Goals Should Be Easy for Employees to Feel Motivated So They Can
25 Ways To Keep an Employee Motivated
By Indeed Editorial Team
Updated September 12, 2021 | Published April 3, 2020
Updated September 12, 2021
Published April 3, 2020
Related: Employee Motivational Speech: The Failproof Formula
In this video, Jenn, a certified career coach, will share a winning, 5-step strategy for connecting with your audience and motivating them to achieve the task at hand.
Companies heavily rely on their employees to produce and maintain growth. Team members who feel motivated appreciate their part of the process helping the company realize its goals, which leads to strengthened loyalty and increased production.
In this article, we outline 25 ways to keep your employees motivated.
How to keep an employee motivated
Salary increases and employee bonuses are not the only way to retain employee motivation. Here are some ideas you can turn to when you need to reinvigorate your team:
1. Empower individuals
Managers should work with each employee to develop personal goals, allow them autonomy in their tasks and serve as a mentor to help them develop their strengths. This helps sustain motivation because employees feel valuable and supported.
2. Empower your team
You can empower your entire team in several ways, including by asking the group for input on a new process or allowing them to work on a project together without a lot of supervision. By taking on less of a supervisory role, you can show that you trust your team to get work done however they decide is best.
3. Encourage teamwork
When employees are part of a team working toward a common goal, they tend to hold themselves to a higher standard so they don't let the team down. Therefore, if you make them accountable to each other by setting them on a collaborative project, they may feel motivated to perform their part quickly and efficiently and to produce higher-quality work.
4. Schedule team-building activities
Give employees a chance to connect in a way beyond typical office tasks and motivation could increase. The right team-building activity will recognize the strengths of each member of the group, promote collaboration, increase group cohesion and celebrate individual diversity.
Read more: 6 Ideas for Team Building Activities
5. Maintain a positive work environment
A positive attitude is contagious, especially among coworkers who work closely together. Display positivity in your verbal and written communications with the team. A positive work environment also encourages collaboration and teaches that it's okay to make mistakes as long as employees embrace the learning opportunities that come from it.
6. Be available
Although managers attend required leadership meetings and spend time on other concerns, such as budgeting and crisis communication plans, it's also important to be available for your staff. Adjust your schedule, if possible, to accommodate an employee who wants to have an impromptu discussion. This helps keep employees motivated because they know that their manager is available and values their time.
7. Reward employees
A reward system can be a fun and satisfying way to motivate employees. Rewards can include a gift card to their favorite restaurant, a cup of coffee or time off work. It's important to find a reward that is enticing to most members of the group. Employees should feel naturally driven to increase their performance to qualify for the reward.
8. Share feedback
One of the main ways to keep an employee motivated is by sharing feedback related to their performance. When an employee knows what they are doing right and where they can improve, they'll feel inspired to continue their efforts and implement change in their processes to strive for a better review next time.
9. Make office improvements
The functionality and layout of a workspace can affect how motivated an employee feels. Consider the benefits of an open floor plan versus high cubicle walls and how your team can best work both together and individually to meet company goals. Improvements to a work environment can include forming a dedicated space with board games so employees can take a quick break or offering free coffee in the break room. It's a benefit to motivation if employees start their day on a strong note and have a fun break to look forward to.
10. Encourage breaks
Breaks allow an employee to step away from their desk and refresh. This helps them come back with a renewed motivation to finish the workday strong. Encourage employees to take a walk around the office building, have a snack in the communal cafeteria or read a chapter of a book in an unused meeting room.
11. Allow remote work days
Allowing remote work days can mean dedicating one day a week as a "creative" day where employees can work outside the office at a location of their choosing, whether it's their home or a local coffee shop. Remote work days can also help accommodate life events, such as a home repair visit or midday doctor's appointment. Employees can feel motivated by both a change of scenery and by knowing that their manager trusts them to complete their tasks even when outside of a traditional office setting.
