Motivational Tools to Engage Every Employee on Your Team

Skilled managers and team leaders know that when motivating employees one size does not fit all. Every person on your team is moved by some combination of internal and external motivators. What works for one employee might actually have the opposite effect for another employee. Your motivational tool kit needs to be revisited and refreshed regularly if you want to keep every individual engaged.

External Motivators

Motivational

Think of extrinsic or external motivators as those incentives outside of the employee. In organizations, these motivators could include compensation and benefits, reward and incentive programs, and company or department goals. If an individual has family responsibilities, then, perhaps their economic needs motivate them. Physical security needs are also considered to be external motivators. How much control do you, as a team leader, have over these external factors? If you're thinking "very little" then you are right on target.

Motivational Tools to Engage Every Employee on Your Team

Internal Motivators

On the other hand, intrinsic or internal motivators include less tangible factors as personality and work ethic. Attitudes about authority, personal goals, and even the level of self-esteem that an employee exhibits are all an "inside job". Each employee's psychological needs drive their behaviors and choices. If you're thinking "I don't have much control over those internal factors either" then you may be missing an opportunity to motivate your team. In truth, you are able to influence individual performance by attending to each person's intrinsic motivators. You help to create the conditions through which each team member satisfies their internal drives.

Typical Motivators

In the NetSpeed Leadership training session, Coaching Smart People, we conduct an exercise in which participants identify their main motivators. Here is the list of motivators from which participants select their biggest driver (you can have your team do this exercise as well):

Now, imagine for a moment that an individual on your team selects the motivator get appreciated. If you were to ask "How do you know when you're appreciated," you might hear him say, "I like working in an environment where people sincerely thank each other. I don't have to be told every day that I'm appreciated but I do like to feel like what I'm doing contributes to the success of the team. If I work hard on a project, I want my boss to acknowledge that hard work, even if she needs to delay the project or have me change some of the results. I would rather get that feedback one-to-one than in a big group. I feel better having a personal conversation with my team leader about my value to the team. If she does it in front of the big group, I actually get pretty embarrassed and it's not a pleasant experience."

If one of your team members selects the motivator get connected to others, you might ask her, "What does it mean to be connected to others?" She might hear her say, "To me, it's the personal relationships that make work satisfying. I always say 'the more the merrier' when there's a chance to get something done--let's just roll up our sleeves and get it done together. I love to work with other people on important goals. I love the give-and-take and the sense that we're all in this together. I would hate sitting at my desk alone all day without that human interaction. It just fires me up and makes me want to run into work everyday."

Perhaps one of your team members selects the motivator get recognized and rewarded. You might ask, "How do you like to be recognized or rewarded?" and he might respond, "I'm constantly tracking how I'm doing against my own goals and, frankly, against others. I guess you could say that I'm a little bit competitive. But, hey, life and work are a game to me. If you throw me into a contest to see who can make the most sales calls in 24 hours, I'm hooked. When I make the highest number of calls, I want my boss to put my name out there as the guy who topped the list. I like that kind of public recognition. If you just take me into your office and say, 'good job' I feel miffed. If I did such a great job, why aren't you telling everybody?"

To give one last example, imagine that someone on your team selects get educated. You might ask her, "What does it mean to you to get educated?" And she might answer, "I guess you could say that I'm a life-long learner. I have a couple of college degrees and I hope to get started on my Ph.D in a few years. I read constantly. If you want to make me feel good, send me to a really good training class, or give me your favorite business book. In fact I can't wait to go home and dig in to the latest research on the process improvement tools we've started to use here. I guess I like to be the expert on the team."

These are just four examples of the way individuals might describe their main motivators. And their descriptions should give you some ideas about how to motivate them.

Get Appreciated

Ensure that you end every one-to-one meeting with a positive affirmation of his worth to you and the team. Send a simple email or write a thank-you note. Consider posting a stick note on his computer that he sees when he arrives at his desk first thing in the morning. Be specific, sincere, and generous in your praise. You might want to take him out for coffee or lunch and have a private conversation about how things are going and what you can do to support him on his current projects.

