Employee Motivation – Where Do You Begin?
When your business is looking to recruit new and talented team members, or even if you’re looking to retain the workforce you currently have, it’s important to deliver on these three crucial aspects to increase and maintain the satisfaction of the team you employ.
Where do you begin?
Perks of the Job
Whilst this does focus on salary, there are other benefits which employees will be looking for. You should be offering the minimum average industry salary or ideally above the average market rate, which you’ll be aware of.
What other benefits can you add that will make your company a better place to work? The big attractions would be healthcare, a decent pension and holidays. However, the little things still count. Don’t underestimate the positive impact of smaller perks such as free parking, days out, free fruit in the office or decent coffee!
Finding Time to Flourish
This is all about your culture and the environment you are creating to allow your team to flourish and also deliver maximum value for your customers. Daniel Pink in his book DRIVE talks about allowing everyone wanting Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose. You should read that book if you want to know how to get the best out of people.
Looking after people well includes being genuinely interested in your people. Taking time to get to know them and not always just talking about work, what are their hobbies and personal goals?
Help them achieve the things they want outside of work and you’ll get the best out of them. They will give it back to you and tell the world what a great business you have, which is great for attracting both future employees and new clients.
Please and Thank You
Such a simple one but there is a lot to be said for recognition! Give your team something to aim for and somewhere to go next. This could be in the form of targets and KPIs or goals or a combination.
When I joined a bank in my first proper job they had a great system where you would join as a trainee and when you had achieved 6 months targets you would get a small pay rise, access to a better bonus, and have your trainee title removed.
The next step was to aim for Senior status, and then Executive. To get to be Executive took 3 years and it helped keep the team motivated to always be striving for more. The system worked great for sales teams, but the same system can be adapted for any role in a business.
If you’ve got a bad apple, get rid of them, no matter how much they are contributing. If you’ve got a good egg, keep them happy and motivated. Talk to them a lot and coach them, encouraging them come up with their own suggestions and solutions to challenges.
What employee motivation strategies or incentives have you found work well for you or your team? We’d love to hear what you believe helps keep your team happy.