Business

Ways to improve employee motivation

Employee motivation improves productivity

The most proven method of improving productivity continues to be employee motivation. The equation is this: when it comes to your staff, what do you have in mind? Throughout the day, they will choose to strive for excellence or settle for mediocrity. The resulting thoughts will have a productive or counterproductive impact on your performance, team motivation, and the bottom line of your organization.

Corporations around the world are trying to find the best way to improve employee motivation. Over the centuries, the challenge of keeping workers motivated has been a top priority. A myriad of techniques have been from recognition plaques to bonus trips in the hopes of inspiring and motivating, yet to truly understand employee motivation, we must get to the root of human psychology.

Employee motivation is really no different from any other type of psychological motivation. When a person is at work, they essentially seek to meet the same needs as at any other time in life. So to understand employee motivation, we need to understand the basis of what people really want. One technique to achieve this understanding is to follow the need by continually asking why. With this technique, we can get to the source of any problem, and the answer is generally the same. At the root of everything we do is the powerful urge to feel better.

Abraham Maslow (April 1, 1908 – June 8, 1970), one of the most prolific historical psychologists, gave us Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Understanding this hierarchy can be helpful in strategy planning independent of employee motivation programs, but at the operational level, the motivation is still feeling better. Feeling better is the reason we work, build friendships, eat, sleep, get married, have kids, go on vacation, live to be successful. Everything we do is designed to help us feel better. Although this concept may seem simplistic, it is at the heart of motivation and is key to understanding how to develop employee motivation programs.

Employee motivation programs should be designed from the top down with an emphasis on four core areas that address the most critical segments of this human psychological need to feel better.

1. Feeling part of the team. This goes straight to the heart of feeling better. When we feel like we are part of something bigger than ourselves, we feel better. Society and religion are all based on this principle. When we work with other people who have similar goals, it has the powerful effect of making us feel like we are doing the right thing. When people join organizations, or even when they think of God, they are relieved when they know they are part of something much bigger than themselves. Any employee motivation program should incorporate basic principles designed to help employees feel like part of a team.

2. Incentives. Hanging the proverbial carrot works well to boost employee motivation in the short term. The quarterly contest, complete with prizes, annual trip, etc. all work to help people throughout the daily routine towards the achievement of predetermined goals. These activities work well when used in conjunction with daily meetings, motivational quotes, inspirational speakers, and creating an overall constructive atmosphere.

3. Creating a level playing field. Creating a top-down approach allows an organization to level the playing field so that different departments within the company do not provide more attractive incentives than others. Today, many companies reward sales teams and overlook incentive-based programs in other areas of the company. This practice can breed resentment and have an undesirable impact on the organization as a whole. If incentive programs are adopted across the company, all employees will be inspired and share the recognition that those who run the company think of everyone, and not just the revenue-generating side of the company.

4. Family involvement. Often times, company leaders forget that most people value family more than employees. By bringing family involvement to the workplace, organizations can help solidify employee motivation by recognizing employee values. Scheduled family days, organized family functions, and other specific family recognition activities work to help inspire and motivate employees.

Structured policies that take these four principles into account will go a long way toward increasing employee motivation and creating an atmosphere that enables personal and professional growth.

More information – http://quotes-motivational.com/

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