Get Connected to Others

It's all about the relationships. First, pay attention to your relationship to her. Clean up any miscommunication or confusion that may be preventing you from spending time with her. Tell her how much you value the fact that she is a team player. Keep her in the loop about goals, objectives, obstacles, and challenges. When ever you give her a task, ask her who she'd like to work with to get it done. Invite her to drop in to talk through problems or issues when needed. Introduce her to possible mentors and other champions. Praise her for the quality of her relationships with customers, co-workers, and colleagues.

Get Recognized and Rewarded

In many ways, he's the easiest kind of person to recognize. Do it publicly and do it often. He probably values certificates, plaques, and "employee of the month" awards (as long as they're seen as legitimate accomplishments). If his job includes regular reports on deliverables, make sure those reports are reviewed at team meetings. If you send out an email praising him, make sure that your boss is copied on the email. Feature him and his results in the company newsletter.

Get Educated

The best motivational tool for her is the opportunity to gain more knowledge and share it with others. Often seen as "the smartest person in the room", she shines when asked to update the team on the latest information. Freely share your favorite books. Forward EzineArticles. Ask her opinion as you are developing project plans. Praise her depth of knowledge in the topics that she is interested in. Give her the opportunity to do background research. And, if she can write well, ask her to write up her findings.

No matter what motivators the individuals on your team may choose, there is an opportunity for rich conversations that will tell you just what you need to know about how to engage them. So here's your action plan:

1) Schedule a team meeting.

2) Ask team members to select one or two motivators.

3) Have them discuss why this motivator is so important to them.

4) Then schedule one-to-one conversations with each individual to dig deeper.

5) Identify individual strategies for motivating each person and try them out.

6) Watch the results and make adjustments as you learn.

Creating a motivational work environment is one of the most challenging and most satisfying steps a managers can take. The payoff for you is higher productivity, greater job satisfaction, and the ability to hang on to your best team members.

Motivational Tools to Engage Every Employee on Your Team

Cynthia Clay is the President/CEO of NetSpeed Leadership (http://netspeedleadership.com). NetSpeed Leadership meets the learning needs of managers, supervisors, and individual contributors in small to mid-sized organizations. Our programs blend interactive instruction techniques with online reinforcement tools to extend learning beyond the classroom. With this holistic approach, our clients quickly launch programs, train participants, reinforce skills, and measure the impact. To learn more about motivating others, look at Coaching Smart People, one of 23 modules in the Netspeed Leadership training system.

JumpStart Your Employee Motivation - Ten Secrets to Empower Your Team!

One of the important keys to employee motivation is to empower your employees to be successful. An empowered employee leads to the following benefits:

* Increased creativity
* Increased productivity
* Increased teamwork and motivation
* Increased initiative
* Increased ownership of work
* Reduced employee turnover
* Reduced human resources situations
* Better work environment
* Increased results for your organization
* Increased career opportunities

\"Motivational Techniques\"

The following are ten motivation techniques to jumpstarting your employee motivation and empowering your team to outstanding results:

1. Motivate Your Employees to Find Solutions
Encourage your employees to be solution creators instead of problem creators. When employees communicate a problem to you, look at it as an opportunity to empower the employees. Ask the employees how they would solve the problem, express your confidence that they are the person to solve the problems, give them the tools to solve the problem, and follow up with them. You have just empowered those employees to find ways in the future to create solutions and made your team more productive at the same time.

2. Motivate Your Employees by Soliciting Opinions
Many times during our busy work day, we find it difficult to ask for opinions from our employees. But just the act of asking for their opinions tells your employees that you value their input and motivates them to accomplish more. Just imagine, it may be the first time that an employer has ever asked them for their opinion, and they appreciate it.

