A motivated employee is a great asset to any company. Motivation is what drives an employee to deliver their best work day in and day out and increases their productivity. If an employee is motivated, then they are all the more likely to stick with your company for the long haul. Plus, motivated and happy employees tend to go the extra mile for their employer. So, are you wondering how to keep your employees motivated?
Well, as a leader, you can do many things to take to keep your employees happy and motivated. Read on to find out 4 strategies to motivate your employees.
1. Set Small and Attainable Goals to Create Meaning
Goal-setting is the best strategy to assign meaning to the day-to-day roles of your employees. It can get pretty meandering and monotonous to come into work day in and day out and see yourself and your job going nowhere – you can change this for your employees.
Here are some things you can go to keep your employees motivated:
- Establish small and attainable goals for them
- Communicate to them exactly what you and the company expects from them
- Explain to them how their daily contribution matters to the overall progress of the company
Creating a distinct and clear connection between your employees’ success and the success of your company will help them feel the importance of their roles. You also need to recognize that each of your employees is an individual with their individual motivations. You need to link these motivations back to your company’s goals. This will allow your employees to feel that they are doing meaningful work and keep them motivated.
2. Celebrate All Milestones
It doesn’t matter whether a win is big or small; you need to celebrate it. Celebrating every win and letting your employees know that they are doing a good job is key to keeping them motivated. Keep a system to track the daily progress of your employees and appreciate them for their weekly achievements. Reward your employees on their progress and always encourage them to do their best work.
If your employees know that they will be appreciated for their job, they will be motivated to perform even better at it. Additionally, understand the challenges that your employees face and once they overcome them, make sure to appreciate their progress and efforts.
3. Provide Meaningful Feedback
Praise is always a welcome motivator, but it becomes even more effective when it is linked to a concrete example in a timely manner. You simply cannot give your employees a throwaway positive feedback every once in a while and expect them to stay motivated.
What works best to keep employees motivated is to highlight exactly what you appreciated about their accomplished task. If it’s a solid counterargument that they made in their presentation or a stellar comment on a report that you greatly admired, then let them know it then and there.
Giving such targeted, specific, and timely feedback will help your employees feel greatly appreciated. Your personalized feedback will also show to them that you care about their individual performance and growth.
4. Empower Problem-Solving Behavior
Create a constructive and safe space for your employees where they feel motivated to solve their own problems. It’s critical to employee motivation to let them lead with their own solutions and ideas. This way, they will know their perspectives and skills are valued by the company. However, make sure that your employees know they can always turn to you for your support and guidance without any backlash.
We hope the strategies mentioned above have given you a general overview of how to keep your employees motivated. However, there is no miraculous, one-size-fits-all formula to keep all your employees motivated, so be sure to adapt to the individual needs of your employees.
