A lot can happen in a year. Companies can reach new heights; you might have to say hello to some employees and a bye to several others. The purpose of the business, however, is to keep them motivated throughout the year.
There need to be steps taken constantly to keep the employees upbeat and their morale high. In some organizations, the managers, and the owners hurry to fix the situation only when there is a drop in the productivity. Rather than emergency measures, the focus has to be in making sure enthusiasm does not drop. Keep employees satisfied and their morale high throughout the year by taking steps regularly.
Here are some tips that can be taken to benefit from employee engagement efforts.
Make it Known:
In some organizations, employees feel out place which makes them rapidly lose interest and get frustrated with their job and position. Such people also lose motivation and focus. Unfocused employees who do not have any direction and purpose to their goals do not work as hard as they used to.
Steps to Stay Enthusiastic
- To combat this issue, let the employees come to know about the goals of the company. There needs to be an explanation on how the company’s goals and the employee’s goals are in line with each other.
- The workload that the employees have should also be relevant to their skill and training and it should also be realistic and manageable.
- The managers should also pay enough attention to their tasks.
- The employees and managers should work perfectly in sync with each other and they should be in-sync with the organization as well. The employees should put up a unified front and work towards the achievement of a common goal.
Trust-Building:
Employees should feel a sense of attachment and ownership with the organization. They should feel attached to the management as well as the team.
Steps to Build Trust in the Workplace
- Greeting employees by their name will also help in forming deep and meaningful bonds with the members of the team. Studies show that addressing a person by their name will result in people feeling valued and cherished. However, when you are striking up a conversation, make sure the line between personal and professional conversation stays intact.
- Another way to get employees to place more trust in the organizations and, in general, be more amicable towards the organization is to send gifts and cards to celebrate events. This forms a deeper connection to the team, making them valued in the office. Having gifts for employees could help to boost morale and help them to feel more motivated to continue working as they feel cherished and valued.
Nurturing Personal Growth:
When employees feel like they are only working at an organization and have lost purpose for their work, they get motivated. Work life gets monotonous; a repetition of tasks every single day. It gets tiresome fairly quickly. It is also totally justified that workers want to expend some effort in their careers and work on their skills. This would make them feel that there has been some effort on their side, rather than just being a machine the company can make money from.
Steps to Improve Employee’s Skills
- Employees should be provided with sufficient opportunities to grow their skills.
- There are MOOCs like Coursera.org which train them on topics based on technology. These sites also have courses from reputed foreign universities. Employees can be encouraged to take part in activities and courses like these.
- When employees feel that their job has become more productive, they are also more likely to be invested in it and they would most likely be around for a while, as they have a flexible learning platform. This gives a boost to both productivity and their morale.
Feedback and Encouragement:
There is no better way to tell an employee that he is cherished than by providing him with some encouragement.
Steps to Encourage and Employee
- Some employees put in extra effort in a variety of ways; some clock in extra hours, some take up more work and some even work on weekends when they are working a major project. Another employee could be encouraging his teammates. These are potential traits that any employer would want to increase. Hence, in cases like these, make sure recognitions are made to these people to encourage it.
- While an encouraging word goes a long way, other effective methods include saying thanks and a public encouragement. Some organizations also choose to give small gifts to their employees.
- There are awards that are handed out, like an employee of the month, gift cards and other tokens. These gifts are received with much pride by employees who would have worked extra hard to deserve them. It is also effective in motivating others to work hard.
- You can also provide feedback to your employees.
- Based on merit and the effort a person puts into the organization, promotions can also be made.
And should an employee be criticized, it should always be done in private. This is a fact that has been emphasized much in the best shows on Television, where they say, and ‘Never do in public what you achieve in private’. Not only does it avoid public embarrassments, it also keeps the morale of the employee high.
Be a Flexible Support System:
The biggest problem that employees face today is the work-life imbalance. Employers need to understand that employees have responsibilities at home and have a life outside of work. Spending most of their waking hours at work can stress out a lot of employees. Most organizations have a flexible hr system where they can clock in and out as they deem necessary. This way, their performance is not based on attendance, but rather on the work that they do.
Keeping employees motivated does not happen by conducting games during Easter, a Halloween party and playing Christmas games. It is a never-ending process. People get sidetracked all the time. The extra effort needs to be spent as it is not as simple as a team-building event. The steps mentioned should be implemented frequently. Apart from boosting morale, they also make the person more productive.
Like this press release? Submit yours here.