3. Motivate Your Employees by Managing to Their Level
Learn your employees' skill, experience, and motivation levels for performing workplace tasks. Then assign the task and follow-up based on your findings. For example, you may need to follow up more frequently with an employee who is fairly new to the project or organization as opposed to the "veteran" employee who doesn't need much follow-up. Remember, the most skilled employee may not be the most motivated for performing the task you request.

4. Motivate Your Employees by Delegating Tasks
Delegation is one of the most powerful motivation tools for empowering employees in the workplace. The sheer act of your delegating a task shows your employees that you have the confidence in them that they can do the job. Make sure you understand the task to be delegated so that you can clearly and concisely communicate how to do the task and hand off "ownership" of the task to the employees. Delegation is providing your employees with ownership of the task, providing the tools for successfully completing the task, expressing the reward and consequences for completing the task and following up accordingly.

5. Motivate Your Employees by Encouraging Ideas
Ideas are the lifeblood of any organization, department, and team. I always say that every mind is too important to miss that one idea that can increase productivity, reduce expenses, or increase profit. Empower your employees by creating a safe environment for your employees to share their ideas. Remember, the idea that doesn't make sense today might be exactly the solution you are looking for a week from now.

Always give your employees credit for the ideas they express. Nothing will decrease employee motivation and dry up the flow of ideas quicker than having managers take credit for their employees' ideas. If your employees are coming up with ideas, reward them publicly. You will be amazed how the flow of ideas from motivated employees will increase with each public recognition.

6. Motivate Your Employees by Letting Them Run Your Meetings
One of the best ways to motivate and empower your employees is to involve them in running your meetings. Of course, you will set the agenda; but there are many opportunities for you as a leader to let your employees run portions of or the entire meeting. Take the time to work with the designated employees ahead of time so that they are confident with the assigned meeting tasks. During the meeting, you are there to support them and help with any sections of the meeting that may provide a challenge for them.

I suggest that you allow as many opportunities for different employees to lead different meetings as possible. By allowing your employees to play leadership roles in your meeting, you will develop your employees for future opportunities and open additional opportunities for you as a leader.

7. Motivate Your Employees by Embracing Mistakes
Without mistakes, there is no growth. Allowing your employees to make mistakes allows your employees to grow, be creative, and provide a vehicle for empowerment. Create a safe work environment so that when your employees make mistakes, they are not punished. Use the mistakes your employees make as learning experiences. Ask your employees how they would have performed the task differently and allow them to tackle the task again. Your employees will gain a new sense of empowerment and feel confident that you will support them when they try something new.

8. Motivate Your Employees by Assigning Leadership Roles
Leadership comes at all levels and doesn't require a title. Take the time to align your employees' skills with leadership opportunities. Make sure you provide training in the areas of opportunities for each employee so that they are empowered to step up to new opportunities.

9. Motivate Your Employees by Rewarding Initiative
Create rewards for employees who take initiative. Publicly recognize employees during meetings, with reward boards, etc., so that other employees are motivated to take initiative.

10. Motivate Your Employees by Getting Goal Setting Buy-In
Your employees will be far more motivated to achieve your goals if they are allowed to help develop those goals. Involve your employees in the goal setting process and get their input so that it becomes believable for them. Once your employees feel ownership of your goals, they will be motivated to move quickly to help accomplish your goals.

Apply these employee motivation tips and you will motivate your team, achieve greater results, and quickly accomplish your goals.

JumpStart Your Employee Motivation - Ten Secrets to Empower Your Team!

Ed Sykes is a highly sought after leadership, motivation, stress management, customer service, and team building expert, success coach, professional speaker, and author of "Jumpstart Your Greatness." You can e-mail him at esykes@thesykesgrp.com or call him at (757) 427-7032. Go to his web site, http://www.thesykesgrp.com - and signup for the free success newsletter, OnPoint.

