best for your team, it's a good idea to get everyone involved in helping create it; studies show that people who help design their own work environment are happier and more productive at work.
It’s really important for leaders and managers to develop relationships based on trust, not fear. If you have someone in your employ that does a great job, make sure you praise them! Whenever someone does something exceptional, let them know that you noticed it. Once they realize that they are valued by their boss, they will start working harder because they want to prove themselves even more. Management should also be transparent with their employees—that is, if they change something or do something new at work let them know why. Tell your team what their purpose is so they can buy into it and get motivated. A big part of management is motivating other people—it doesn’t matter if it’s a family member or an employee; everyone needs motivation.
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