Motivating Your Team to Improve Performance
Are you wondering how to improve employee performance and motivation for your business? If so, you’ve come to the right place.
Team building and developing happy employees are important parts of running any business. When employees feel disengaged or unappreciated, performance and productivity suffer, which affects the bottom line. As a business owner, executive, or human resources manager, employee engagement is something you can’t afford to ignore.
So how should you go about motivating the team to improve performance in the workplace? What do you say to motivate your team?
These are the questions this article will seek to answer. Below, you’ll find our top recommendations to keep your team motivated and improve employee productivity.
For some of the best ways to motivate employees, keep reading.
Recognize When Someone Has Done a Good Job
When someone feels like they’ve been acknowledged for doing a great job, they feel motivated to keep performing well in the future.
Because of this, it really doesn’t take much to start sending a positive message to your team. Simply looking out for opportunities to show appreciation for good work is all it takes to boost engagement and productivity. Yet in spite of this, it’s surprising how rarely managers take a proactive approach to showing recognition.
Positive feedback helps people feel like they’re valued in their roles. It’s no wonder that this kind of motivation works wonders to improve employee performance.
Cultivate a Friendly and Motivating Work Environment
Most employees are no longer content if you pay them a reasonable wage and treat them with respect. You need to go above and beyond by cultivating a work environment that’s a joy to be in. A relaxing break room stocked with healthy snacks can help employees feel more motivated and energized when they return to work.
People feel better in attractive and appealing environments. If the walls in your facility are painted a dull or unpleasant color or things are in bad repair, it may be harder for your employees to stay energized. Making sure your workspaces are comfortable and in good repair can go a long way.
Keep Employees Motivated and Engaged With Autonomy
Although a comfortable work environment can be a nice perk, employee motivation doesn't come from feeling good. In fact, people perform better and feel happier when they feel challenged in their work. One of the best ways to improve your staff’s satisfaction in their work is to grant them a healthy level of autonomy.
When your employees know they are trusted with responsibility for certain aspects of your company, they’ll feel more valued. This in turn will cause them to feel more motivated and dutiful in their work.
Involve Employees in Setting Achievable Goals
Achievable and measurable goals are important to progress of any kind. You can involve them in the higher levels of your business by giving them a say in what goals to pursue.
The reason for this isn’t necessarily to let employees decide what to do. Rather, it’s to give employees more clarity around why their work is important. It’s about letting them experience a high-level overview of your business. Then, they’ll be able to see where they fit into the picture. This feeling of belonging is a powerful motivator.
Improve Motivation by Improving Communication
One of the most frustrating experiences employees have is not understanding their supervisors or coworkers. Even for excellent communicators, details can sometimes get mixed up when hurried instructions are given. This feeling of confusion or ambiguity can be highly demotivating, and even anxiety-causing.
Even if you’re a strong communicator already, anyone can benefit from reviewing their communication style and effectiveness. There might be simple ways you could improve your staff’s comprehension of instructions and feedback. It’s also important to make sure your employees have a way to make their voices heard through feedback, too.
Keep in Mind How Your Employees Feel
Employees don’t usually want to be coddled, and they’ll often feel insulted if you try. However, relationships of all kinds—including business relationships—always go better when people try to be considerate of others’ feelings.
For sensible, no-nonsense managers, being aware of the emotions that might underly what people say may seem like a waste of time. After all, what matters is communicating efficiently to get the work done. However, being mindful of what others may be feeling will not only make them feel heard but help everyone understand one another’s ideas better.
Facilitate Healthy Relationships for Long-Term Success
Employee turnover continues to be one of the biggest costs businesses face. One reason people leave their place of employment is that they feel unneeded or under-appreciated there. But when people stay with an organization, it’s often because of the relationships they’ve built there.
The fact of the matter is, work by itself can only be so rewarding. What people really care about is feeling like they belong among other people. You can take advantage of this by being proactive in developing respectful but warm professional relationships with the people in your employment.
Start Motivating the Team to Improve Performance in the Workplace With Resource PI
If your company is like most organizations, you probably have a business strategy, but you may not have a talent strategy in place. Without a talent strategy, motivating the team to improve performance in the workplace can be a challenge. That’s because knowing whom to place in specific roles for best results is essential to keeping your team motivated.
Resource PI uses data collection and cutting-edge HR practices to boost team members’ productivity. In our increasingly connected, increasingly competitive world, it’s something every business needs.
Contact Resource PI today to see how we can support your business.