5 Ways to Motivate Your Employees
Keeping the employees motivated and loyal to the company is one of the most important tasks a manager can have. The employees are an important asset, and they need to be treated as such. That doesn’t mean that every company needs to have the funds for bonuses and large salaries, but there are other ways to motivate the workers.
The key to accomplishing this is to avoid blanket solutions and to approach each employee as an individual. That way their rewards and their relationship with the company at large will be suited to their unique circumstances.
Table of Contents
Public praise
It may seem trivial but public praise means a lot when it comes to office morale. Everyone wants to know that they are doing a good job and that their work is being appreciated. It’s even better if this is done so that everyone can see it and appreciate it.
In a small company, this can be done in person on a staff meeting and with everyone present. In larger companies, it might be a good idea if such praise was included in company-wide emails or newsletters.
Flexible schedules
A lot of the times, employees prefer small perks to large salaries and bonuses. The most important of these is a flexible schedule. Employees value their personal time more than any other asset and a flexible schedule might allow them to use more of it. At the same time, this will make their work more focused and more efficient.
Have in mind that this will require a bit of additional effort in terms of management and office organization. Once you do that, the system will become self-sustainable and in the end, even profitable, but it takes time to set up such schedules.
Gifts and perks
Small gifts and tokens of appreciations are often more valuable to the employees than the market value of the gift might indicate. These gifts are more like a way to show that you care about the employee and their work than a valuable item.
Since the gift itself is less important and the company has too many employees to be able to purchase meaningful gifts for everyone, it might be a good idea to provide the employees with gift cards instead. That way, the employees can exchange them for something they would appreciate and find valuable.
Mentorship programs
Learning on the job is one of the most important benefits employees are looking for. That way, they get to treat their job as just a stepping stone in their career. One of the ways of doing that is to provide a mentorship program. It will allow the employees to work alongside someone with more experience and skills and to learn from them.
It also means a lot to the employees who will serve as mentors. This can be a source of extra revenue for them but more importantly, it means that the business respects their experience and trusts them to help new employees.
Burnout and free time
Free time isn’t the same as the flexible schedules we have discussed. It’s something different because it’s actually created to help the employees set up a healthy life/work balance. Besides the ordinary vacation time and holidays, a company should provide additional free time to help the employees deal with burnout.
Burnouts tend to happen now and then regardless of the industry you work in and how organized your work is, and the company needs to be ready for it and have the managerial system that will handle these gaps in your workforce. The employees will appreciate this chance to get back on their feet.
Human resources managers need to make sure that their employees are motivated and that they appreciate the company and the options it provides. These efforts don’t have to be complicated or expensive, but they need to be tailor-made for your employees.
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