Tags : Motivational Techniques

Motivational Tools to Engage Every Employee on Your Team

Skilled managers and team leaders know that when motivating employees one size does not fit all. Every person on your team is moved by some combination of internal and external motivators. What works for one employee might actually have the opposite effect for another employee. Your motivational tool kit needs to be revisited and refreshed regularly if you want to keep every individual engaged.

External Motivators

Motivating

Think of extrinsic or external motivators as those incentives outside of the employee. In organizations, these motivators could include compensation and benefits, reward and incentive programs, and company or department goals. If an individual has family responsibilities, then, perhaps their economic needs motivate them. Physical security needs are also considered to be external motivators. How much control do you, as a team leader, have over these external factors? If you're thinking "very little" then you are right on target.

Internal Motivators

On the other hand, intrinsic or internal motivators include less tangible factors as personality and work ethic. Attitudes about authority, personal goals, and even the level of self-esteem that an employee exhibits are all an "inside job". Each employee's psychological needs drive their behaviors and choices. If you're thinking "I don't have much control over those internal factors either" then you may be missing an opportunity to motivate your team. In truth, you are able to influence individual performance by attending to each person's intrinsic motivators. You help to create the conditions through which each team member satisfies their internal drives.

Typical Motivators

In the NetSpeed Leadership training session, Coaching Smart People, we conduct an exercise in which participants identify their main motivators. Here is the list of motivators from which participants select their biggest driver (you can have your team do this exercise as well):

Now, imagine for a moment that an individual on your team selects the motivator get appreciated. If you were to ask "How do you know when you're appreciated," you might hear him say, "I like working in an environment where people sincerely thank each other. I don't have to be told every day that I'm appreciated but I do like to feel like what I'm doing contributes to the success of the team. If I work hard on a project, I want my boss to acknowledge that hard work, even if she needs to delay the project or have me change some of the results. I would rather get that feedback one-to-one than in a big group. I feel better having a personal conversation with my team leader about my value to the team. If she does it in front of the big group, I actually get pretty embarrassed and it's not a pleasant experience."

If one of your team members selects the motivator get connected to others, you might ask her, "What does it mean to be connected to others?" She might hear her say, "To me, it's the personal relationships that make work satisfying. I always say 'the more the merrier' when there's a chance to get something done--let's just roll up our sleeves and get it done together. I love to work with other people on important goals. I love the give-and-take and the sense that we're all in this together. I would hate sitting at my desk alone all day without that human interaction. It just fires me up and makes me want to run into work everyday."

Perhaps one of your team members selects the motivator get recognized and rewarded. You might ask, "How do you like to be recognized or rewarded?" and he might respond, "I'm constantly tracking how I'm doing against my own goals and, frankly, against others. I guess you could say that I'm a little bit competitive. But, hey, life and work are a game to me. If you throw me into a contest to see who can make the most sales calls in 24 hours, I'm hooked. When I make the highest number of calls, I want my boss to put my name out there as the guy who topped the list. I like that kind of public recognition. If you just take me into your office and say, 'good job' I feel miffed. If I did such a great job, why aren't you telling everybody?"

To give one last example, imagine that someone on your team selects get educated. You might ask her, "What does it mean to you to get educated?" And she might answer, "I guess you could say that I'm a life-long learner. I have a couple of college degrees and I hope to get started on my Ph.D in a few years. I read constantly. If you want to make me feel good, send me to a really good training class, or give me your favorite business book. In fact I can't wait to go home and dig in to the latest research on the process improvement tools we've started to use here. I guess I like to be the expert on the team."

These are just four examples of the way individuals might describe their main motivators. And their descriptions should give you some ideas about how to motivate them.

Get Appreciated

Ensure that you end every one-to-one meeting with a positive affirmation of his worth to you and the team. Send a simple email or write a thank-you note. Consider posting a stick note on his computer that he sees when he arrives at his desk first thing in the morning. Be specific, sincere, and generous in your praise. You might want to take him out for coffee or lunch and have a private conversation about how things are going and what you can do to support him on his current projects.

