Learn how to motivate staff at work with these top five employee engagement initiatives. They’re low-cost, easy to implement and effective.
How to Motivate Your Staff at Work
After being in employment for a while people can lose the initial hunger for the work. This can decrease employee engagement and therefore productivity and staff retention.
great{with}talent‘s research has shown that customer service employees in particular are in need of more challenging work. With this in mind here are the top five ways to motivate staff.
Set Employee Goals
Organisations setting targets is a tried and tested method for motivating employees. This is because staff can receive instant gratifications on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
Setting goals can also create added competition amongst employees. This can lead to improved productivity and better results.
Read: Six Tips for Enhancing Employee Commitment.
Employee Mentoring
Mentoring and coaching programmes can allow staff to set their own day-to-day goals. This is useful for companies who do not have sales employees, for example.
Likewise, encouraging staff to set their own targets in their career means they are put in charge of their own career progression. As a result, many will build skills off their own steam.
Assigning mentors can also provide low cost employee rewards for experienced staff. Again, this will provide another challenge for long-serving staff.
Performance Management
It’s also a good idea to make it clear that employees are encouraged to approach managers for more responsibility. By giving staff the opportunity to take some initiative this can benefit the individual and organisation.
Staff can also talk to their mentors about how they can take on more responsibility. They can then be directed on to a manager when a plan has been formed.
Moreover, managers can remind staff how their work contributes to the bigger agenda of the organisation which can fuel employee engagement. This will help staff feel valued and build employee motivation.
Read: Gen-Y Employees and Staff Engagement Strategy.
Low Cost Training and Development
Shadowing is one of the cheapest forms of training and has lots of benefits. Firstly, staff can be trained for when cover work is required.
Secondly, this can build employee relations. Lastly, people can build skills which will allow for more employee motivation and a more skilled workforce.
On the other hand, Chron recommends Mind Tools as a low cost way for employees to build skills. Whilst, a mailing list can provide a suprisingly wide range of ways to motvate staff.
A regular mailer can include relevant articles to read and recommend books (which could be available in-office or as an e-book). They also give the opportunity to promote other employee engagement initiatives and employee recognitions.
Team Motivation
According to Career Realism, building relationships at work can improve motivation in the workplace. Although, they suggest this is not restricted to line managers and senior staff.
Someone who is not motivated in a team can detract from other employees’ energy levels. By using productive ways to make work fun, team building can add to the value of the organisation and raise morale.
Employee engagement surveys provide a way to find out the specific employee motivation needs of your organisation. This allows companies to tailor strategies to their employees and further save resources.
Contact great{with}talent and find out about their TalentEngage employee engagement surveys.
(Main image Morning Huddle)