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Get Employee Motivation Going with These Creative Ideas

employee motivation

So you’ve got a great startup business going, and the cash is flowing. That’s awesome. However, there’s more to keeping it up and running – you need to have employee motivation. This is a must because the nanosecond they become unhappy with their work, they’ll look elsewhere. And that’s one piece of the workforce that will be incredibly hard to replace.

With that, it helps to have the right kind of employee motivation to get them to stick around. Don’t just throw a pizza party. As helpful as it is to have them regularly, they act as a Band-Aid compared to finding the real problem. The key here is finding ways to keep them coming back, ready to work without missing a beat.

So what can you do to get the most out of your employees? Follow these four steps and you’ll be on your way to a happy workforce!

Maintain Respect for Employee Motivation

The first step is the most basic, but also the most challenging to keep long-term in some cases – mutual respect. Sure, you can be a bossy boss and get things done, but they may just dread your existence as a result.

Instead, find a good common ground to keep employees happy. Leave an open door so they can talk to you any time. Don’t intrude on their lives, but check on them in case you feel like someone is falling behind. Motivate others to get involved as a team, so no one feels like they end up left behind. Remember, there is no “I” in team.

That said, make sure you keep a respectable distance. Don’t get involved if they don’t feel like talking. However, if their work performance lags, bring it up and see if you can get on the same page as them. Relate, don’t rule.

Don’t Make a Performance Review So Intimidating

The next step to keeping up employee motivation is doing away with what a performance review is. Sure, you need them, and you need to address problem areas. But don’t make it like some sort of interrogation. Instead, make sure you talk to them about what they’re doing right, and then ease into things that you think they can do better.

What’s more, present examples! Nothing will help an employee more than if you can explain things in a way they’ll relate to. Don’t berate them or call them dumb by any means, but find a fun way to help them process where to improve. Maybe even set a goal to meet, but nothing that goes above and beyond what they can do.

Remember, the key here remains employee motivation. Without that, they’ll think the performance review is like a death knell. And no one should ever feel like that.

Get Your Team More Involved

As I stated above, when it comes to employee motivation, you need to make them feel special. While that does include individual rewarding for someone that goes above and beyond, that doesn’t mean leaving others behind.

With that, try to have team exercises to help the crew work together. It can be something fun, like that aforementioned pizza party; or you can do a project where you all have equal input. Employees are surprisingly engaging when they get involved with others, instead of feeling left out.

Find some certain exercises or activities that can bring your group together as a whole. It can be fun, or a meetup outside work (how about a bowling night?), or something that just feels like you all get to move forward.

Rewards, Rewards, Rewards

Of course, the best thing about employee motivation is providing a reward for a job well done. It’s best to set up team rewards, as everyone can work equally to earn something. This means making possible competitions, or even something where everyone gets a little something for their effort. It depends on the business, but there are many ways to motivate.

A cash bonus can go a long way, especially in this day and age when the economy is on the way down. But there’s more, like a trip overseas with an airline credit, or even a gift card to a popular store. And, once again, I need to stress the pizza party thing, because everyone wins with those. Just remember not to make that a bigger goal – focus back on the cash and larger prizes for that. But it’s good to have fun as well.

For that matter, maybe even award stuff like days off. Employees can’t get enough of these, as they can go home and relax or even spend time with their family and friends. Just make sure you properly set up the workforce for those that do take off. Also, spread days off around – don’t just give them to one person who continues to meet top performance. Otherwise, people will lose motivation. Very quickly.

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