Posts Tagged ‘employee morale’
Tips and Ideas for Motivating Your Employees
Monday, March 31st, 2008
Knowing what will motivate your employees is tough. Thus, it is important to determine how and what makes each of your employees tick. This will help you to establish different motivators that will appeal each person.
Regardless of what you do to motivate your employees, it is important that you do something. If you do not do anything to motivate your employees, they will care less about the success of the organization, or about their jobs. Motivation does not always come in the form of financial rewards. That is an important motivator to have in place, but money is not the only thing that will keep people excited about their jobs or organization.
First, it is important to make work fun. If you establish different fun things to do around the office, such as a daily drawing for prizes, or conduct a bingo game that is related to your business and the prizes will be an extra half an hour for lunch, or to leave early one day, those are motivators that will get people excited and want to accomplish more, which will result in more success. Other non-compensatory motivators could be as simple as having a dry cleaner that comes to the office once a week to pick up their laundry or employee of the month where it is the employees who nominate potential recipients, where they get the choice parking spot for the month or anything else you come up with for a reward.
When you reward employees’ successes, this is most likely the easiest way to motivate your employees. Depending on what type of acknowledgment they like, either public or private, complimenting them on their hard work is always welcomed. Another thing that you can do is to give them a handwritten note about their success and put a copy of it in their file for their annual review.
Additionally, keeping your employees excited about their job and knowing when they are becoming complacent in their positions is very important. One way to help your employees to continue to grow before they start to become complacent is to introduce new projects. Of course, you will need to know your employees pretty well to know if they can handle new responsibilities. Perhaps they have too much on their plate already, that it is not the amount of work, but the challenge of new things. Shifting around responsibilities where appropriate will encourage everyone to continue to grow and master new skills, which is great for them and for your business.
Monetary incentives and rewards are always welcomed, but should not be the only thing that you offer to employees. The monetary rewards can come in a variety of different incentives, such as bonuses, gift certificates, trips (even just an overnight somewhere in town), or an increase in their compensation.
There is not a one-size fits all when it comes to motivating employees. Individuals are motivated in different ways thus having an array of different programs in place is one step. The first step is to know your employees and what types of things will motivate them. Money is always good, but should not be the only thing offered.
Tags: advice, employee morale, Hiring and Human Resources, larry Slusser, management, motivating your employees, tips
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Accentuate the Positive - Motivating your Employees through Positive Reinforcement
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008
There are two types of reactions to everything in life - positive and negative. This goes all the way down to the operation of the smallest atoms and molecules that make up the environment around us. It also comes into play at the workplace.
As a small business owner, you regularly have to choose between positive and negative reactions to things that happen. When dealing with your employees, you may let things continue as is - until something goes wrong.
You may then resort to using a negative reaction to effect course correction. While negative consequences do work, at least in the short term, this is not always the best way to deal people that work for you.
Employee Psychology
By only dealing with your employees when there is something wrong, you ensure that they will try to remain under the radar as much as possible. That is, no one will take responsibility for anything for fear of negative repercussions.
Instead, wouldn’t it be better if your employees were all vying for your attention for the right reasons? With positive reinforcement, they can be.
The best employees are those who feel appreciated. They feel their boss and company care about them, how they perform, and the job they do. They also know that you notice their hard work and their attempts to ‘go above and beyond’ for the good of the business.
Set Goals
One important way to set effect positive reinforcement is to set goals for your employees to reach. These could be goals for sales, customer service, or in any other area.
Make sure each employee knows individual and group goals, so they can aim to reach them.
Recognition
When your employees reach their individual goals, take notice. Make sure to praise that employee at a meeting or other staff gathering.
If there is a group goal that has been met, give the team praise for working together and reaching the goal at hand.
Rewards
In addition to praise, you may want to institute a reward system for employees who are meeting their goals. This could be a cash bonus, free vacation day, or anything else you can think of as a reward.
If it is a team goal, come up with a way that everyone can take part in the reward, such as having a bagel breakfast brought in for the team to enjoy in the morning, or a group lunch in the afternoon.
Above and Beyond
Some employees will do more than just meet goals. Many are self-motivated to go ‘above and beyond’ every time there is an opportunity.
Whether it is going out of their way to make a customer happy or coming up with a plan to reduce shoplifting, recognize your employees for their initiative. This will encourage other employees to step up and be more productive.
Note Improvement
For some employees, improvement comes hard. While they may not be the shining stars of your organization, when they work to improve themselves and the job they do, it should be recognized. This will encourage them - and other employees - to continue to strive to be better.
While there are positive and negative reactions to any situation, the only way to really motivate employees is through positive reinforcement. The more you show your employees that you appreciate their work, the more they will work to gain that appreciation.
Tags: advice, company morale, employee morale, Hiring and Human Resources, Leeia Ladpoh, managment, motivating employees, tips
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Getting Ready for the Ups and Downs of Summer
Thursday, March 13th, 2008
When it comes to planning a retail strategy, you should always be one season ahead. While others are spring cleaning, you should be doing a fair amount of summer planning.
Planning is not just about making sure you have the right inventory on the shelves; it has to do with boosting morale and creating sales as well.
Employee Morale
If yours is one of the many small businesses that experience a summer lull, you may notice that your staff mood follows suit. While your employees stand in the store day after day, you may notice a little bit of a melancholy mood - especially when they are not getting the sales they have been accustomed to.
As a business owner, you have to come up with ways to keep the morale high, even through low sales times. Here are a few ideas:
* Lighten Up - One great way to get your staff in a better mood is to make their workplace a more fun environment. You may want to institute special days at work for the staff, such as “Bagel Fridays” where you bring in a bag of bagels and cream cheese for everyone to enjoy in the morning.
It may seem like something small, but it will be appreciated and make them happier to be at work. Happy workers make your customers happy as well.
* Time Off - In the summer, most people have plans to take at least one vacation. Talk to your employees about when they plan to take time off, and work those days out in the schedule to the best of your ability.
If you really want to boost morale, offer them an extra day of free vacation in addition to their scheduled time off. Employers who offer such incentives often get much more productivity and loyalty from their staff.
Creating Sales
Just because the beginning of summer is a traditionally quieter time of year does not mean you should hang up your hat and expect to not make any money.
Instead, you should be using this time to create a sense of urgency in the minds of shoppers to get them in your store, or plan for upcoming sales opportunities.
* Promotions - This is a great time to plan to bring in new business. Try to come up with new promotions that will get people’s attention. While they may not be planning to shop this time of year, a knockout promotion that piques their interest will get them into the store.
Initially, customers may come in “just to look”, but you can always help them decide to buy once you have them inside. Additionally, plan for upcoming holidays beyond the summer.
This slow time will give you more time to plan for over-the-top fall and winter holiday promotions.
* Major markdowns - There are always a few shelves of items you would love to move out of your store. These are the target items for a major markdown sale. Create large and catchy signage to let people know there is a big sale coming up.
If they think it’s a deal too good to pass up, they may just come in to see what’s on sale, giving your cash registers another sale.
While summer may be a usually slower time of the year for retail sales, it is how you use this time that will decide if you are maximizing your business potential. Even down time can be used strategically to craft plans for future profits.
Tags: advice, employee morale, employee time off, employee vacations, Hiring and Human Resources, Leeia Ladipoh, tips
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