The key to success for any company is ensuring it has happy and motivated employees. However, each employee is an individual, and what motivates one may be totally ineffective for another. So, how do you determine what it takes to motivate each of your staff?
The first step is making sure you hire the right person for the job. Most employees are self-motivated and will be very productive and enthusiastic if they’re doing something they like. New employees are usually very keen and eager to do a good job. However, this won’t last forever, and it’s important to have some key practices in place to ensure that employee enthusiasm doesn’t disappear. Keeping employees engaged ultimately leads to passionate and motivated staff.
Ask yourself these questions:
- Are your employees highly productive and performing at their best?
- Do your employees believe that their job is important to the company?
- Do they feel valued and appreciated?
- In the last year, have they had a chance to learn and grow?
- Are your employees showing up for work each day feeling passionate and purposeful about their job?
Ensuring a positive response to each of these questions will have a huge impact on employee engagement and productivity. Managers can’t ignore their staff and take the attitude that everyone’s replaceable. The labour market is becoming increasingly tight, and it’s important that once you’ve made the investment and hired an employee, you nurture the relationship. Make it a priority to know your employees, providing them with what they need to ensure they are fully engaged. For example, do you know each employee’s three strongest skills?
Here are some good management practices that all companies should use to create and sustain employee engagement:
- Get to know your employees. What excites them? What are their career aspirations? Show an interest in their well-being. Knowing your employees at a personal level will enable you to find out what they value.
- Make sure employees know what is expected of them, what the company’s vision is, how their position fits into the company’s overall strategic plan, and how you will measure and reward success.
- Provide the necessary tools to ensure that employees have everything they need to do their jobs competently. Make sure they are properly trained and have access to ongoing training and development. Ensure that their work is as interesting as possible by providing variety, increased responsibility or position scope, involvement in special projects or cross-training.
- Establish relevant and achievable goals for each employee and provide regular feedback on performance. Reward and recognize employees in a meaningful way.
- Treat employees as partners in the business. Ask for their input before making decisions that will affect them, and communicate regularly on business performance. Create an environment of trust and teamwork by encouraging two-way communication.
Your employees are your business. Nurturing their passion for their jobs will only help your business grow and succeed.
