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So, you’ve hired some stellar people. Now you need to make sure they stick around. While, of course, money and benefits are important, a study found that they don’t top the list of motivating factors. Instead, some of the most important factors tended to be peer motivation (20%), and feeling encouraged and recognised (13%).
Below are some key tactics to keep your employees motivated and enticing them to stay with you for the long haul:
Top 10 ways to motivate your employees:
1. Make your business a pleasant place to be.No one wants to stand around in a dingy, boring space for hours on end. Having an aesthetically pleasing, well-lit, functional and fun space makes work a lot more pleasant. The first step is to make sure things are well-kept and that you have updated, working equipment. This means switching out that Cold War–era back office computer, your glacial-paced point-of-sale system with something much more up to date. It also means keeping things clean and nice looking. Sprucing up your space doesn’t have to be expensive.
Try featuring local artists or picking up interesting furniture pieces at charity shop. All these little touches will make things a lot more enjoyable for your employees (and by proxy, your customers).
2. Be a respectful, honest and supportive manager.This may seem like a no-brainer, but bad management is one of the top reasons employees run for the hills. Things like respect, honesty, support and clear communication are the foundations here. But there’s a lot more you can do to be a great leader and mentor. If you’re new to this whole management thing, it’s worth reading some books on the subject — effective management, like any other skill, takes knowledge and practice. As a starting point, check out Amazon’s best-sellers on management, or check out the employee management section of Square’s blog.
The long and short of it: if you’re a good person to work for, your employees will be more loyal.
3. Offer employee rewards.People will stay with your business if they have a reason to. So, if you want to keep your good people and keep them motivated, it’s worth starting an incentive program. Maybe it’s a quarterly bonus. Maybe it’s private healthcare. Maybe it’s offering to foot the bill for additional credentials. Or maybe it’s even profit-sharing in your company. If people know they’ll be rewarded for a job well done, they’ll be 1) more likely to do a good job, and 2) stay to see things through.
4. Give them room to grow.Especially if your business is rapidly expanding, giving your employees room to grow within the company is a huge motivator. There’s the dangling carrot of more money, yes, but there’s also the psychological factor of feeling like they’re trusted and respected for their work. If you’re opening a second location, think about which of your employees might be a good fit for a management role there. If there’s someone who’s doing a particularly good job with inventory, consider grooming that person to take over vendor relations completely. When you give your best employees growth opportunities, it shifts their thinking from “this is just a side job” to “this could be a full-fledged career.”
It’s great to feel fulfilled by your work. In fact, it’s one of the key job satisfaction factors. Satisfaction in your work can come from a variety of places — from knowing you made the perfect cup of coffee to saving the day of a mother by giving their child a haircut that doesn’t end in tears. And if your customers express appreciation for these things, be sure to share that feedback with your employees. This is especially easy to do with Square Feedback. Many Square sellers make it a point to share all the positive, encouraging feedback with their employees during weekly meetings. Letting your employees know they made someone’s day (or more) makes them feel good — and gives them a deeper connection to your business.
6. Be transparent.Having insight into how business is going makes your employees more invested. So make a point to share this data with them on a regular basis. Luckily, Square makes this easy. You can send out daily, weekly or monthly sales reports — or even information about how many of your customers are new versus returning. Having access to all this data not only makes your employees feel like they’re an important part of the business, it also helps point out areas where things could be improved.
7. Offer flexible scheduling.Technology has changed the way businesses operate, and it has also changed the way we work–or the way we can work. If employees are able (and expected) to check work emails on their phones or finish projects on their laptops at home, it’s reasonable for them to want a similar flexibility from their employers when it comes to scheduling. And they do. In a Forbes study, 46% of respondents said that flexibility is the most important factor when it comes to job searching. And employers are paying attention: 86% of companies on Forbes 2014 “Best Companies to Work For” offered some type of flexible schedule. So, whether it’s a work-from-home opportunity or flexi time, offer various scheduling options if you want to be viewed as a progressive employer and attract top talent.
8. Offer food in the workplace.Are good snacks the key to employee retention? Maybe. After all, nobody works well when they’re hungry. It seems so simple, but sometimes all you have to do to make people happy is to feed them. Obviously, it’s not that simple–employees also have to be reasonably satisfied with their jobs. Yet food does make an undeniable difference. In fact, a survey by Seamless found that 57% of employees say food-based perks would make them feel more valued and appreciated. It makes sense: When your employer pays attention to your physical needs, you get the impression that they care about you as a person–not just what you can do for the company. In the same survey, 38% said food perks would make them more likely to endorse their employer in a “best places to work for” survey, so not only will decent snacks help you keep your employees, it can also help you attract great new talent.
9. Recognise their achievements.Sometimes all people want is some recognition for a job well done. If an employee has been putting in a lot of time working on a project, or they went out of their way to help out a colleague, do not hesitate to praise them. It’s not just about the act of recognition, but the principle: If people feel that their efforts are appreciated, they will feel compelled to continue working hard. Employees whose achievements were recognised also have reported that they experience higher levels of enjoyment out of the work they do. But if they feel like their long hours and personal sacrifices were for naught, it’s unlikely that they will go out of their way for the company again. So, whether it’s noting their contributions in a meeting, recognising them in a staff email or just thanking them privately, it’s imperative that you show hardworking employees your gratitude.
Having great employees who’ve been at your company for a while is a huge plus. Keeping employees motivated, especially during tough times is an important part of your business’ success. Long-time employees know the ins and outs of things, and they also make running your business a lot more enjoyable.
10. Ask them what they want.Instead of trying guess what’s most important to them, actually sit down with them and find out what they value. Doing the unexpected might be the best thing you can do for your employees, and your company.
