Motivation Tactics for Your Employees

Posted by Alan Hickey on Sep 15, 2020

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During these difficult times, it’s more important than ever for businesses to engage with employees. Doing so can keep staff focused, happy, and productive.

And the reason for a business to do so is clear. Employee motivation helps reduce staff turnover—keeping talented staff members with a business is crucial to long-term success.

So, let’s explore what you need to do to successfully engage with your workforce.

The Perks that Increase Employee Motivation

Traditionally, employee engagement didn’t involve much more than occasional salary reviews and a few extra holiday days after a few years’ service.

However, these days modern staff expect a great deal more. It helps to improve their work-life balance and to increase their financial well-being.

Ultimately, the goal is to make your business as enjoyable a place to work as possible. If you put the time in to support your employees, then you’ll have a much greater opportunity to improve your employee retention rates.

So, what sorts of motivation tactics can you use? Let’s take a look:

  • Offer business transparency and support from managers.
  • Provide staff with rewards and perks.
  • Offer professional development.
  • Offer flexible working opportunities (such as changeable start/finish times and homeworking).
  • Start a free fruit day for health living.
  • Have annual salary reviews.
  • Provide employee questionnaires to find out what staff want.
  • Encourage social events so staff can get to know each other better.
  • Consider gamifying your workplace (making you tasks like a game—and more fun in the process).
  • Provide greater independence to staff (rather than micromanaging, which can spoil workplace morale).
  • Create an exciting and dynamic working environment, with a colourful and bright office to promote creativity.
  • Relaxing workplace perks, such as a pool table and a games console for lunch breaks.

You’re under no legal obligation to use any of the above. But, remember, employees have more freedom than ever before.

They can work anywhere they want in the country—if not world—many of them remotely.

So, if your business isn’t offering a competitive wage and benefits package, staff will look to work elsewhere for a better work-life balance.

Understanding Your Employees

It’s good business practice to get an understanding of the types of staff members you have.

In The Guardian’s The nine types of employees and how to motivate them, it highlights the various personalities you can expect about the workplace.
It’s an important list as you get a better understanding of what the varying motivations are in and out of work.

On a basic level, you’ll have extroverted and introverted employees—so understanding how they operate at work will help you to motivate them appropriately.

The more understanding you have of who’s working for you, the better you can tailor your motivational approach to suit the needs of your entire workforce.

Because not everyone will want the same thing. Although salary reviews and flexible working will be popular with most staff, some of your other perks may not be suitable for everyone.

So try to find a balance that suits your entire workforce. That’s where questionnaires come in handy, as you can receive direct information from your employees about what they’d like to receive.

Motivational Perks to Avoid

Remember, not all motivational ideas are good ones. Some may even upset staff members and cause conflict.

Even if they seem like an obviously great idea to you, they might not be for someone else.

Such as the following:

  • An office radio: Although this may seem like a great idea, everyone has varying tastes in music. And some employees may baulk when a certain genre is playing loudly at work. Office staff have access to earphones and their personal favourites, so it’s best to let them enjoy that.
  • An office pet: It’s common for digital agencies to have a pet dog in the office, but you must remember people have allergies and phobias. You should look to clarify with all employees if they’re happy to have a pet dog at work before actioning it.
  • Indulgent snacks: Surprise food deliveries (such as fast food or donuts) may seem like a fantastic treat, but some employees may not appreciate it. Especially if they’re dieting or suffering from an illness (such as diabetes).
  • Free alcohol: Due to religious reasons, or other issues, it’s not always the best choice—some staff may not want to indulge. Others may need to drive home after, which makes it a particularly dangerous.

Employee of the month awards: Quite a traditional inclusion, but these can be a bad idea. As sometimes the reason for choosing certain employees can rankle others who feel they worked very hard. As a result, it’s better to reward the whole workforce—rather than certain individuals randomly.

Of course, you can use any of the above if you want to. Just be aware of the need for caution when including them as a perk.

Taking Advantage of Employee Recognition

Employee rewards and recognition packages are becoming increasingly popular for SMEs (and even large businesses).

Allgo is a driving force behind initiatives such as:

  • Employee recognition.
  • Peer-to-peer reviews.
  • Service awards.
  • Reward catalogues.
  • Tax-free rewards.

Crucial to any SME considering this is it’s flexible for any type of budget. So, even on limited funds you can provide rewards to your employees—whether instant or for commitment to service.

And there’s a four step process to finding success:
1. Set your goals.
2. Design your programme.
3. Launch your initiative.
4. Measure the results.

They can have a big impact on your culture and performance, ensuring your workforce goes from strength to strength.

With the right programme, you can engage with your staff and reap the benefits.

The Benefits of Motivating your Employees

As the BBC notes in retaining and motivating staff:
“If a company’s employees are motivated they will be more likely to apply themselves. If workers are motivated they will take a greater pride in their work which will result in a higher quality product or service.”

For your business, there are myriad reasons why you want to look after your workforce.

The most obvious is to provide reasons for your employees to stay on. And happier staff members mean better productivity—all in all, you’re set to grow as a business and save money in the process (hiring new employees is always costly).

But there are other advantages, too. These include:

  • Lower absenteeism: Staff will enjoy coming into work more, which means they’ll be less tempted to take time off or arrive to work late.
  • Improve customer service: Happier employees lead to better interactions with customers, which can promote a loyal customer base.
  • Improve business reputation: Word of mouth will spread about your progressive approach to working life, which can help attract talented employees.
  • Gain a positive working environment: Toxic workplaces come about due to stress and unhappiness, which directly affects work quality.

With a proactive attitude, you can address employee motivation at work and benefit collectively—as an employer and with your employees.

So, when times are tough think of how to keep the spirits up with a multitude of positive perks.

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