Monday, 16 April 2012
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.
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