A Detailed Guide to Employee Motivation
One of the most important responsibilities of a manager is to motivate employees. But how do you keep your employees motivated? There is no singular approach to motivating your workforce. A manager may have to exercise a range of techniques to maintain a desired level of motivation. And this can be one Herculean feat if you don’t know how to begin and go about it. So, here’s our collection of tips and strategies to help you ramp up your employee motivation efforts.
This guide on employee motivation covers all traditional motivation theories to the present-day best practices. Motivation promotes productivity and increases employee retention, making it a top priority for most managers. And this guide is all set to gear you up with practical and exciting ways to improve employees’ motivation by lifting their morale, increasing their satisfaction and offering them a better job experience.
Getting Familiar with Motivational Theories
Getting started without knowing the basics is never fruitful, so here are a couple of articles that will give you a quick run through the basic concepts of some of the widely used motivation theories. Instead of mere explanations of the theories, the information presented here is more inclined to help you make practical use of their concepts.
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Using Motivation Theories to Help Influence Organizational Behavior
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[Employee Motivation Lessons From Literature
](https://www.brighthub.com/office/entrepreneurs/articles/50053.aspx)
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Applying Maslow’s Theory of Motivation to the Home Office
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Application of Victor Vroom’s Expectancy Theory to Drive Employee Performance
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Expectancy vs. Goal-Setting Motivation Theory: Which Works Better?
Boosting Employee Morale
Employee morale is an indicator of how happy your employees are working for you. Motivation and morale always go hand in hand; if you work on lifting employee morale your employees will automatically be more motivated to perform well and stick around. Making the job more meaningful, giving employees adequate authority and responsibility, and promoting innovation, creativity and growth are some of the ways to get the morale of your employees soaring. Let’s get you started with some ideas on how to boost the morale of your employees.
- 10 Easy Ideas for Employee Morale Boosters
- Methods to Enhance Employee Morale
- Managing Employee Morale in a Recesssion
- Morale Boosting Employee Break Room Ideas
After you’re done learning about the methods and ideas to boost employee morale, there are two more important aspects that need your attention – how to trace the root cause of low employee morale and what factors can cause the employee morale to plummet.
- Tips on Finding the Root Cause of Low Employee Morale
- Employer Don’ts: 10 Ways to Kill Employee Morale
Increasing Job Satisfaction
How satisfied your employees are in their jobs has a major bearing on their work performance and commitment. If a person is happy doing what he is doing, he will not easily want to shift to a different job. Also, if he loves doing what he is doing he will always be willing to put more effort into it. Job satisfaction motivates employees more than anything else. Today’s workforce isn’t willing to work just for salary and perks; they seek a more satisfying job experience as well. Learn about some of the basics concerning job satisfaction and employee motivation.
- How Self-Esteem Relates to Job Satisfaction
- Correlation Between Employee Productivity and Job Satisfaction
- Ways to Increase Employee Satisfaction
- Example of an Employee Job Satisfaction Survey
Moving on, let’s find out what can be done to make the jobs more satisfying for your employees. At this time we will talk only about how constructive changes can be made to the job, in order to increase employee satisfaction and to keep them motivated.
Job Rotation:
- 10 Ways That Job Rotation Improves Job Satisfaction
- Advantages of Job Rotation: Reduce Turnover by Influencing Employee Burnout, Satisfaction, and Motivation
Job Enrichment:
Job Enlargement:
Job Design:
Employee Empowerment:
- Explaining the Principles of Employee Empowerment
- Exploring the Link Between Empowerment and Employee Motivation
Training and Development:
Motivating Employees Through Recognition, Rewards and Incentives
It’s human to expect credit and praise for one’s good work. Talking about employees and workplaces, every employee expects that his good performance is acknowledged, recognized and appreciated. Employee recognition brings in double benefits – first, the employees are happy and motivated; and second, it creates a healthy competitive environment, pushing the employees to improve their performance. The bigger question here is how to recognize employees, and here are some creative as well as budget-friendly ideas to get you started.
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[Employee Recognition and Reward Ideas That Won’t Break Your Budget
](https://www.brighthub.com/office/human-resources/articles/83505.aspx)
Employee recognition is indeed a great way to keep the employees motivated, but it has its disadvantages, too, and sometimes the recognition system can even backfire. Here’s more on what you need to keep in mind when developing an employee recognition system.
- Understanding the Pros and Cons of Employee Recognition Programs
- Counterproductive Employee Recognition Programs: What Not to Do
A letter of recognition or having a hall of fame may not be enough to boost employee performance. Add in some rewards or incentives along with the recognition and it will motivate your employees to give their 100% to the job. Even a kid works hard to score good grades if he is promised a reward; along the same lines an employee feels motivated to improve performance and accomplish goals if there is some reward or incentive waiting for him at the other end of the tunnel. Go on and give your employees some temptation to work harder.
- The Link Between Incentive Pay and Employee Motivation
- Give Your Teams Some Incentives to Spark Productivity
- Motivate Your Workforce With Weekly Rewards: Try These 10 Ideas
- Low-Cost Employee Incentives
- Incentive Ideas for Employee of the Month Rewards
Offering a Motivating Work Environment
An employee spends a major part of his day at the workplace, and if the workplace is stress filled, dull and boring the employee is less motivated to perform, or possibly even to continue working. Offer your employees a fun-filled and lively work environment and you’ll have a fully motivated workforce. You can incorporate a wellness program or even hold employee contests–several of these ideas are certain to work well for you.
- Adopt These Interventions and Techniques for a Stress-Free Workplace
- 10 Great Wellness Program Ideas & Initiatives
- Employees Burnt Out? Engage and Excite Them Again
- Ideas for Making the Workplace More Fun Without Sacrificing Productivity
- Is Your Workplace Dull? Why Not Make it Fun and Interesting?
- Increase Employee Satisfaction and Motivation by Improving Relationships
- Get Everyone Motivated: 10 Ideas for Employee Contests
Last Thoughts on Motivation
And finally, before we wind up this guide on employee motivation we have here some additional ideas to help you get more out of your employee motivation efforts. Keeping employees motivated will result in achievement for both you and them.
- Taking Steps to Keep Employee Motivation Going
- What Really Motivates Employees in Today’s World?
- Top Ideas for Motivating Your Employees
- Ten Motivational Quotes to Spur Achievement
If you have more exciting ideas on employee motivation, we would love to hear them. Use the comment box below to share your ideas with us.
References
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Image Credit: Job Rotation – svilen001/stock.xchng
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Image Credit: Rewards and Recognition – dlnny/stock.xchng
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Image Credit: Maslow’s Motivation Theory – Jtneill/WikiMediaCommons