Are your employees overworked, overstressed and just about, well, over it all? Looking to motivate them, but lack funds to give raises?
Here are some ideas to motivate your employees without increasing their pay:
- First of all, look closely at your company culture to see if there’s anything within it that’s a true drain on employee morale and motivation. Ask employees if there’s something — a rule they consider draconian, a policy that’s outdated, expectations way out of line with reality — that brings them down. Some of these may be
- A company full of backbiting and politics
- Unnecessary rules
- Too many unproductive meetings
- Unclear expectations
- Toleration of poor performance by others
- Unfair treatment
- Not being able to use their talents and abilities to their full extent
Can you eliminate any of these?
Second, understand that every single one of your employees, being human, want a) to feel they belong to something bigger than themselves, b) want to feel they’ve achieved something, c) want control over how they do their work, and d) want to be recognized for work well done.
Instead, try these:
- Try to make routine tasks fun
- Give your employees control over how they do their work
- Let people make mistakes; no shame for making them
- Give tons of encouragement
- Appreciate what they do for you
- Provide clear goals and positive feedback/acknowledgement when those goals are met, particularly if the goals are exceeded.
Some more specific employee non-monetary motivation ideas:
- Give employee of the month awards (if you’re a large organization, let these by department so that more people actually have a chance to win this prize), such as a day off with pay, a special parking space.
- Ask local businesses for gift cards and discount coupons and give these to employees every now and then (the business wins because once the employees use the discount/get the free gift, they’ll purchase more from that vendor over time)
If you need additional as to how to motivate employees, contact us. Our Human Resources and Labour Relations Services help Winnipeg companies manage their workforce so that everyone — employee and management — stay engaged and productive at work. Contact us today.
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