15 Ways to Get the Most From Your Employees

It’s common knowledge that most employees start a job with high levels of enthusiasm. Research by the Sirota Survey Intelligence (Purchase, New York) group indicates that in 85% of companies, motivation levels go down after six months on the job. Given this statistic, what can employers do to keep their employees constantly motivated?

Know What’s Working and What’s Not

 1. Conduct Employee Motivation SurveysConduct biannual anonymous surveys. Ask candid questions about organizational policies, employee pride, daily practices, salary, perks, benefits, work culture, and so on. Build a response database and analyze where you might be going wrong.2. Understand What Your Employees NeedEmployees seek respect, fair treatment, job security, good benefits, and industry-comparable pay. They also seek acknowledgement, camaraderie, and pride in themselves and in the organization. As an employer, you must understand these goals and strive to satisfy them in order to maintain an enthusiastic workforce.3. Look For The Factors That Upset The BalanceIf all else is fine and employees are still not motivated, something’s upsetting the balance. It could be a bad manager, too much emphasis on work and less on personal development, or a disparity in workload management.

Solve Problems With Empathy

 4. Don’t Offer SubstitutesA pat on the shoulder won’t pay the bills. A pay raise without recognition won’t provide overall satisfaction. Understand how all these needs flow into each other and provide for them all.5. Provide Empathetic BenefitsSome organizations withdraw their support the moment employees fall sick or experience difficult family issues. You cannot offer indefinite leave, but do whatever you can to help your employee in their time of need.6. Hire, Train, And Mentor The Right ManagersIndividual managers are not in charge of company leadership, but they can do a lot to either rock the boat or help it float. Hire the right people and train them based on your employee-motivation policies. Mentor them based on feedback from previous team members.

Train Your Managers

 7. Train Managers In Motivational People SkillsEach team member must feel that they belong and have a reason for being on the team. This goes beyond mere job description or money. It falls to the manager to inspire, motivate, and build a positive relationship with team members. Not all managers are born with this skill, so you have to provide the right training.8. Train Managers How To Recognize ContributionManagers can seriously demotivate team members by failing to recognize their contributions. Train your managers to praise all contributions both big and small. Compliments and recognition are necessary, even if people are only doing what they’re expected to do.9. Train Your Managers To Be Expediters, Not ControllersA manager must understand team member needs, intercede on their behalf, and represent their needs to management. It’s these activities, and not their title of manager, that sets their role apart from regular team members.10. Train Managers On How To Provide FeedbackEnsure that managers both praise exceptional performance and provide any feedback for improvement as soon as a project is complete. Employees are more likely to accept feedback for improvement when they know management is satisfied overall. Managers must not wait for the annual performance review to provide feedback.11. Train Managers To Be ObjectiveFeedback for improvement must be objective, unemotional, impersonal, factual, and clear. It should be directed at the performance and not at the employee. The manager’s personal opinion of the employee must not influence his comments.  Keep the feedback relevant to the employee's role. Don't let your comments wander to anything not directly tied to the task at hand.12. Train Managers To Really ListenManagers must listen to employees and understand their perspectives. By doing this, they can understand how best to deal with performance issues and effectively encourage improvement. At the same time, managers must know how to distinguish between employee manipulation and the real issues.13. Train Managers To Be Subject Matter ExpertsIf the manager doesn't know or understand the project or technology, how can he or she provide feedback or assess someone’s performance? Make sure your managers know each aspect of the work that their team does.14. Train Managers To Be HumbleSome managers exploit their positions to show their superiority. It’s your job to train them to remember the real reason they’re there. Their job is to manage their team, improve team performance, and positively impact your business, not to upset the balance.15. Train Managers To Work With Personality Types, Build Relationships, And Ensure Positive Team DynamicsYour managers must treat each team member the same way and not show individual preference. Your manager should know who works best with whom and use this knowledge to form task-based groups. He or she must also be able to notice and leverage cross-learning opportunities for the betterment of the whole team.This article was written by Dean of Invesp - a conversion rate optimization company that helps business in optimizing their landing pages and improving the experience of their website visitors.

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