How to keep your employees engaged and motivated?

How to keep your employees engaged and motivated? June 15, 2009

In this tough economic times, employers are looking for ways to keep their people engaged and motivated. Often times, employers gravitate towards pay increases or promotion as the most common way to get their employee’s buy-in. This proves to be more challenging when companies are looking to cut expenses and do more with less resources. These are some ways to motivate your employees without raising their pay.

1. Leadership Position - Give deserving people a leadership role to reward their performance and develop their leadership skills…even if it is for a temporary project. A great place to start is to give a person a leadership role by allowing them to lead a meeting.

2. Provide A Career/Learning Path - Most people need to know that there is a potential opportunity for growth. Be sure to tell people that the policy is to promote from within. Doing so will send a positive message to everyone that advanced career opportunities can come from within the organization.

3. A Nice Working Environment - It is no surprise that a recent industry study revealed that employees rank good working conditions high on their list of “must haves”; therefore, you must take the overall working environment seriously.

4. One-On-One Mentoring - Internal mentoring is a free employee development program that costs only time. When mentoring someone, it is important to provide positive feedback during both your one-on-one sessions as well as in public. Whenever you recognize and encourage employees in public, it acts as a positive shot-in-the-arm for others who are close enough to hear what is taking place.

5. Create A Team Mentality - The fastest way to make this happen is to take a picture of everyone on your entire staff - do not forget to include yourself. After the picture is taken, you need to hang it in a visible spot. Psychology professionals have confirmed that most people like to see themselves as part of a team and value an image of reference.

6. Provide Training - Internal training sessions enhance the performance and productivity of your staff. We often suggest “tune-up” training sessions after regular training sessions to reinforce the content taught. We also recommend that you involve employees who have an aptitude in what is being taught in the training process.

7. Recognize Your Employees - When someone has accomplished something, your recognition is critical to reinforcing the positive side of things. If you do not give enough recognition, you are missing out on the most inexpensive form of reinforcement.

8. Special Ovation - An easy but effective method of motivating someone is to give a round of applause for certain achievements. You can do this at meetings, company-sponsored social gatherings, a luncheon or just in the office.

9. Job Titles - When you consider a job title for an employee, be creative. Ask your staff to give you their input for the correct title of a position. The right title is important and allows a person to feel proud of their position at the company - but be careful not to have just one department handing out huge titles, as it will be counterproductive for others at your company.

10. Immediate Praise For Doing Something Good - When there is a reason for praising someone do not put it off. In fact, we recommend that you look for someone doing something good now and praise them; after all, immediacy equals effectiveness.