Communication
While you may think this is a given, it’s the level and type of communication that’s key. It’s important to keep your staff well-informed about developments within the company, which helps them feel valued. Whenever possible, even if you’re the CEO, speak to people face-to-face, rather than relying on others to do it for you. Active listening is an important skill and your team will follow suit if you lead by example. Let people know when they’ve done well and should it be necessary to give some negative feedback, always start with a positive to lessen the blow.
Lead by Example
You may be the boss but if your employees regularly see you ducking out early to play golf, what work-ethic message are you sending? Working hard and maintaining a positive attitude and mood should motivate the workforce to emulate your good habits. If your company is actively involved with community or charitable concerns, encourage everyone to participate, yourself included. Knowing you self-evaluate and always strive to improve your performance will go a long way to encouraging your employees to do the same.
Empower
It’s important that your personnel feel in control, with a certain degree of autonomy to make choices, without having to seek prior approval. They will want to be effective and know that what they do is making a difference, however subtle. Employees who believe their role is meaningful and in whose decision-making ability you have confidence, will ultimately be more motivated and content. Self-esteem will be raised, leading to a more sanguine and productive worker. Another key way to empower is to not only seek opinion and feedback, but to act on it when appropriate. If you employ experts, ask them what they need to accomplish a particular job and then let them get on with it. Having a ‘suggestion box’ and throwing all ideas in the trash will only serve to demotivate.
CPD and Advancement
Nothing motivates quite like believing you can climb the career ladder. Having new responsibilities and achieving additional benefits can be a very attractive carrot. Everyone working for you should set a goal for advancement, then a CPD program should be drawn up to help them realise their goal. Coaching, mentoring and in-house training is an effective combination to help those with career ambitions. Having CPD plans for an entire workforce will require a flexible learning platform that can be tailored for individual requirements. Totara Learn is an open-source learning management system that’s designed for corporate use. Built on a popular LMS, it is surprisingly affordable owing to no per-user licence fees. You’ll be able to upload rich and varied multimedia content for training modules, which can be made to custom-fit your workforce. Offering maximum flexibility and convenience, training can be accessed from anywhere, using notebook, tablet or cell phone. Managers will want to keep track of their team’s progress and Totara LMS makes this simple, with in-depth MI through its advanced reporting features.
Incentives
Whether it’s two free tickets to a ball game or some time off, rewarding people for hard work and achievement is a great way to motivate. Of course if it’s viable for your organization, you could offer a monetary incentive like a bonus or commission, although even a small perk can make someone feel appreciated, which is what it’s all about.