Top 10 Tips for Motivation and Appreciation
A great job you love to do is hard to find. But great employees are equally hard to keep hold of too. Making sure your colleagues are motivated and enthusiastic about coming to work every day will boost creativity, their ambitions and ultimately the success of your business.
Here are our Top 10 Tips for keeping your employees motivated and feeling appreciated.
1. Reward your colleagues
Whether it’s a small achievement or something much bigger, always take the time to thank colleagues around you for helping make it happen. Everyone likes to do a good job, but offering that added extra incentive or reward will help boost the competitive spirit amongst your team and give them something else to work towards.
You could show your appreciation to colleagues who have done a good job by having an ‘employee of the month’ award or a financial or extra annual leave bonus. Make sure you reward all staff for their good work, not just the top performers or those at higher levels within the business.
2. Public praise
Every business should do their own PR to showcase their achievements and capabilities. Whatever your good news is – you should share it with your wider workforce and thank them for their input, however small that may be. By celebrating your achievements and showing the impact employees at all levels can have will make them feel valued, proud and will help foster team spirit. Don’t forget to do this internally, through your intranet, team meetings or email, as well as externally on your website or by sending out a press release to your local media contacts.
3. Be creative
Work doesn’t have to be a daily grind. Thinking creatively can be really inspiring and motivating for your colleagues. Even if you don’t work in a typically creative industry, there are still opportunities to use your imagination to create new and more efficient ways of doing routine tasks. Creativity will make your team feel happier and more motivated, so why not shake things up once in a while?
4. Nurture talent
We’ve all been asked the familiar question, “Where do you see yourself in five or ten years time?” But sometimes it can be tricky to answer if you’re unsure about what opportunities your company could offer in terms of professional development, mentoring and training. The best way to harness your employee’s ambition is to nurture their talents and coach them to help them achieve their goals. Having something to aspire often provides the motive and drive your colleagues need to feel happy at work and for them to want to stay with your firm.
5. Mentor someone else
We all have different strengths and weaknesses and we can often covet each other’s skills in the workplace. So why not encourage your colleagues to share their experiences and skills? You could host regular team meetings, mentoring workshops, introduce a buddy system or away days. Sharing skills in this way will make your team feel happy and unified, rather than competitive and will help them appreciate each other.
6. Say thank you
The easiest way to fuel the positivity and to show your colleagues you appreciate them is to say a heartfelt ‘thank you.’ Compliments make people smile, help boost their confidence and make them feel valued. So if a colleague has been putting in some extra hours, has achieved a milestone or simply worked hard to improve – say thank you.
7. Spend time with your colleagues
No one likes to feel invisible at work or that their hard graft isn’t being recognised. It’s great when a manager or your boss says ‘thank you’ for a job well done. But employees can really feel recognised and valued if you spend time with them, either one-to-one or in a team, to talk about things which are important to them. Taking a colleague out for lunch or a coffee to thank them and ask them how they’re getting on could be just the motivational boost they need to inspire them further.
8. Be positive
It can be hard to feel motivated and positive all the time. Sometimes we look to our colleagues for the inspiration and the pick-me-up we need because peer support is really important to help you stay enthusiastic and focused. Team up with people who you know have a positive attitude and will channel your energy into keeping you motivated. They will also appreciate your help and support in return.
9. Trust in their skills
Colleagues who feel they have autonomy over their jobs and who are allowed the freedom to make day-to-day important decisions can really feel appreciated because they know their boss trusts them to get on with the job in hand. Being micro-managed and having to check every detail with your boss can be demoralising and disheartening if you feel you’re capable and confident in those decisions. Trusting in their skills and instincts will make them feel their judgement is appreciated.
10. Reward learning and development
Fitting in extra work to develop skills or studying for a professional qualification can be rewarding, but it can also be tough managing a work/life/study balance. As an employer it can be great to see your employees investing their energy into developing their skills as this will benefit them personally as well as your business. If you have staff who have achieved new qualifications or accreditation for training, why not reward them by hosting an award ceremony? It doesn’t have to be glitzy or glamorous – you could even incorporate it into your regular team meetings.
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