What happens when you raise your staff’s motivation levels, just slightly? Employees bring their A-game, consistently. They work harder and smarter. Respect and camaraderie between employees grows, and they collaborate and perform as a cohesive team. Ultimately, this leads to stronger employee retention, more promotions, and better internal leadership development.
You can get there. The place to start is here, with these five strategies for managing your employees to become the best they can be. And trust us; they want to perform their best.
- Longevity Milestone Bonuses and Raises
The turnover rate in your industry may be higher than average, but you don’t have to accept this as a fact of life. Many managers fight churn and win. Incentivizing employees to stay is paying off for many employers, with lower employee acquisition, training, and lost productivity costs. Consider offering cash incentives at certain intervals. For instance, if you lose a significant percentage of employees between month three and six, offer a monetary bonus for employees who reach the six month milestone. Offer annual raises and then six month bonuses on top of that. In addition to motivating the employee who receives the bonus, newer employees will be incentivized to reach these milestones.
- Give Employees a Say
You are doing everything you can to recruit top performers. Yet these bright and talented individuals seem to lose energy at times. It may be because they need to be challenged or stimulated. Or they may need to feel more of a vested interest in what you are collectively working to accomplish. This isn’t about appeasement; your employees are the eyes and ears of your business, particularly those who are facing customers on the front lines. Workers in such positions are often highly motivated by having a feeling of equity in their work, in the development of processes, procedures, objectives, strategies, and tactics.
- Begin a Mentor Program
Mentor-mentee relationships are proven to expedite the onboarding and training periods of new hires. The value in these relationships grows over time as mentees talk to mentors about their personal goals, challenges, aspirations, and questions. Mentors help to get new employees engaged quickly, even with a tightly knit staff, and keep employees motivated throughout their employment. In addition, these programs are instrumental in enabling employees to help same-position peers, saving managers time.
A recent study, “Career Benefits Associated with Mentoring for Mentors,” published in the Journal of Vocational Behavior, revealed that people who have the opportunity to serve as mentors experience greater job satisfaction and a higher commitment to their employer.”
Learn more about mentoring programs in Now Is the Time to Get Serious About Your Mentoring Program.
- Improve Your Training
Comprehensive job training, along with formalized work processes and procedures (when applicable) make employees feel like they are part of a well-organized team. Good employees also appreciate a thorough and immersive onboarding experience, and they enjoy being trained by multiple people during this process. Once employees reach expected levels of job proficiency, ongoing professional development cultivates a feeling of loyalty to your organization, and a belief that employees can grow in their careers without pursuing opportunities elsewhere.
Learn more about onboarding in How to Successfully Onboard New Employees.
- Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Competitions
What better way to motivate employees than with a little friendly competition, tied to a monetary reward. Incentivize your employees with internal competition or self-competition. Reward every individual who demonstrates continually improving performance, as well as your most exceptional employees. The objective with incentives is to maximize the potential and efforts of each individual, not just to hold up top performers as examples. In fact, the latter can be counterproductive over time if the same few employees are usually rewarded.
You don’t have to implement all of these tips in order to see significant progress in your employees’ motivation levels. Once you do see results, however, you may feel motivated enough to try all five suggestions.