Get Connected to Others

It's all about the relationships. First, pay attention to your relationship to her. Clean up any miscommunication or confusion that may be preventing you from spending time with her. Tell her how much you value the fact that she is a team player. Keep her in the loop about goals, objectives, obstacles, and challenges. When ever you give her a task, ask her who she'd like to work with to get it done. Invite her to drop in to talk through problems or issues when needed. Introduce her to possible mentors and other champions. Praise her for the quality of her relationships with customers, co-workers, and colleagues.

Get Recognized and Rewarded

In many ways, he's the easiest kind of person to recognize. Do it publicly and do it often. He probably values certificates, plaques, and "employee of the month" awards (as long as they're seen as legitimate accomplishments). If his job includes regular reports on deliverables, make sure those reports are reviewed at team meetings. If you send out an email praising him, make sure that your boss is copied on the email. Feature him and his results in the company newsletter.

Get Educated

The best motivational tool for her is the opportunity to gain more knowledge and share it with others. Often seen as "the smartest person in the room", she shines when asked to update the team on the latest information. Freely share your favorite books. Forward EzineArticles. Ask her opinion as you are developing project plans. Praise her depth of knowledge in the topics that she is interested in. Give her the opportunity to do background research. And, if she can write well, ask her to write up her findings.

No matter what motivators the individuals on your team may choose, there is an opportunity for rich conversations that will tell you just what you need to know about how to engage them. So here's your action plan:

1) Schedule a team meeting.

2) Ask team members to select one or two motivators.

3) Have them discuss why this motivator is so important to them.

4) Then schedule one-to-one conversations with each individual to dig deeper.

5) Identify individual strategies for motivating each person and try them out.

6) Watch the results and make adjustments as you learn.

Creating a motivational work environment is one of the most challenging and most satisfying steps a managers can take. The payoff for you is higher productivity, greater job satisfaction, and the ability to hang on to your best team members.

Motivational Tools to Engage Every Employee on Your Team

Cynthia Clay is the President/CEO of NetSpeed Leadership (http://netspeedleadership.com). NetSpeed Leadership meets the learning needs of managers, supervisors, and individual contributors in small to mid-sized organizations. Our programs blend interactive instruction techniques with online reinforcement tools to extend learning beyond the classroom. With this holistic approach, our clients quickly launch programs, train participants, reinforce skills, and measure the impact. To learn more about motivating others, look at Coaching Smart People, one of 23 modules in the Netspeed Leadership training system.

See Also : The Global Marketing Motivational Techniques Advertising Techniques

Benefits of Employee Motivation

The toughest job of the employer is retaining the employee. With the attrition rate high, employees are job hopping for greener pastures. Most times money is not the criteria, but human beings require positive strokes for functioning. It is very important to touch the areas of personality while selecting an employee. A person with a high educational qualification and seniority in experience expects a lot from the organization. Most employee wish lists fall in the intangible benefits.

Human resource management has to have an absenteeism plan. Job allocation is very important and it is always better to train the employee with two different sets of expertise. In times of absenteeism, the employee can offer to extend his services to proxy the absent person. This again is a critical issue as adequate staffing is necessary so the pressure does not develop on an experienced person.

Motivating

The key to employee motivation lies in recognizing and training a leader. Empowering the individual is important. Rewards and compensatory services for such worth is required to be looked at. Annual increments are based on performance appraisal. Many times it is a rude shock to the employee when the performance appraisal points are not projected as per his expectation. Bridging the gap between employer and employee is vital. The management at regular intervals conduct group discussions and also gently corrects the employee, to avoid uncomfortable issues at the end of the year appraisal.

