Your business wouldn’t be anywhere without its employees, but how do you ensure they stay motivated?
For your company to continue going from strength to strength it’s important to motivate and maintain enthusiasm amongst your staff.
What do workers want?
Taking the time to understand your employees can make all the difference when it comes to improving motivation. According to The Indeed Flex 2021 Major HR Trends Report the top priority for workers are shift patterns. By offering more flexibility for when they can work, you’ll end up with a happier workforce. Below are 6 more ways to encourage and motivate your team that will not only benefit them but your business too.
1. Share your brand vision
Having a clear vision statement for your business that explains what, as a company, you’re hoping to achieve, helps employees stay dedicated to making that vision a reality. In order to achieve the end goal, team members need to align with their company’s values and mission. Gallup’s 2016 report, How Millennials Want to Work and Live, found that only 40% of millennial employees surveyed felt strongly connected to their company’s mission. Without a clear objective, employees can become disengaged and lack direction.
You can motivate your team to achieve the vision of the company by tying it to the team and individual goals. The objective of any company should be linked to achievable goals for employees and everyone within the business should be feeding into the brand to help push it towards its goals.
2. Make your team feel appreciated
Everyone likes to feel appreciated, regardless of whether it’s at work or at home. Recognising and appreciating the worth of your employees shows that they are valued and the work they do really does matter and makes a difference. A recent study found that 79% of people who quit their jobs cite a ‘lack of appreciation as their reason for leaving. This goes to show that under-appreciation can make people feel less motivated at work. You can show your appreciation by giving team members feedback on their performance. This could simply be letting them know that they did a good job today or saying thank you for helping with that difficult customer. Why not go a step further and share employee success in staff meetings. A pat on the back and appreciation can go a long way in motivating your team.
3. Listen and be open to new ideas
Encouraging your team members to input their ideas and being open to their suggestions on how to improve things can go a long way in motivating them. Not only in their everyday tasks but also in implementing changes that will better your business.
According to Weekdone.com, 39% of employees don’t feel that their input is appreciated. Can you imagine how much more motivated your staff would be if they felt that you valued their input? You never know they could even have some great ideas on how to resolve company pain points. Why not set up a suggestion box that you go through as a team on a monthly basis. Or if something doesn’t quite go to plan, ask your team what they think could be done differently next time. By asking questions, listening to their answers and when possible implementing their solutions, you’ll find that your employees are much happier and more motivated.
4. Encourage and support progression
By encouraging employee career progression you’re also helping your business grow. By setting staff members challenging tasks and goals to complete, you are motivating them to strive towards success not only for themselves but for your business too. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), reported that a third of UK workers are unhappy with their career progression. If there is no next step or reward for hard work then it becomes clear to see why workers lose motivation.
According to Gallup, 50% of employees would quit their job if development opportunities aren’t provided. Set your team personal development goals and be clear as to how they can achieve them. You’ll be amazed at what they can achieve when motivated with support and encouragement.
5. Don’t punish failure
This is kind of a biggie – don’t punish your team’s failures. Of course, there is a limit but innocent mistakes shouldn’t require harsh punishments. Doing so can instil fear in your team and is a sure-fire way of discouraging them from going the extra mile. When mistakes are made, your employees need to know that they can come to you. If they are too anxious to tell you about a mistake because they don’t want to get in trouble then they’re more likely to keep making the same mistakes, which will eventually affect your business. By examining the mistake with the employee and discussing where it went wrong, what they should have done and how it can be prevented in the future, they are not only more likely to appreciate and respect you as a manager but will be motivated to keep trying.
6. Hire go-getters
When you hire those team members that are naturally quite positive and enthusiastic people, you’d be amazed at the impact they can have on the rest of your staff. The go-getter can-do attitude sets a good example to more junior staff members and can encourage them to take on more responsibility and leadership based roles. When you’re not there you need to know that someone is behind the wheel, steering everyone in the right direction. Finding these employees can sometimes feel like finding a needle in a haystack.
By hiring a professional, trained and enthusiastic Indeed Flex member, the rest of your team will be motivated to thrive to the same standards of performance and excellence. Having an Indeed Flex staff member as part of your team also sets an example to your other employers as to where the bar is set, encouraging them to work just as passionately.
