You’d be hard-pressed to find a small business in which motivation wasn’t crucial to lasting success. In order to create a thriving enterprise and attract scores of clients, you’ll need to maintain a motivated and dedicated workforce. While high levels of motivation are seemingly commonplace in certain businesses, other enterprises have difficulty keeping employees fully engaged. Fortunately, bolstering worker morale is much easier than many small business owners make it look. So, if a newly-motivated workforce is what you’re after, the following pointers are sure to serve you well.
Offer Schedule Flexibility
Many people find their respective work schedules less than ideal. More often than not, working a traditional nine-to-five job entails getting up earlier than you’d like, dealing with a cumbersome commute and remaining in a formal workplace for eight to nine hours. Unsurprisingly, this type of schedule leaves many of us with little time for personal enrichment and can be particularly hard on people with families. Furthermore, spending the bulk of one’s waking hours sitting in a stifling workplace can be incredibly demotivating.
Business owners looking to nip this problem in the bud would do well to consider offering more flexibility with regard to work schedules. As many of us have learned throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, doing most jobs effectively and efficiently doesn’t have to entail being physically present in an office. With this in mind, you may want to experiment with providing your team members with more control over where and when they work. Provided work is being submitted at a steady pace and deadlines are consistently being met, workers should be permitted to set their own hours and operate from home unless their physical presence is absolutely essential. As an added bonus, allowing team members to work remotely can help cut back on operating costs, which can be a boon to small business owners who are looking to save money. To get a clearer picture on schedule flexibility’s impact on your enterprise’s finances and productivity, enlist the aid of reliable business intelligence solutions.
Regularly Display Appreciation
It’s no secret that people relish feeling appreciated, particularly in work settings. Considering how much time and effort most of us put into our jobs, it’s only natural that we’d want our hard work to be recognized. Needless to say, failing to show your team members proper appreciation can quickly demotivate them and prompt them to adopt a “going through the motions” approach to their work. Fortunately, there are a number of easy ways to illustrate the gratitude you feel towards employees. For example, you could offer small amounts of paid time off upon the completion of big projects. Not only would this show your employees how much you appreciate them, it would provide them with an opportunity to recharge their batteries in advance of future projects. Organizing nights out and assorted family events is another great way to reward your team members for their efforts. (Granted, these last two should probably be saved for after COVID-19 is in the rearview.)
Promote from Within
Promoting from within is arguably the best way to motivate employees and reward them for consistent hard work. In order to stay motivated, many of us need to feel as if we’re working towards something. If there’s seemingly no room for advancement, most people are liable to lose their drive to succeed. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with seeking out outside talent, existing members of your team should be the first people you consider for promotion. If promoting from within becomes a regular practice in your enterprise, your employees will have tangible proof that their efforts count for something and regularly go above and beyond the call of duty.
A motivated workforce is a productive workforce. Unfortunately, many places of business are sorely lacking in motivation. While insufficient motivation can sometimes be attributed to lack of drive on the part of employees, the blame typically rests with employers. Luckily, providing your team members with a steady dose of motivation doesn’t have to be a drain on your time or resources. As you’ll find, injecting some motivation into a workplace can mean the difference between night and day. Business owners and team leaders looking for effective ways to address motivation deficits should consider the measures discussed above.
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