Employee Motivation

How important is being able to increase employee motivation? In this type of competitive environment, it can mean the difference between still being in business 3 years from today and being a distant memory. It's great to hire employees who are self motivated and in a perfect world, the persona you see in the interview will be who you see on in the workplace. Unfortunately, this isn't normally the case. Most people will put their best face on during the interview and will tell a great story but when it comes down to the work, it can be a completely different story. In this article, I will discuss the number one mistake that employers make when it comes to motivating employees as well as give you some tips on how to increase their motivation the correct way. Before I get into the mistake that many business owners make, let me first talk about job dissatisfaction. Let's face it. If you have more than a couple of employees, chances are, you will have some who would really rather be doing something else with their life. You have your business goals and they have their career goals. Often times, those two goals are completely different. The Reality Realize that a huge percentage of people only work because they need to work, not because they want to work. If you can understand that, it will help tremendously when it comes to trying to motivate your employees. It will also help you avoid the number one mistake that most owners make. The challenge is that you can't just have people pursuing their dreams and quitting on you when you need them to get their work done in order for you to meet your business goals. The most obvious solution is to find the right people for the right positions. Is being a secretary something that is inspiring to most people? Is it something that will make most people jump out of bed in the morning with a smile because they just can’t wait to get to work? It's probably not likely. However, there are people who love that type of work so if you can find these people; your life will be a lot easier. Once you do that, all you have to do is find someone for each and every position you have who will absolutely love their job. In the perfect world, this can happen and the problem of employee motivation won't even exist. Unfortunately, we don't live in a perfect world. So what's the next best thing? Find people who are capable of doing their work and who also don't mind doing the work. Here is the number one mistake that employers make. They expect everyone to be self motivated and therefore won't even bother trying to inspire or motivate their workers. After all, isn't that what those workers are getting paid for? Sales Motivation I would guess that if you are reading this, chances are, you have a sales team to run. When it comes to employee motivation, there is no other department that needs it more than the sales department. The most common scenario that you will see in sales offices all across the country is sales managers expecting their sales people to be self motivated and those who aren't are seen as losers or people who don't want it badly enough. Sorry to say but if this is how you feel then you're really just coming up with an excuse to not have to motivate your sales team. Most people need some encouragement every now and then. If you are in charge of a sales team, the first thing you will want to know is their goals and dreams. From there, you will want to help them make those goals and dreams a reality. It's a better motivator than merely telling them they need to make more sales. Isn't it obvious that everyone needs to make more sales? Focus on the real reason why they are working for you and help them achieve that outcome. Employee Motivation Going back to the normal workplace, in terms of employee motivation ideas, you can do something similar. Everyone wants something out of a job and most of the time it's more than just a paycheck. Sometimes all they need is to know that they are appreciated for what they do. For some people, they need to know that what they do is making a difference in the company's bottom line. For others, they want to be recognized publicly for a job well done. In other words, take part in increasing their motivation instead of just taking the, "They should be self-motivated" approach. That's just an excuse to not have to do anything. The challenge is that different people are motivated differently so when it comes to employee motivation, one idea may work on one person but it may not work on another person. What you may want to try doing is give them an employee motivation survey to find out what it is that motivates them. What will get them to want to work harder and be more productive? Sometimes it's more money but a lot of the time, it's one of the things mentioned above. There are a lot of employee motivation rewards that you can give out as well. You can even hire a company that will come in and implement an employee motivation program to help increase the overall motivation of the workplace. Conclusion As you can see, this can be a lot of work. That is why most employers won't even bother and will just stick to the "do your job and you get to keep it, if not, you're fired" method. If you can't hire the perfect people for the positions then what you will want to do is to inspire the people who do work for you. Give them something to look forward to when they come into work each day instead of just a paycheck. Employee motivation comes down to knowing what motivates the employee and finding ways to give it to them. One of the most powerful things you can do is to create a work environment where the people who work there are proud to be a part of the company. They will naturally want to work hard because they will feel like they are contributing to something great. For more details, you can look for books on restructuring the company and building a strong company image that will naturally attract the right people.