#recruiting #hiring #employeeretention #motivation #teammotivation #payday #motivationmonday #hiring101 #captialhire #capitalrecruiting #capitalcareers
Hiring great staff seems to be the never-ending challenge many business owners and hiring managers face. Retaining and motivating great staff is even harder. One of the biggest questions I often get asked is 'What does it really take to keep my employees motivated to stay?' Well, the answer is simple.
Money!
Kidding. Although you may find it trivial, but the reality is, people are actually motived by things that actually cost nothing. Yes, NOTHING. Sure, money is always a factor, but let's take a minute to look at a few other things we can include in our employee retention plan before opening our wallets.
1. Recognition & Positive Reinforcement
For all you Psychology majors out there, you know the value and truth behind Palov's theory of Positive Reinforcement and how much the value of this theory adds to our everyday lives. From training our pets to teaching our children, and yes, even our spouses from time to time, we are naturally conditioned to repeat positive behaviours when rewards are involved.
When talking about rewards, we don't always have to look at them as a monetary value. As humans, we are naturally conditioned to seek approval from others. One way to promote a motivated and engaged team is through providing feedback and positive reinforcement to our employees and let me tell you again, this costs NOTHING. As many of us are navigating through trying times, our numbers may be down, let's try to look at things in a positive light any way we can. For example, if your regular sales quotas are 4 deals per month and your employee closes only 2-3 but you KNOW they have been working their butt off, congratulate them anyway. A simple gesture of providing recognition to an employee goes a long way in that they feel appreciated for the work they are doing and shows them that nothing is going unnoticed.
In an effort to ensure that everyone has their time to shine, maybe try choosing one employee a week or monthly and give them a company shoutout for something that has been done well. Whether it's at your next Town Hall or through a company-wide email, choose someone and say something positive about their work to make them feel special. This simple gesture will go a long way.
2. Responsibility
Another great way to add value for employees and increase their motivation is by adding responsibility. Now, there is a very fine line between giving some responsibilities and just plain taking advantage. By adding little bits of responsibility at a time to an employee's existing scope of work, this creates a sense of future and growth within their role. Whether you are providing additional or new training incentives or preparing them for a promotion, show them you are invested in their future just as much as they are.
The key here is to provide extra responsibility at a fair and reasonable rate and not just dumping as much as you can on them to save a buck or two. That would literally defeats this whole purpose.
3. Setting Goals/Competition
We have all heard the phrase 'A little friendly competition', but have you ever thought about deliberately creating that competition at work? Competition can be a huge motivator for many employees, particularly for those who are self-driven and in constant need of a challenge. There are many ways you can implement competitions within your workplace. For those of us that don't all have the luxury of the office foosball table, try setting up a monthly or quarterly competition for all of your employees to come up with a new business idea. Select one for each term and run with it. This creates a sense of investment in the workplace, a sense of pride in their work itself, and also excites them to think outside the box.
Setting goals is another great and TOTALLY FREE incentive you can give your employees. Setting goals goes back to the competition style of creating motivation, but this time you are competing against yourself. Setting goals is a great way to maintain consistent touch points with your employees, not only showing them you are engaged, but also helping to motivate those who can sometimes find themselves lacking focus.
4. Money
Ok, you didn't really think I was going to forget this one, did you? Reality is at the end of the day, money does play a HUGE factor in why we choose to stay somewhere long-term. As not every organization can afford to pay employees like the IBM's of the world, we can often work our way around this in ways that we can afford but still providing a financial gain to our employees. Some companies offer performance-based bonuses (often tied to competition and goal setting), RRSP matching, company-paid health and dental benefits, or profit-sharing.
Do what works best for your organizational needs but try to always remember, that without your employees, where would you be?
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