(Newswire.net — February 24, 2016) — As a small business owner, one of the most important HR-related tasks you have in front of you is keeping employees engaged. In most cases, this means motivating them to be productive and successful. Well, in 2016, some of the most successful business owners in the country are switching things up and trying new ideas. Should you do the same?
The Changing Face of Employee Motivation
Employee motivation differs from company to company. Depending on the industry you’re in, the types of employees you hire, and how company culture is structured, what works for one company may not work for yours, and vice versa. Keeping this in mind, let’s briefly look at some unique ways successful SBOs are keeping employees motivated this year.
1. Run Contests and Competitions
People are naturally competitive. If you sense a lack of competition among your employees, you shouldn’t assume they aren’t competitive people. Instead, consider the fact that you haven’t established an environment that’s conducive to healthy competition.
By running contests, you can motivate people to increase effort and output. For example, many businesses – including Glassdoor, Zillow, Kantox, and ON24 – are using a platform called Hoopla to motivate employees with leaderboards, challenges, and real time progress reports. Have you ever considered incorporating something like this into your business?
2. Build Teams
People thrive when they are pushed and held accountable by those around them. If you have large departments with lots of employees, consider making things feel smaller by designating individual teams of three to five employees. Then, give each team specific goals and objectives. You’ll find that people work harder when they know their peers are depending on them.
3. Institute Small Rewards
Contrary to popular belief, motivation isn’t tied to the size of the reward. While it’s sometimes necessary to motivate employees with significant prizes and outcomes, you can generally get pretty successful results by offering small perks in return for particular actions.
For example, many businesses have derived incredible results from instituting casual dress days when goals are accomplished. Others have been successful with catered lunches and half days. Little things like these are not only affordable from a business owner’s perspective, but they also lead to significant motivation.
4. Hold Employees Accountable
Motivation doesn’t always have to be a warm and fuzzy thing. Sometimes the best motivation involves lighting a fire underneath your employees in order to let them know that there will be negative consequences if they don’t perform as they should. This accountability is often enough to motivate even the laziest employee who is otherwise indifferent towards the outcome of a specific event.
However, be careful not to abuse your employees by continuously using motivational techniques that are negative and overpowering. You should use this strategy sparingly, and in conjunction with positive reinforcement.
5. Communication with Everyone
“Good staff communication is essential to business success,” the Inc.com staff tells its readers. “At the most basic level, employees who don’t know what’s expected of them seldom perform to their potential.”
If you aren’t communicating with your employees in meaningful ways, then you probably aren’t doing a good job of keeping them motivated. Communication is a culture and you can’t expect employees to be engaged if you aren’t establishing expectations, answering questions, and providing feedback.
Try Something New
If you’re still using the same motivational techniques that you implemented five, ten, or fifteen years ago, something has to change. It’s highly unlikely that these strategies are still successful. Needs change – and so should your approach to workplace motivation. Give your employee motivation approach a makeover by trying some of the aforementioned techniques.