Staff motivation is a world-wide issue that is common to every industry. Staff turnover is affected by several external factors and there is so far no exact method to measure its impact. However, we believe the key to retention is engagement.
Staff motivation has little to do with money or salary packages and more to do with company culture and values being lived out on a daily basis. Employee engagement results in effective and productive staff that love what they do, ultimately increasing staff loyalty.
Recruiting to replace an existing staff member is a costly exercise and can decrease productivity levels for up to six months, until the employee is up to speed with the role they have taken on. Therefore, it is particularly crucial for SME’s with unfamiliar brands and formal hierarchal structures to get a handle on how to appeal to valued workers that they wish to retain.
The best solution to lacking employee engagement involves reward and recognition programs such as Power2Motivate and Accumulate. These online rewards programs provide cost effective incentives for all employees of SME’s as well as large firms of any industry and can be customised to match your company’s values, themes and colours.
Reward and recognition programs are by far the best approach to boosting employee consistency as they allow performance targets to be set by managers and employees themselves through KPI’s. Employees can earn points when targets are met or when performing “over and above” their requirements. Points are then redeemable against rewards including entertainment, electronics, gift cards etc.
Throughout the rewarding process it is crucial to ensure recognition takes place within the team in order to increase the likelihood of eliciting such behaviour again in the future. Recognition, most importantly will make staff feel valued and important which is essential to improving employee performance and staff motivation.
Other approaches which can improve your company culture to attract long-term, quality staff members are to maintain a flexible workplace environment. Employees have commitments throughout their lives and it is important to create an atmosphere where working flexible hours is not frowned upon or deemed as not working to one’s full capacity.
Introducing incentives for mothers to be able to work from home, job share arrangements and return to work bonuses are also solutions to establishing an inviting workplace atmosphere.
On-going training, coaching and mentoring as well as making sure each staff member has a career plan set in place is invaluable to staff motivation. A positive environment that fosters growth and future potential within the company will be valued by all employees on their journey to success.
It is vital for each business leader to communicate their ‘BHAG’ with all employees so as to share a large common goal and be able to transition through the phases of success as a team with the same perspectives and aims. By building business acumen you are ensuring to realise employees responsibilities allowing their skills and abilities to be placed within high regard of the overall company and its goals.
Profit share, virtual employee share Options or Equity gaining strategies can be used for those who are more financially minded. By giving these employees a stake out of the company’s profit you are increasing their participation in the business and sharing the common goals and aims of the company’s top leaders which is often infectious. This will in turn encourage staff motivation.
Lastly, it is imperative to emphasise the social, fun side of work. This can be done by implementing quarterly themes alongside your quarterly targets in order to keep everything in perspective. We encourage you to organise quarterly celebrations for the company to participate in as a team. Whether quarterly targets have been met or exceeded should be irrelevant so as to keep encouraging persistence, but will only determine how ‘fun’ or how ‘big’ the celebration should be.
Now that you know the secrets to staff motivation, make sure to implement them within your company and live out your positive company culture and values on a daily basis.
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