It is extremely important for an employer to understand the priorities of their employees. Their motivations could differ from one another - from pay and salary, to role progression and responsibilities. Transparency plays a crucial role in this. For instance, 9 out of 10 employees consider flexible working to be a key motivator to workplace productivity.
This article will list four important points of attention that direct towards a number of ways in which you can motivate your staff, for the goals of staff retention and thus consequent company growth.
Focus on bonus systems
Bonuses or commission structures are often a great way to keep employees happy, as well as motivate them to fulfill or exceed their targets. Bonuses are added on top of a fixed salary.
Bonus systems or commission structures are particularly applicable for job fields such as recruitment or sales. In instances where salaries are entirely fixed, bonuses can be replaced by company perks such as extra days off or discount cards. These systems can thus motivate employees to be as efficient as possible to achieve these benefits which are not typically fixed.
Focus on career growth
It is always important to assess whether a new position that you are advertising will lead to job progression for the successful applicant. Job progression is particularly efficient for businesses as it reduces the time spent training new employees and the time spent on the recruitment process. Job progression additionally allows employees to work on improving their knowledge and skills to consistently improve and come out on top.
As such, it is always important to map out the career paths of all employees for their growth. In these instances, it is great to be transparent and allow the employee to visualise and understand their career path and future expectations.
Focus and invest in mentoring and training
“It is important to note that not all employees are motivated by money or career growth,” explains Justine Gray of startup, DollarHand.com
“For some, an important motivation is to act as a role model and mentor for more junior members of staff. In this case, it is useful to give these employees an opportunity to educate.”
“These opportunities are not only invaluable for the mentees, but the mentor too, to allow them to improve on their communication and teaching skills. This is also particularly useful in encouraging peers to help in training new employees, as it may reduce further fees and time spent resourcing this externally.”
“Furthermore, money spent on investing in programmes such as public speaking training and IT training can also be inherently useful to the growth of a business.”
Focus on self-development
As mentioned in the previous point, professional training courses are a great way to increase the value of your employees. This taps into the self-development element. Employees are always looking to better themselves not only as part of a workforce, but also for individual reasons.
Furthermore, training does not always have to come with money and external resourcing. It is often useful to seek out the talents and offerings of current employees. This allows them to gain the opportunity of educating their peers, while also allowing others to learn.
It is advised to hold regular discussions with employees to discuss what topics or skills may motivate them the most, and how they can best collaborate to learn from each other.