Seniority has to be regarded and the job profile must include areas that are of capability to the person. At the same time rewarding an employee for his exponential talent or hard work is necessary. Setting up an ideal team and lateral thinking is the main motive of a manager. Failing to not hear an employee grievance or uncomfortable working conditions have a slow but negative impact on the employee morale.

The management on the whole benefits from motivating an employee. Many offices have a gym or an in-house game area to lower the stress of the employee. Bonding in office automatically erases the grapevine gossip and the group on the whole contributes to the profit of the company. Profit again is a ratio which is highly affected by the human resource. Offering educational programmes and upgrading the knowledge level of the employee is enriching which is conducive to the better health of the organization.

Benefits of Employee Motivation

How to motivate a person ha always been a great challenge. Companies conduct mock test [http://www.mocktest.org] and even employee satisfaction survey in order to know the pulse of their employees. Music has always been a motivating factor for most people. So listen to some good hindi, English, Spanish and Japanese songs and motivate the music lovers.

Visit : The Global Marketing Advertising Techniques How to time management

Employee Motivation - 10 Tips to Boost Job Performance

Increase Employee Performance by Harnessing the Power of Motivation

Employee motivation and productivity can be enhanced and improved by creating a work environment that maximizes the factors that affect performance. These factors are simple to understand, easy to measure, and can add tremendous value to any organization that is willing to implement them. Use these 10 tips to make sure that your employees are energized and inspired to produce the best results possible.

Motivational Techniques

1. Interesting Work

Intrinsic motivation comes from the shear joy and pleasure of doing a task. When you read a great book, no one has to pay for each page you read. It is a pleasure to learn how the story unfolds and watch the plot develop. It is the same way with employee motivation. To maximize employee performance, find out what employees like about their jobs and then try to add more tasks that align with their own natural interests and talents.

2. Appreciation & Recognition

William James said, "The deepest desire in human nature is to be appreciated." It does not matter how much you pay someone, everyone want to know that their efforts are being seen and appreciated, especially by their manager. Don't just send them a thank you e-mail - that just means you care enough to hit the "Enter" key. If you really want to thank someone buy them a real "Thank You" card and describe how their behavior and performance has added value to the team and organization. Make it a point to catch people doing things right and they will inevitably do things right more often.

3. Feeling Involved In the Work Process

Research shows that when people get to participate in creating a system or process, they are much more likely to follow it than one simply imposed upon them by an outside expert. Recognize that the people doing the job have the knowledge of how things can be done better, faster, and cheaper. If you want them to tell you, then make it easy for them to offer suggestions and reward employees who contribute ideas that add value to the bottom line.

4. Achievement

Napoleon once remarked, "It is amazing how willing men are to risk their lives for a little bit of tin and ribbon to wear upon their chest." Awards and prizes can serve as a great motivator to harness the power of healthy competition. It is always better to use rewards that are meaningful and inspiring. When an employee exceeds your expectations, then make sure you recognize their achievement. On the day someone retires, they will pack up these awards and prizes to serve as fond reminders of a wonderful career.

5. Job Security

If everybody had what it takes to be an entrepreneur, then there would be no General Electric or Toyota and we would all be buying products from artisans and craftworkers. Thankfully, many people prefer to be part of a large organization and can be more productive when they get to focus on doing their job instead of worrying about developing a business plan or marketing strategy. Telling people that they are lucky to have a job creates an atmosphere of fear and worry that decreases job performance. Instead, tell your employees that the company is lucky to have such a skilled and committed workforce and people will take pride in their work and their company.

6. Increased Responsibility

We all know that some employees lack ambition and have no desire to advance on the job, but the vast majority of workers want a chance to take on more responsibility and add more value to the organization. Always be aware of opportunities for training that will equip your employees with the skills and tools they will need to advance in their career. Always try to fill open positions with internal applicants before looking for an outside candidate. This will create a culture of career development and preserve institutional memory and organizational knowledge so that it can be transferred to rising employees as they advance in their own career.

