Employee motivation techniques

Motivate: What does this word bring to your minds? To me it says, encouragement, support, sense of belonging, and more confidence. These are the feelings we create in a person whom we motivate. If a child tries to make a painting and it turns out bad, the child will feel bad. But instead of finding just the faults, if the child is told to make it better by giving it suggestions and by telling it that he/ she is capable of better creations and that you will help it with it. You can be sure to see a smile and a person willing to try better.


This is the same strategy that is used in organisations to motivate their employees. But not always words can motivate them. At times positions, career advancement, monetary means, and many other things motivate an employee. However, there is no secret formula or set calculation to motivate employees. 
As I was researching on the various ways companies use to motivate their employees I found many methods I never even thought. Have a look:

1. Ask what the employees need out of their work: this can make things much easier. Managing employees one to one.
2. Understand each employees personality: Some people like get motivated by public praise, others fear it. Thus understanding a person's personality can help motivate them better.
3. Flexible working schedule, according to Richard Martin, President of Alcera Consulting Inc- “As long as the employee is deserving and doesn’t abuse the privilege, this can go a long way to building trusting and mature relationships with key workers.”
4. Sending a hand written note: Supervisors can top officials in organisations can send hand written personal note of recognition to deserving employees.
5. Get to know them better: As told by Steve Harrison, at Cigna Group during busiest hours the executives push out coffee carts and along with it they coach and encourage their employees and understand real customer issues from these talks.
6. Extra off days: Give people extra offs per year to do what they want so as to keep them from pretending to be ill and take offs.
7. Reaching out: Asking co-workers to write something they truly like or admire in any of their colleagues and to hang that with a pic of that person along with it.
8. Applaud the efforts: If someone has done something exceptional give them standing ovation from entire staff.
9. Sharing memories: Creating scrapbooks by team members that speaks about the team efforts and work done together can also be a good way to appreciate and remember everyone's contributions.
10. Making work fun: Conducting weekly events to boost morale and to help people socialize and get along with each other. This improves communication and increases productivity.
11. Appreciate: when employees are appreciated for their work, make it more obvious by specifying the things they did right.
12. Telecommuting: Letting employees telecommuting makes them feel they are not at office yet they get the work done and also feel they were able to be at places where had to be in spite of being at work.
13. Parking allotments: Giving deserving employees the best place to park their cars for their accomplishments is an interesting way to motivate the employees.
14. Publicize the accomplishments of employees so that everybody come to know about it and motivate and encourage everyone.
15. One suggestion was to lose the shoes: Let the employees walk around the office without shoes so that they feel comfortable as at home.

There are many more, but these are the ones that fascinated or rather motivated me to write this article.

Hope you guys got some new ideas from this.. Please feel free to post new ideas if you have any or even if you want to discuss any one more in specific.

References:

http://bit.ly/vuAtGP

http://bit.ly/vqc8ul

http://bit.ly/vhQONT

http://bit.ly/uSYVpU