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As a manager, how often do you witness a new employee start working for you, all excited and ready to take on the world, and their motivation gradually but steadily declines over time?
What Causes Lack Of Motivation In Employees?
It is your obligation as a workplace leader to listen to your staff’s needs. Your employees must feel heard and respected if you want a highly devoted team.
According to data published in a Harvard Management Update column, employee morale drops substantially after six months on the job in around 85 percent of organizations and continues to degrade for years afterward.
There are a few elements to examine if you’re wondering why your staff isn’t motivated. In certain circumstances, their workload may differ from that of other team members.
They may not feel appreciated for their efforts, they may be experiencing personal difficulties, or they may simply believe that their employer or manager favors others over them.
Any of these factors might lead an employee to lose motivation and stop working as hard as they once did.
How Do You Destroy Employee Motivation?
When it comes to employee management, managing a team is not easy. However, destroying your team’s motivation is relatively simple if you are not careful with what you say or do.
Here are some common things that could instantly turn off your employee motivation:
- Doing favoritism among your team members, no matter the reason
- Comparing the performance of your subordinates
- Playing blame games and getting involved in arguments
- Not sharing clear expectations and plans with your team
What Can Employers Do To Motivate Employees?
Keeping your employees highly motivated at all times seems impossible to many companies.
The conventional motivation strategies are no longer effective in the ongoing changes in the global environment due to technological saturation and Covid 19.
Moreover, even though these mainstream motivation strategies may not be optimal for modern companies, the motivation determinants are still productive.
For a better understanding, take a look at these prime factors of employee motivation:
● Employee Rewards
Many managers and HR staff have witnessed the situation we described above. However, this issue can easily be solved by being proactive.
Offering employee rewards is one way to do so. By offering rewards to your staff, you show that you value them continuously.
In addition, you also stimulate them to do their utmost best at work. Therefore, find out what kind of rewards interest your employees and start offering them regularly.
In addition, allow employees to rate and reward their team members and colleagues as well.
● Employee Engagement
Did you know that, according to a Dale Carnegie study, companies that have engaged employees perform 202% better than those with disengaged staff?
If your employees are disengaged, this may lead to lower productivity, higher employee turnover, more mistakes, days off work, and frustration.
Therefore, increasing your employees’ engagement levels can single-handedly increase productivity and morale.
If you wonder how to increase employee engagement, consider this: the biggest driver of engagement is when your and your employee’s values align.
This leads to what researchers describe as “a true sense of connection, a common purpose and a shared sense of meaning at work.”
● Employee Satisfaction
Once you have considered employee rewards and engagement, the final step is to ensure their satisfaction levels are high.
After all, your employees are the face of your company, and if they are dissatisfied with their work, your end customer will always sense it.
And nobody wants to buy from a company which doesn’t treat its employees right!
So, consider asking your employees how satisfied they are with their jobs and what they would improve.
You would be surprised by the number of insights you can gain by simply asking for feedback.
Sometimes it can be challenging for a manager to understand their employees’ struggles, especially if the employees never voice them out loud.
Therefore, asking your employees for feedback and working together with them to improve their satisfaction levels can make the difference between a successful company and a mediocre one!
3 Replacements Of Conventional Motivation Strategies
Since the factors mentioned above are highly crucial to main the motivation levels in your staff, you need to look for innovative solutions that could deliver you such outcomes.
Nevertheless, if we talk about what will rule the motivation industry in 2022 and beyond, the following strategies can be a great replacement.
1. Benefits & Engagement Managers
Employee engagement and reward management may seem like a job that HR alone can handle. However, that’s the opposite of the truth.
The same way an Administration Executive is not supposed to handle the tasks of an Accounts Manager, HR cannot fill in the position of a Benefits and Engagement Manager.
An employee benefits and engagement manager is intended to make your job as a business owner much more straightforward.
The benefits and engagement manager will monitor and manage all areas of employee rewards and engagement and assess what adjustments can be done to increase employee motivation within the firm based on the various activities and data channels.
They will develop a well-thought-out plan that will boost employee motivation, productivity, and quality of work.
2. Peer-To-Peer Feedback
Peer-to-peer feedback can be a beneficial complement to a company’s performance management strategy.
Individual employee performance, growth, and retention may suffer as a result of limiting feedback to only the managers and supervisors.
Because they are still early in their professions, young professionals constantly seek feedback.
Typically, businesses simply give feedback training to managers, missing out on opportunities for cross-discipline or organization-wide input in a range of situations.
Everyone in the company should know how to request and deliver peer-to-peer feedback for it to be effective.
3. Exclusive Recognition & Rewards Platforms
Employee recognition and rewards platforms are the technology that enables you to manage abstract human sentiments like employee happiness and relationships with the same purpose and efficiencies as tracking project deadlines and sales targets.
In the hands of wise peers and managers, employee recognition and rewards tools may improve your corporate culture.
Fortunately, there are several alternatives for employee recognition and reward software. However, only a few ones like BRAVO! offer their clients a perfect blend of employee motivation stimulators.
Bluntly saying, if you successfully implement BRAVO! in your teams, you won’t even need to use the other two replacement strategies shared above.
That is so because BRAVO! provides a versatile digital atmosphere where businesses can centrally manage employee engagement, peer-to-peer feedback, and rewards.
Thus, eliminating the need to spend exclusively on each motivation strategy.
And the best part is that everything on BRAVO! can be managed remotely. So, you don’t really have to worry about the spread of Covid 19 as well.
Conclusion
In the end, we can only say that as long as there are people working for businesses, employee motivation will always be crucial.
Companies and their managers need to leave the conventional motivation strategies and move on to newer means like BRAVO!
Besides, employee engagement, rewards, and satisfaction will be the yardsticks for the success of any motivation plan.