Motivating Your Employees

Motivating employees is essential to any organization. Motivated employees make fewer mistakes, have higher productivity, and tend to remain with a company. 
Before thinking of ways to improve employee morale however, you must first assess the current level of motivation within the company. There are many things to do in order to get a general feel of the atmosphere without actually resorting to giving your employees a formal questionnaire or hiring a consultant to survey them.
First, leave the office and walk around in order to get a sense of the levels of employee energy and satisfaction. Take a look at management as well as non-management. Do they look productive? Do they interact with each other? Are they doing what you think they should be doing, or are they sitting around, seemingly apathetic or unmotivated, perhaps even doing busy work or playing computer games? 
Next, you can take the shortest route to determining the morale level, and that is to actually ask. Gather a random sample of employees from different units, teams or divisions. Invite them into an informal office or conference room, perhaps with snacks to lighten up the atmosphere. Make it hospitable enough to encourage people to open up and share their experiences, thoughts and feelings. Ask what motivates them; what their goals are and whether they achieve them in your organization; what the obstacles to success are; what ideas of theirs haven't been expressed or heard; what they believe is causing dissatisfaction.
After a few of these informal sessions, you should have enough information to take a course of action. 

Tips for maintaining employee motivation

1- Job expectations: Employees must understand what is expected of them. Training material should cover all of the physical expectations of the job as far as hours, work schedule, work environment and so on. Training must also incorporate real life situations that would occur on the job whether typical or exceptional. Be fair and upfront with your employees as to what the job requires them to do. 

2- Accessibility: Providing the information and tools employees need to do their jobs successfully is an important motivational factor. Make sure employees are oriented to the organization, the department, and their jobs. Make sure they know how to access information and resources they need.

3- Accountability: Employees should know exactly what is expected of them and how they will be held accountable. Mechanisms for testing employees after they have gone through training should be used. A measurement tool that shows performance increase should also be developed as it will motivate employees by showing them areas of improvement.

4- Providing regular feedback: Feedback should be constructive and timely. Constructive feedback refers to a specific incident or to specific outcomes. 

5- Communication: Communication is critical on every single level of business. Employees need to know that they can go to any level of management and that someone will listen. If not, their concerns will be voiced to their peers, which could cause a build up of negative atmosphere. Create a positive atmosphere that encourages and allows employees to address issues with management without fear of retaliation for surfacing negative issues or limitations. Convene regular, interactive sessions where employees can meet with colleagues in other departments

Once thoughts are expressed and employees contribute, they'll feel heard and valued because their boss is listening. When action is taken on their ideas, even if told that their ideas are good but not possible to implement, employees will still feel listened to. If the idea is actually acted upon, the employee will feel that he or she has achieved a goal, and achievement is a major source of motivation. 

6- Rewards: Money may attract employees to the front door, but something else has to keep them from going out the back. Managers and supervisors must place equal importance on employee development as they do on guests and customers. Today's workers don't just expect a paycheck, but good employees also want personal fulfillment and a sense of accomplishment. 

Reward and recognition programs are a vital part of creating a motivating work environment. A successful reward and recognition program does not have to be complicated to be effective. A well-administered program allows people to celebrate success, have fun, and feel good about who they are and who they work for. Rewards and recognition could also be customized based on an employee’s needs and interests in order to be most effective.

The size of your organization and the age of your workforce dictate which type of program works best. One organization improved motivation and almost eliminated turnover by creating a family environment including special incentives. For example, every year employees celebrate their work anniversary with a cake and receive a sum of money for each year employed, made out in a check. Also, twice a year employees' children receive a savings bond when they bring in their "all A's" report card. 

7- Employee empowerment: Involve your employees in decisions that affect their jobs. Provide them with opportunities to share what they need in order to be successful at their jobs. Whenever possible, include a representative staff member in major planning projects or initiatives. Encourage employees to fill out an opinion survey and then discuss the results with them in order to explore new ideas for improvement.

Compiled from:

http://www.med.umich.edu
http://www.businessknowhow.com
http://www.entrpreneur.com