7. Good Wages

Robert Bosch, founder of the world's largest automobile parts supplier, said, "I do not pay good wages because I have a lot of money; I have a lot of money because I pay good wages." If you want motivated, high productive employees you have to pay such people according to their ability and performance. Good employees are motivated by more than just good wages, but never allow low wages to be the wedge a competitor can use to steal away your best people.

8. Good Working Conditions

If you want to get the most out of people you need to create an environment that facilitates success. At the minimum, you must offer a safe, clean, and sanitary work site. To get the most out of employees, help them take pride in their workspace, even if it is only a cubicle or workstation. Allow people to personalize their own work sites with photos or small trinkets so they will feel like they have a place that belongs solely to them.

9. Being Part of a Team

Being part of a dysfunctional team is an emotionally draining experience that results in low morale, low productivity, and high turnover. The great coach, Vince Lombardi, once remarked, "Individual commitment to a group effort -- that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work." We are all social beings and we all want to be part of a healthy team where we can give and receive support, help, and encouragement. Organizations can harness this natural human desire by aligning employee efforts to achieve goals that are mutually beneficial to both the organization and its employees.

10. Help with Personal Problems

How many times have you heard about a bad boss who told their employees to leave their problems at the door so they could focus on their job? Unfortunately, they probably left their motivation and productivity at the door as well. Smart managers know that it is not their job to be a counselor or therapist, but it is there job to recognize when one of their employees is having personal problems that are affecting their job performance. They need to have open lines of honest communication so that employees can feel encouraged to ask for help and then be directed to their Human Resources Department or their Employee Assistance Programs.

Employee Motivation - 10 Tips to Boost Job Performance

About this Author

Thomas Haizlip is an executive coach who works with college educated, mid and senior level managers. He specializes in three types of clients:

1. High Potential- clients that need fast track development,
2. Valuable, But Risking Derailment - clients who are competent, but are not performing well now because of poor people skills,
3. Diamonds in the Rough- clients who are technically competent but are not advancing because of a lack of emotional intelligence and limited leadership competencies.

Tom was a clinical psychologist for 16 years before he made the leap from couch to corporation. He helps his clients master the hard work of becoming a soft skills experts. Tom partners with clients to develop behaviors and skills that result in increased and sustained job performance and career advancement. Tom works with individuals and teams to improve emotional intelligence, build trust, engage in honest conflict, commit to goals, hold each other accountable, and produce results. To learn more, please visit http://www.skillsforsuccess.ws

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Thomas_Haizlip

Related : Motivational Techniques

Employee Motivation: Three Tips for Better Management

Employee motivation is a challenge many managers and business owners struggle with. It is common sense that motivated employees work harder and produce better results, but how can we cross that bridge from theory to practice?

Employees who feel unmotivated are a common feature in companies around the world. People can quickly lose interest in work that is repetitive, unnecessary, too easy or too difficult. Staff can also feel alienated from the business when they are kept distant from the upper-level management, uninformed about the results of their daily tasks, or unsure of whether or not anyone even notices their contribution.

Motivational Techniques

With so many reasons for burnout and dissatisfaction with work, improving employee motivation can seem impossible. If you're struggling to keep your workers happy and motivated, try implementing policies around these three 'I's: information, incentive and innovation.

Information

The most common enemy of employee motivation is the lack of information. If your employees don't know what's expected of them, don't know why they're doing something or don't know who to collaborate with on projects and problems, you'll have a staff that feels helpless and disconnected from their work.

Good 'information' will let your employees know exactly why they are important to the business and will leave them feeling more invested in their jobs.

• Staff members who feel piped in to the company feel more engaged in it, so make sure your employees know what's going on around them.
• Talk to your employees every day. Even just to say 'good morning' or 'goodnight'. Regular contact with the upper level management will make staff feel more like a team member.
• Make sure your employee know exactly what their job description is, what's expected of them on a daily/quarterly/yearly basis. Nothing can be so demotivating as uncertainty.
• Tell your employees why their tasks are important. Adults are typically disinterested in tasks when they don't understand the context. Tell your staff the bigger story of the company and make sure they know where their work fits.

