This week’s post is especially intended for entrepreneurs, small business owners and managers. Every business owner and manager knows that motivated employees are more productive and also, they do more quality work. Therefore, you need to keep your employees motivated and make them feel excited to come to work every day.
There are many ways to keep your employees happy and motivated without raising their pay. Below you can find some of them:
- Create a Pleasant Work Environment: Make sure the office looks nice cosmetically. Having plants around the office will increase positive feelings as well as help reduce stress, lower blood pressure, noise level and humidity. Also, neutral tones and earth tones are the best for an office because these colors are calming and warm. In addition, a softer light is much better than fluorescent lighting.
- Recognize the Achievements of Your Employees: When your employees accomplish their goals or achieve something, take the time to appreciate them. Write an email or a personal thank you note for their accomplishments and you can even give them a small gift like a gift card or tickets to a sports game. If a team achieves something, you can reward them with a nice lunch.
- Coach Your Employees: Feedback is great for motivating your employees. Nobody likes to be micro-managed. Instead they prefer someone who will motivate them and lead them towards a goal. If you notice that the performance of one of your employees is weaker than others, give him/her constructive feedback so s/he can also improve her/himself. Let your employees know that you care for them.
- Encourage Training: Encourage your employees to learn new skills and go to training sessions. Motivate them to get professional certifications that will be helpful for their job.
- Be Clear in Your Communication: You always have to be transparent when communicating with your employees. Even if the news are bad, you should still clearly talk with your employees and explain them what is going on within the company. Create time to listen to your employees’ concerns and do your best to solve them. Keep an open channel of communication and get their feedback when necessary.
- Casual Fridays: If your company has a dress code for business, making Fridays a casual dress day will boost your employees’ morale and motivate them. You can use holidays to create theme days as well. For example, you can ask your employees to wear something orange on Halloween or green on St.Patrick’s Day. This will let them feel the spirit as well as create a more positive work environment.
