Keeping your team interested in their work and motivated to complete tasks to the best of their abilities is a complex challenge for any manager. Most workers in the United States - to the tune of 70 percent - are somewhat to entirely disconnected from their jobs, meaning they’re really not engaged or interested in what they’re doing.
This is a problem for managers, because obviously employees who do care contribute much more to any office. It’s the manager’s job to figure out how to encourage your employees to get involved, become passionate about their work and perform their best.
There are several ways you can encourage your employees to work harder. Most strategies require care, attention and company resources - if you’re asking for loyalty from your employees, you should be offering it as well. But by utilizing those strategies, you’re most likely to make an impact on employee performance and improve office productivity.
Give them individual facetime
When you’re trying to produce the best work in your employees, one of the best tactics to employ is the one-one-one meeting, followed closely by lots of facetime with the office as a whole. Giving employees individual attention allows you to review what they’re working on, what they’re struggling with and where their projects are going. It also bolsters their morale because it makes them feel heard and noticed. Individual meetings allow you to discuss their career development in detail, and you can raise and talk through concerns at the same time. An employee who knows he or she will get to discuss progress with the boss on a regular basis will want to bring something to be proud of in those meetings.
Ample facetime in the office also helps boost morale and improve productivity. Employees work best when they feel supported, and your presence shows that you’re not just a distant supervisor but part of the team.
Provide opportunities for them to grow
Although you want your employees to do well in their immediate positions, even if it’s running a self storage business, they’re thinking about the next step in their careers. If there’s nowhere for them to go in your company, that will be a significant deterrent to improving productivity. An employee who believes there’s no future for her career at your business isn’t going to become invested in it - she will always have one foot out the door, looking for a better opportunity elsewhere.
If you aren’t offering clear incentives, promotions and opportunities to rise, you won’t get the best performance out of your employees. Adopt a policy of promoting internally, scout your employees for potential management material and take steps to give them regular training and opportunities to improve their skills and resumes. Invest in their career success so they will want to invest in your business success.
Make them proud of their work
Employees do better if they think their work is meaningful. As a manager, it’s important to impress upon your employees the significance of their role in the company’s success and the significance of the company’s success on the local community. What are you offering, and what can they claim to be doing by association? You have to market your own business to your employees - making them proud to work at the business will encourage productivity and more devotion to the company. Help your employees understand the bigger picture behind the role they play.
Encourage them to come together
A strong bond among employees can help boost productivity and motivate hard work. Employees who enjoy collaborating, talking and hanging out with each other will enjoy coming to work, spend more time brainstorming and discussing issues, feel a stronger bond to the company via their association with other company employees and develop a long-term loyalty that can last as long as the team remains generally intact. Evening outings and employee events can encourage that socialization and help form closer bonds.
Getting your employees invested in their jobs involves investing in them, not just monetarily but emotionally. You must take time to interact with your employees, help them come together and show them what value they have to the company in order to make them feel important and motivated to preserve and promote its success. Don’t fall prey to a high turnover rate and low employee morale - give your employees reason to stick around and work hard.
Jeremiah Owyang is an internet entrepreneur speciaising in peer-to-peer networks