Incentive

Even the best informed employees need incentives. While a steady pay check may be enough motivation to get someone in the door, it takes more to coax your staff into working their best. Be sure to reward consistently high-achieving employees with pay raises and bonuses. People love to feel their good work is valued.

People want more from work than just money however, and offering the occasional bonus is just the beginning of good employee motivation. More than anything else, research has shown that employees want to feel appreciated by their supervisors. In fact, money is almost never the primary motivator of highly motivated staff. Think about these innovative incentives to boost employee motivation:

• Tell your staff when they're doing a good job. Regular encouragement is a great motivator. Consider an 'employee of the month' programme to let your high achievers know that you notice them.
• Consider non-monetary reasons your staff might choose working at your company over another. Flexible scheduling and internal promotions might be more motivating factors than higher salaries.
• Give your staff clear targets/goals for set periods of time. Let them know that they will be evaluated on these and rewarded if they are achieved.

Innovation

Research has indicated that managers at non-innovative companies have more trouble managing staff and fostering motivation that those at companies that encourage thinking outside the box. Why might this be?

Employees who are not encouraged creatively typically feel no control over their job and are often bored by the dull repetition of their tasks. It's important to allow your staff to think innovatively about their jobs and your company and to share those ideas. Who knows? One of your accountants may come up with your next big marketing slogan.

To foster an innovative culture at your company, try these strategies:

• Be receptive to new ideas, no matter when they come or who they come from.
• Reward creativity. Make sure credit goes to the person it belongs too (nothing crushes the desire to innovate like the knowledge that someone else will take the credit for your great idea).
• Do not punish failure: make sure your employees are not so afraid of failing that they shy away from trying new things.
• Formalise the creative process: schedule regular brainstorming sessions, providing staff with a channel through which to communicate new ideas.

Keep these three 'I's in mind when you structure your business and you may be surprised at how achievable employee motivation can be.

Employee Motivation: Three Tips for Better Management

Business.govt.nz has free advice on how to increase employee motivation and tips for health and safety in the workplace

Friends Link : The Global Marketing

Employee Motivation Games

Every year at the major company event there are employee motivation games to play. Most of us dislike these games because the majority of them seem silly and pointless. Why waste our time with this is what employees usually complain about.

However, help is on the way. Out of all the employee motivation games played this one seems the favorite. Try a company scavenger hunt. The nice thing about this game is it does not have to be done during a major company event, although right before yearly inventory for smaller companies seems to be a good time. This will work for all companies. Large and small alike. You just need to have a set of company information for the employees to find out.

Motivational Techniques

The reason the scavenger hunt is my favorite of all employee motivation games is that it is easy to set up and easy to play. It is also relatively fun. First, get a list of company information that you want the employees to find out. It can be date of incorporation, date the first product was sold/manufactured, who was the founder, what is the best selling product, and the list goes on. Once you have a set of information you divide the employees into teams. You can set departments against each other or you can have other ways of making teams. Set a time frame, especially if some of the items are hard to find or locate. Have everyone meet back at the designated time and declare the winner or winners. Be sure to have a prize for the winning team or teams.

This is a great game because it is different from the usual employee motivation games. The game is actually educational in nature. Instead of wasting time with seemingly pointless tasks, it actually teaches the employees about the company they work for. The more knowledge employees have about the company they work for, the better they are able to understand and relate to its mission statement and vision. By empowering employees with knowledge, you are inviting them to stay. Isn't this a fun and interesting way to help improve employee retention rates

Employee Motivation Games

For more employee motivation tips, please visit our site:

Employee Motivation

Also available at: http://employee-motivation-about.info/Employee_Motivation_Games.htm

My Links : Management Concept Style