
It is important as an employer to motivate staff, but often it can feel difficult to achieve when you demand a lot from them during their working week. Staff can quickly feel underappreciated, which has a knock on effect on their performance levels. The more you call your staff up on it, the further into a negative spiral you can get. So, with that in mind, we look at how to motivate staff by showing you care, encouraging positive work relationships and motivating staff to perform for you:
Keep in touch
It is sometimes hard for bosses to keep in touch with staff if they work from a different office, or if they are constantly travelling for meetings. However, it is really important to stay in touch. By doing so, you can feel part of your employees’ days, and you can show the ‘human’ behind the ‘name.’ If you are a smaller company, keep in touch by regularly saying Good Morning to staff, asking them how they are, and encouraging positive communication. A simple email works wonders and costs nothing.
Have an open door policy
Keeping yourself locked away in your office isn’t good for employee relations. You may distance yourself from staff, making them feel alone and causing a bigger divide between you and them. Open your door and encourage people to drop by and see you. Forbes says that open door policies encourage employees to come by and speak up when issues or important situations arise or when employees have creative ideas. Also, employers who shut their doors a lot may quickly find they are not in the loop with what’s happening in the department – because a closed door can send the unintentional message that they are uninterested.
Provide rewards
You don’t always have to reward staff with bonuses or money to show your appreciation. If you don’t have the money to do this, or you want to show your appreciation in other ways, try buying food in for your staff every month – perhaps have a ‘Pizza Friday’ or something similar. Another good idea, as described by Fruitful Office, is to have regular (weekly) fruit deliveries to your office. Fruitful Office deliver fruit to companies across the UK and their survey has found a real positive effect in the workplace. For instance, 81% of staff thought having fresh fruit available at their desk had “improved their quality of life at work” and 79% of staff said the fruit made them feel more valued as an employee. There was an 11% increase in staff agreeing that their workplace “enabled them to work more productively” following the introduction of fruit to the workplace.
Keep your policies updated
It is important to keep your policies updated so that staff can seek further information should they wish. You should make sure you have proper policies in place for maternity pay, paternity pay, leave, sicknesses, absences, holiday, changes in circumstances and so on. They need to know they are supported should anything happen in their lives, like a bereavement. Have the policies in a shared place where people can view them anonymously – like Google Drive. Update them regularly, and encourage staff to look there if they need to. Also, make sure you have solid and clear communication channels in place. Tell staff who to talk to if they need to – an HR contact, their line manager, etc.