Employee Efficiency A-Z: How to Keep Your Staff Motivated
How to Keep Your Staff Motivated
Regardless of the industry you work in, keeping your staff motivated at work is no easy feat.
With summer fast approaching, this coming season can make it trickier than ever to keep your employees focused.
From long-term team members to new additions, the efficiency of your employees has a direct impact on overall company productivity.
If they’re lacking motivation, the business will suffer.
With employee engagement said to be just 13% worldwide, give your approach to staff motivation a shake-up!
Keeping your workforce stimulated this summer might be easier than you think.
If you’re looking for some inspiration on how to maximize motivation, we’ve gathered together some useful tips to help you keep your staff focused and your business booming.
Find the balance
At the heart of any successful business is a strong, integrated team.
If you’re at the head of that business, you’ll want to encourage a healthy work-life balance.
A study carried out by the University of Warwick found that if they’re happy, people are around 12% more productive at work.
In the world of the 9-5, it’s inevitable that our personal lives will affect our work lives.
However, you can help your team find the balance by keeping overtime to a minimum and discouraging your staff from taking work home.
Being able to maintain the divide between work and home life will allow them to focus on their job during working hours.
This reduces the chances of them bringing their home life into the office.
Advocate team building
Whether it’s in or out of the office, team building is a key ingredient in securing the success of your business.
While many companies take part in team-building event days, there are easier, cost-free ways to encourage your team to connect.
Establishing relationships across departments is a great way to ensure the fluidity of your business.
Now, each team member understands their individual role in the company and how their position influences each team.
Developing relationships out of the office is also a great way to strengthen the bonds between members of your team.
From after-work drinks to team sports, spending time together away from the office will help to establish loyal friendships between your employees!
This connection will make them happier at work and have a substantial impact on their productivity.
Promote progress
In a busy work environment, particularly one with many employees, it’s easy to lose sight of the individuals that make up your team.
But for development, the performance of each employee is as important as that of the team.
From daily team meetings to individual 1-1s, regular check-ins with your team will give you the opportunity to discuss performance and promote development.
If your team feels as though they’re stagnant in their current role, they’re likely to become complacent and less productive.
By discussing more responsibility and each employee’s role going forward, you can increase motivation across the board.
Your team will strive to work harder.
Hone in on health
To keep your staff motivated, go back to basics by focusing on their health.
Whether it’s dehydration, a lack of sleep, or a poor diet, an unhealthy team is likely to be unmotivated and unhappy.
This will have a harmful influence on their productivity.
From standing up during team meetings to installing a water cooler in the office to providing a company gym membership, do your best to keep your employees healthy.
With the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reporting that 4.4 days per worker were lost because of sickness in 2013, a focus on the well-being of your team will cause fewer sick days.
This leads to a more motivated, healthy workforce during office hours.
You might also like these inspiring team-building quotes that promote working together.
Be flexible
While they may work as integrated cogs in the workplace, it’s likely that your team members run on very different schedules outside of the office.
Implementing flexitime means that your staff can find a more comfortable schedule that works around their personal lives.
Allowing your staff to start work later or finish earlier gives them the option to tailor their working day around their lives.
This flexibility will encourage them to be more productive during their working hours.
This will also benefit you if you have a busy period as a business or strict deadlines to meet.
Your staff will be more willing to work late if they can reap the rewards elsewhere.
Use the office space
For productivity and motivation, the office environment is one of the working world’s most underutilized resources.
As the place where your employees spend most of their working week, the office should inspire and be motivational.
From opening windows to allow natural light and air to flow in to removing distractions from the work area, paying attention to the way your team operates will impact their productivity.
For team members who regularly work together, operating from the same workstation could improve efficiency.
Conversely, other employees may be more productive when working alone.
Remember that a standard office layout doesn’t work for everyone!
Find what works for your team and use it to maximize motivation.
Take a time out
As the head of your team, it’s important that you encourage your staff to take breaks.
Whether this is during their day-to-day work schedule or planned annual leave, your employees need to take time out from work to help them refocus on the job at hand.
While prolonged periods of time spent at their desks may give the impression that your employees are being productive, this is likely to kill both motivation and concentration.
Even a 15-minute breather will help them refocus.
From eating lunch outdoors to taking a two-week break to using a half-day holiday, these regular hiatuses away from the workplace are guaranteed to get the best out of your team.
Now you’re armed with everything you need to motivate your workforce.
It’s time to implement your strategy for success.
