Motivating Employees

Employee motivation could be considered the backbone of good management. Building a good team, improving communication and being able to adequately mange time and money is very important, but does any of it really matter if your employees do not care about you, the company or the work they do? Of course, these qualities will help motivate employees, but they are not enough by themselves fro employees to feel wanted and cared for.

If a manager can only grasp one concept, it should be this: No two people are the same. How many people do you know that are exactly the same? This is an important factor to understand, as what inspires and motivates one person, may not have the same affect on anyone else. Basically, one motivating tool/program is not enough to motivate and inspire employees. To understand what motivates your employees, a good manager really needs to understand and get to know each employee. I used to have a manager that would take time during each one-on-one meeting to talk about family, activities and other things to get to know me as a person better. While this was a step in the right direction, this same manager never used this information to his advantage when it came to managing me.

To me, there are 2 fundamental tasks that must be accomplished to motivate employees and keep them happy with their jobs. The first task is to ensure the employee knows what is expected of them. To achieve this goal, try the following:
-Involve employee in planning
-ensure employee knows the desired outcome
-ensure employees know their responsibilities
-Tell the employee what they have done well in the past and what they need to improve on.
-make employee aware of schedules and commit dates
-make sure employee understands that progress will be monitored
-Do not over monitor (micro-manage)

Employees that have most of the answers, understand exactly what they are working towards and know what is expected of them are going to be better workers than those who do not know these things: Knowledge is power.

The second step to proper motivation is compensation. Whenever compensation is mentioned, the first thing most people think about is money. Show me the money!! While rewarding employees of a job well done with money seems great, it is not always the best solution, is not always the reward employees want and more importantly, there may not be money budgeted for this. This is where getting to know your employees come into play: What drives them? Simply stated, find out what your employees want and try to give it to them. Some employees may want to be more involved in the business and decision making. More interesting work with more visibility drives many people. An improved role in the company or group is great incentive to employees looking to keep moving ahead. I had a manager a few years ago that had no money to give as compensation for a successful project, so he would give us additional time off. A few three day weekends some half days here and there mean a lot and help create a workplace culture that employees will want to stay part of. The following are also good ideas for motivating employees:
-Allow them to work from home sometimes (telecommute)
-give them a flexible schedule (does everyone need to work 9-5?)
-grant more independence at work (show them you trust them)
-Have group outings
-constantly provide employees feedback
-offer education and career planning

The point here is to be innovative in motivating employees. As stated earlier, no two people are the same. Find out what drives your employees and try to make that happen for them. Motivated employees make you, the manager, look good, and help the company achieve their goals.