For those of you that read James Collins's Good to Great book you know that the basis of any Good to Great company is stellar motivated and engaged employees. James argues that hiring right is the first step to moving a company from good to great, but what if you already have great people but are looking to motivate and engaged them further? We did our homework and found 7 scientifically proven ways you can get the most out of your employees while they benefit from working for a great company that values and appreciates them.
1- Make your place of business a pleasant place to work
As small as it may seem but having a nice place to work actually affects workers engagement and productivity. If people enjoy the place they work in they are more likely to do a better job because they are happy. A well lit, clean and an aesthetically pleasing office gives people the sense of a happy and modern work place where they are more enthusiastic about coming in and giving their all. Not only will employees appreciate this, but customers and clients will too!
2- Be Respectful, Honest and a supportive manager
All is built on a foundation of respect and honesty. Being respectful to your employees and treating them with dignity builds a mutual respect between managers and employees. Learn everyones job on your team and praise them on the importance of what they do with respect to the company goals, this allows employees to understand the meaning behind their work. People that do meaningful work and are supported by their manager are more likely to be engaged and perform at a higher level. Be honest with employees and treat them with fairness, addressing low performers will earn the respect of your high performers and inspire them to do more for you.
3- Offer Employee rewards
An employee reward does not have to involve a significant monetary bonus, it can be as simple as celebration and bragging rights to gift cards and useful small gifts. Give employees a goal to work towards individually or in a team setting. As people reach or exceed the set target celebrate the team or individual publicly and give them a practical and fun gift to reinforce the desired behavior and results. Practical and fun gifts include, company swag (T-shirts, mugs, hats, etc...), Personalized gift boxes with a small variety of items, Priority parking passes, or even small appliances like a Kuerig Coffee Machine, Uber Appliance Air Fryer or Mini Fridge.
4-Offer Flexible Scheduling
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Many old school managers believe that the hardest working employee is the one who comes in before anyone and leaves after everyone. The days of clock watching are over, many millennial are working flexible hours, working from home and interweaving personal time with business time to achieve a work life balance like never before. Allowing employees to leave early for a doctors appointment or to pick up their children then return to work without losing vacation hours will make a huge difference with most employees. Giving some employees the ability to work some days remotely from home will allow people to still achieve the business results required while enjoying personal life.
5- Share positive feedback
We all want to know when we are doing things right, it is critical that as harshly as we sound our criticism that we enthusiastically share positive feedback. A boss that only points out when people are doing the wrong thing will cause any team to fear and resent his management style. a fearful and resentful work force will not produce the results your business requires. Sharing positive feedback publicly builds a sense of team and accomplishment.
6- Offer Free Snacks and Drinks
Offering free snacks and drinks is a small perk that pays off big, some times its small perks that allow an employee to feel that their work place is awesome and that compared to their peers at other companies they have it pretty good. Free Snacks and Drinks can be a low cost way to keep employees energized and boosted through out the day, they don't have to make snack runs outside they can just grab a small snack and get back to the desk and keep giving you their best work. An office Keurig machine, Free Soda's in the fridge and some breakfast bars is all you need. Employee's can take the sodas and breakfast bars and store them in their Desktop Mini Fridges and keep pumping out great work all day.
7- Ask for their feedback
Many managers go by the saying "My Way or the Highway" and in today's world thats no longer an effective strategy. Jim Collins argues that having the right people in the right place and allowing those employees to each bring their input to the table is one of the key characteristics of good to great companies. Getting feedback from your employees on how the business should be ran allows people to have a sense of buy-in and ownership. When people have that buy-in and ownership they are vested in what ever the project in and want to see it succeed thus they are willing to put in more effort to make it a reality vs employees that are forced to do something then they will deliver the bare minimum to get by.
Final thoughts
In conclusion, make your business hospitable not only to customers but to your employees as well, happy employees means happy clients, happy clients and customers means repeat business and more revenue for your company. Treat all people with respect, honesty and be a supportive manager, the attitude of your personelle will improve when you treat them with dignity and support them, when they have better attitudes they will reflect that with the customers they deal with and it makes the work place a happier place to be. Reward good behaviors to re-inforce the right attitude towards winning. Offer flexible scheduling, work with and around your employee's life and allow them to cherish the special moments with their families so that they can enjoy a work life balance and produce more for you. Give good honest constructive feedback so that people can adjust or they can improve on what they are doing well. Offer free snacks and drinks, its a low cost perk that will make people happier and reduce the chances of them wanting to jump ship. Finally ask for feedback on things that you can do better or things that you are doing well and can compound on. With these 7 tips you will be able to slowly but surely transform your company from good to great and help build peoples careers along the way, its a Win Win for all those involved.
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