5 Tips To Motivate Employees To Better Performance

Summary: Motivating a company's employees has never been an easy task, especially if we consider that we live in the era of speed, where people want everything to be fast and accessible. As a result, many companies invest high sums of money into a training program which fails provide the aimed results. However, by implementing a set of well-thought strategies, the employees can easily become more engaged and ready to deliver performance. Below, I present to you 5 ways in which executives can motivate their employees quickly and efficiently.

How To Motivate Employees To Better Performance

  1. You get what you reward.
    Make sure you have clearly defined what you want to achieve, and then use rewards and recognition so you head to those goals! Establishing ways to reward your team and to recognize the merits helps you get the results you want, those results that lead to achieving a target. A reward and recognition program is the simplest way to achieve this, but also the most efficient one.
  2. It takes little or no money for the most motivating rewards.
    I once read a book whose title was a play on the famous Disney song – the title was “It’s a Small Word After All”. Reward your employees with a sincere "Thank you", providing them with information, involving them in decision-making especially when it comes to decisions that affect employees! Remember that the money offered as a prize only work for short terms! When you give your employees financial rewards often, it will seem natural for them to continue receiving these bonuses, and you'll eventually have to invest money continuously. Thus, if your training program lasts for a long time, or if you see your employee learning strategy in the more continuous bigger picture, then you might want to avoid traditional reward programs being THE ONLY type of rewards. Notice instead that an employee feels more responsible and more important to the company if you thank him for the effort provided and if you say how much his work means for the company. Therefore, employee motivation can be done with a low budget, or even with no money at all.
  3. Each of us wants to be rewarded.
    Competent employees, quieter employees and even managers want to know that what they do is important and through their contributions, the team is strengthened and the company goals achieved. It is not enough just to reward junior-level staff, but managers as well. It’s expected and often noticeable when managers recognize merit and reward their teams, but who is to take care of the manager’s rewards? So, you should take into consideration all the people working in that company, from the janitor to the president of the company, because, without them, the puzzle would be incomplete. Personally, I think that the cleaning person and a salesperson are just as important to a company: while it is true that the company's money are brought by the sales man, without a clean desk, without the plants watered on time, and finally, without proper hygiene conditions the sales man could not do the job. Moreover, if a customer enters a company's headquarters, the building must look clean, flawless, otherwise, they won't get a good feeling about that company. Therefore, every person who works in your company is important and should be considered when making a reward and recognition program.
  4. The behaviors are controlled by their consequences.
    Tracking positive results will soon lead to the desired behavior of employees and, therefore, to performance. Rewards always functioned more effectively than punishments (e.g. cutting of wages, threats of layoffs, etc.). When an employee is happy that his work was appreciated, he will want this to happen again. Consequently, he will work more efficiently, which will lead to performance.
  5. Technology is the way to the future.
    Beyond positive reinforcement and motivational speeches, in reality good and motivated workers need the right tools to succeed at a high level. The old traditional-style training is no longer enough to keep your employees motivated and ready to deliver top results. Therefore, an increasing number of companies are adopting the continuous learning environment, where the training activities take part into the daily workflow. This way, the time prerequisites are eliminated, and employees benefit from the freedom of learning as they work. Such performance can be achieved with the help of learning technologies such as WalkMe, which empower employees to learn as they work by making the process immediate and relevant to them. Furthermore, with the increased “consumerization of IT”, in which more workers are bringing in their personal mobile devices (in particular high-end smartphones and tablet computers) into the workplace, managers should embrace allowing employees to access some company materials on their own devices.  While security remains a concern, BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies can be seen as an extra perk of working in an engaged work environment.  Employees are always going to be more familiar with their own devices, as well as be more willing to take work home with them or remain engaged in office activities while on the go.  One warning though: this can be tricky in terms of motivation. You don’t want to take advantage of the fact that your workers have access to work materials from anywhere and at any time by then expecting they will want to work at any time. Even with technological advances, employee motivation is strengthened by management recognizing work/non-work boundaries, and respecting employee privacy.

The 5 tips above will help organizations keep their employees motivated and engaged. By implementing these strategies, each company makes a step forward toward achieving long-term employee results.

Originally published on May 13, 2013