Motivating Employees

Employee Motivation Blog

“An employee’s motivation is a direct result of the sum of interactions with his or her manager.”

– Bob Nelson, President of Nelson Motivation Inc.,

Motivating Employees

Good managers understand all employees are motivated.

The question is, are they motivated for the business and its interests, or are they motived for personal or outside factors?  Are they passionate about your business, or are they thinking of what they are going to do once they are away from your business?

Successful businesses know how to motivate their employees to accomplish the goals set before.

As small business owners and entrepreneurs, we need to focus on how to motivate our employees.

Benefits

The primary benefit of having motivated employees is that they will allow management to meet or exceed company goals.

Motivated employees, when compared to non-motivated employees, leads to greater productivity, which results in higher levels of output and profit.  They work with higher job commitment, have higher levels of job satisfaction, and will demand professional training so they can continue to get better at their jobs.

Since there is no downside to having motivated employees, each business leader should always make motivating employees a top priority.

How to Motivate Employees

Motivating employees is a classic example of something that is both easy to do and hard to do.

Easy To Do

Here are three relatively easy actions each business leader can take to motivate employees.

1. Improve communication. The easiest way to increase employee motivation is by having positive communication in the workplace. Managers should not rely only on emails, but by making sure they talk to their staff in person.

Most employees want to see the company they are working for succeed. Many have excellent ideas, ranging from money savings to operational improvements, and management needs to make an effort to listen to their suggestions.

2. Value individual contributions. Management should let their staff know how their individual efforts and contribution plays an important part in the company’s overall success. Employees will take pride and be engaged in their work if they are aware of how their efforts create and impact the organization; regardless of how big or small their contributions are.

Most times, a simple “Thank You” or “Great job” will suffice in encouraging employees.  These meaningful words acknowledge effort, build loyalty, and encourage people to work even harder.

3. Positive workplace environment. Management needs to make the work environment a positive workplace.  One of the best ideas is to ask the employees what needs to be done and then implement their suggestions.

Your employees spend a large amount of time working on your business. So, try to make the office look as friendly and appealing as possible.  When you create a pleasant atmosphere where it is welcoming and comfortable, your employees will be more willing to go to work every day.

Hard

The easy part of motivating employees is improving communications, value individual contributions, and make your work environment more friendly.

So why aren’t more employees motivated?

As business leaders, the hard part of motivating employees is making it a priority.  We all too frequently allow other aspects of our business to be considered more important than employee motivation.

Remember, the difference between good and great companies is employee motivation.

Do you want to be good or great?

The Bible

The three easy actions to motivate employees can really be summed up in the word love.  To motivate your employees, you need to love and care for them.  And that care is manifested by talking to them, giving them credit when due, and creating a place where they can enjoy working.

Micah 6:8 says.

The Lord has told us what is good. What he requires of us is this: to do what is just, to show constant love, and to live in humble fellowship with our God.

To do “what is just” is to do the hard work of motivating your employees by making it a priority in the daily management of your business.

God has called us all to love our employees and care for them.  Isn’t it fascinating that following Gods commands should so easily be a benefit for your business?  Starting today, make motivating your employees a priority.