Read more: The Ultimate Guide To Work-Life Balance
12. Publicly recognize employees
Most employees like when their leadership or team publicly recognizes them for the work they do. It's important for individuals to feel a sense of accomplishment and to know that their team values their contribution. Publicly recognizing employees also motivates other members of the team because they want to be recognized as well, which could help boost productivity.
13. Start a competition
A friendly competition among coworkers is an intrinsic motivator. An office competition should help move projects along, have rewards in place and celebrate team wins. Competitions should also introduce creativity and innovation into a project, and they are great ways for coworkers to bond with one another.
14. Get to know employees
Employees are motivated when members of company leadership take the time to get to know them. Without getting too personal, unless the employee introduces more serious topics, ask employees about their hobbies, interests and family. Taking an interest in the team helps develop positive working relationships and motivates employees by demonstrating their individual worth to the company.
15. Be transparent
When employees are aware of how the company is doing, what projects are in the pipeline and what the long-term growth goals are, they develop a vested interest in the business and how their work fits into the bigger picture. To be transparent, share sales and projection reports and establish open and honest communication in the workplace.
16. Share your vision
Employees who know what the company vision is will know the importance of their role and are more likely to feel motivated in their everyday work. Employees who are aware of the company vision should feel inspired to contribute, which helps increase morale.
17. Discuss advancement opportunities
Employees who want to grow with the company will appreciate discussions about advancement opportunities. Meet with each member of the team to talk about their goals, strengths, opportunities for improvement and the direction the business is heading. This open talk helps establish a path for the employee's career and motivates them to work hard and efficiently to achieve their goals for advancement.
18. Set SMART goals
SMART goals are a crucial part of any workplace. SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound. As long as the goals you set are SMART, they should motivate an employee to always perform at their best.
Read more: How To Write SMART Goals (With Examples)
19. Go out to lunch
People need a break in the middle of the day, and a free lunch can aid in employee motivation. It can be an incentive for a job well done or a "just because" meal to show appreciation for a collaborative team that always works together toward a common goal. Team lunches also give employees the chance to remove themselves from work for a moment and get to know their teammates outside of the office.
20. Thank employees
People want to feel appreciated for their efforts. At work, this means having a leadership team that recognizes an employee's talents, efforts and commitment to the team. A simple message of thanks can make a big difference in the motivation of staff members because people are willing to work hard for a company that values their work.
21. Support new ideas
Employees are the ones who work the closest with the tools, software and processes that help keep a company going. Employees have first-hand experience with projects and can more easily see any opportunity for improvement. Create an environment where employees feel empowered to come up with ideas and comfortable enough to share them. Show them support by listening to their ideas and implementing them if they make sense for the organization.
Employees could feel motivated to continue their hard work and come up with additional ideas to streamline processes and grow the company if supported in this way.
22. Celebrate milestones
Milestone celebrations can keep an employee motivated because they'll feel valued and want to continue to do as much as they can for their team. Milestones can signify progress points reached on a project, like deliverables or target dates. They can also include personal events like birthdays, work anniversaries or even accomplishments such as earning a master's degree or getting engaged.. Milestone celebrations can keep an employee motivated because they'll feel valued and want to continue to do as much as they can for their team.
23. Set an example
Employees are likely to follow the lead of their managers, so it's important for you to remain motivated to pass along that work ethic to your team. Employees are also more likely to stay motivated if they have a superior they can look up to. Set an example by responding to emails promptly, working alongside your team to complete a project and being available for meetings.
24. Encourage learning
Learning fosters growth, and employees who are a part of a learning environment feel motivated to take on new tasks, acquire a new skill or pursue a leadership position. It's important for management teams to facilitate learning in the workplace either through in-office training opportunities or by encouraging employees to sign up for conferences that will help them grow in their role.
25. Foster creativity
An employee's creativity can display itself as an artistic design for an advertisement, as in the work of a graphic designer, or even in a unique and thoughtful way of approaching a project. For example, there may be a process in place—the way everyone has always performed a certain task—yet an employee should feel empowered to approach the task in a new way that may work out better for everyone.
Source: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/how-to-keep-an-employee-motivated
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