If you run a business and have any employees, you must ensure they remain motivated as much as possible, ideally at all times. This is one of your many duties as an employer, and if you want to have a successful business, it’s crucial. After all, if your employees are not satisfied with their work and aren’t motivated to do well, your business will suffer. 

There are many ways that people can be motivated to work hard and do their best. When you are a business owner, you may need to experiment with some of these different ideas to determine what is best and how your staff reacts to each option. With that in mind, here are some of the best ways you can motivate your employees; you can use all of these techniques, one or a combination of a few. Read on to find out more. 

Trust Them 

One of the best ways you can motivate any employee is to show that you trust them. This will boost their confidence because they can be much more sure that they are doing a good job – you wouldn’t trust them to do more or be independent if they weren’t, as you wouldn’t risk your business in such a way – and you are showing them that you’re happy you hired them. They won’t want to do anything to lose that trust, and they will likely be motivated to work even harder to prove to you that you were right to trust them in the first place. 

It can be hard to entirely trust someone else with your systems and processes. Likewise, it can be hard to trust someone to do a job you used to do yourself. Yet if you want to be a good boss who has motivated employees and a successful business, and if you want to lessen your chances of becoming burned out, this is exactly what you’ll need to do. Make sure you give each employee the training and equipment to do the work, of course, otherwise their confidence will fade, and they will feel you’re not such a great boss after all. 

Reward Them 

You’ll know from personal experience that when there is a prize or reward at the end of a task, you’ll be much more motivated to do it. If this is how you feel, it’s certainly how others feel, and that includes your employees. With that in mind, if you can provide some kind of reward for hitting targets or doing a good job, this will incentivize your team and ensure they keep working hard. This is not about bribing someone to do their work; it’s about ensuring they understand they are important and that you appreciate what they are doing. 

The reward itself can be anything, from a small thing to a much larger one. It will depend on your budget and the importance of the task that was carried out. If it is something that will bring a lot of money into the business, then a larger reward might be required, for example.

Financial bonuses and additional vacation days are great ideas, for example, or it could be that Kohls coupons are just right, depending on the employee and what they would prefer. 

Praise Them 

As we’ve noted, it’s good to reward your employees; it will help them know they have done good work and will inspire them to continue doing that work and even do better in the future. However, what goes hand in hand with rewards is praise. Giving someone a gift or a prize or some extra vacation days is great, but sometimes the fact that you also let others know how much good work they have done is just as important, and for some, it will be even better than receiving some reward. 

Being acknowledged directly is an ideal option when it comes to motivating someone. For example, shaking their hand, telling them they did a good job, writing about it on social media or the company newsletter, or bringing it up in a meeting (remember, some employees will want others to know, and some will prefer that it’s kept quieter; as long as you personally praise them, this will still work out well), are all good ways to ensure that an employee knows you think they’ve done well.

Give Them Purpose 

Not knowing why you have been asked to carry out a certain task can be extremely demotivational. An employee might not be happy to put all their effort into something if they don’t know why they are doing it or its purpose. However, if they do understand why what they are doing is so important, you’ll find they will work harder and be more motivated. 

Therefore, the simple answer is to make sure that everyone understands the reason for the work they are doing and why it’s so crucial to the everyday running of the business. Once they know this and understand their place in the company and what their function is in terms of the bigger picture, they’ll be more motivated to do more. 

Make Safety A Priority 

No one is going to be motivated to work when they are in dangerous surroundings; they’ll be far more conscious of their own safety than of doing a good job, plus they just won’t feel as though they should put a lot of effort into doing anything if you’re not putting a lot of effort into keeping them safe and healthy. In fact, if this goes on for long enough, they will probably search for a job elsewhere, where they will be treated in the right way. If this happens, your reputation will be ruined, and you’ll lose potentially very useful employees. 

Some of the ways you can ensure that your team is safe at work include:

  • Having the right equipment and safety items (PPE)
  • Giving enough in-depth training on how to use equipment 
  • Offering first aid training
  • Having a first aid kit
  • Make sure there are enough good sanitary areas 
  • Performing checks on electrical items regularly
  • Carrying out a risk assessment to determine problem areas
  • Ensuring that those who need to take sick days do so 

When you are doing all of this, and the work environment is positive, your employees will be happy and much more motivated.