No matter how big your company is, no matter what awesome things you do, keeping employees motivated is always important. Motivated employees do great work, which means your company can do great things. So how do you keep them doing great work week after week? It’s easier than you think. We’ve got 10 simple (and even fun!) ways to up employee motivation every day.
1. Make The Company Victories Everyone’s Victories
When your company reaches a yearly or quarterly goal, don’t just announce it. Make sure all your employees know that their contributions made it possible. It’s hard to stay motivated to do well when you’re not really sure that what you’re doing is actually helping anyone! So make sure to periodically tie in their performance to what the company is accomplishing, and it’ll drive them to keep at it!
2. …And Make Their Responsibilities Their Property
This isn’t the same thing as simply giving employees complete autonomy over whatever they do - it’s letting them feel like what they’re responsible for is their own, and therefore succeeding in their work goals is their own as well.
3. Give them Chances To Rise
The worst de-motivator for any employee? Feeling like there’s nowhere to go. Even if direct promotion isn’t always possible, giving employees more influence and more chances to take on responsibilities keeps them feeling like they’re moving up and that their hard work pays off.
4. Celebrate The Small Stuff
Finishing a big project for a tough client, handling a tricky PR situation, or even just making it through a particularly tough week. Your employees would probably want to celebrate these small things for themselves, so why not make it a group celebration? All the small victories make of your company’s overall successes, so there’s nothing wrong with celebrating them and motivating your employees to keep up their great work!
5. Give Them Events To Get Excited For
Every once in a while, it’s fun to just let loose with your coworkers and have some fun. Once every few months or so, take your team wine-tasting, or to a local baseball game, or even on an overnight camping trip. Having some genuine fun with coworkers helps strengthen the bonds between them and motivate them to support each other when they get back to the office.
6. Be Interested In Employees’ Lives Outside Work
Your employees have a whole other part of their lives outside the office which is just as important (if not more) to their overall happiness. Try asking them whether they did anything fun over the weekend, or if they have fun plans for their birthday. Knowing that their boss cares more about what they do between 9 and 5 does way more than you think as far as motivating your employees to work hard for you.
7. Thank Employees In Person
This is a little one, but it goes a long way. A quick thanks for finishing a project on time, helping out their coworker or running a meeting shows your employees that their daily work doesn’t go unnoticed, even by the boss.
8. Encourage Colleague Support
Feeling like you’re not supported by your colleagues is a huge de-motivator. Encourage your employees to nominate a co-worker every month to get recognized for something nice or helpful they did. Knowing that your team appreciates what you do just makes you want to keep doing a good job!
9. …But Friendly Competition Never Hurts
Try giving your company or your team a jump-start by offering up some friendly competition. Offer a prize like a personalized gift, gift certificate or an extra vacation day for any team or colleague that reaches their monthly goal first. You’d be surprised how well it works!
10. Perks Go A Long Way
It’s not all about the salaries, you know. Perks like working from home a few days a week, taking Friday afternoons off, reimbursements for buying things like a gym membership or a bike, or employee referral programs make employees feel lucky to work for your company - and keep working!
What other tactics do you use for employee motivation? Tell us in the comments below! And remember, if there’s one thing all employees love it’s great snacks to keep them going all day. Try a Love With Food office box today!
