At JustLogin, we believe that employees are a company’s greatest asset.
Without a strong workforce, there would be no one to sustain and grow the business to its fullest potential. Considering this, employers need to scout for the best talent as well as to nurture and groom their employees – but it does not end there. Employers also need to keep their workforce happy in order to keep them motivated.
Successful employers are able to recognize that: (A) Motivated employees produce happy customers, which in turn lead to profitability. (B) Motivated workers tend to stay longer in a company. This is especially important for SMEs where each and every employee plays a crucial part in operating the business.
How do you keep your employees motivated? Here are 4 ways how we at JustLogin keep our workforce happy and motivated.
1. Meeting Your Employees Financial Need
When your employees’ monetary needs are met, they are likely to be more focused and motivated to put in more energy in their work.
Having competitive salaries and good bonus schemes prevents your employees from thinking that the grass is greener on the other side. And with a fair and well-designed performance evaluation scheme, they will feel that their hard work is appreciated and all their effort is worth it.
Being paid on time is also very important. This gives employees confidence in management and eliminates any stresses to pay their monthly bills on time.
Here at JustLogin, we use JustPayroll to run our payroll efficiently and accurately each month. This cloud software also enables our employees to login and view their pay history and track their pay progression. This is especially useful for employees who are paid based on commission or per hour as they can feel a sense of satisfaction when they view their monthly returns.
If you are not using a payroll system or if you are thinking of making a switch, check out our JustPayroll.
However, motivating your employees with financial incentives is not enough. Humans are not machines; we cannot just run on electricity alone (which is in our case, money). How we feel when we come into the office has a big impact on the quality of our work. The next 3 points talk about how we motivate our employees on top of monetary incentives.
2. Sometimes It’s Not Just About Evolving Your Company, but Your Employees as Well
Start investing in your employees. Show that you are not just concerned about business results but you care for their professional growth as well. When they feel that you genuinely care about their development, they will be motivated to care for your company too.
Provide your employees with an environment where they are able to grow and become a better professional. Send them for internal or external training. Meet them individually or as a team for coffee to find out how they are doing. Set up quarterly performance reviews and discuss their work. If they are able to meet their KPIs, praise them. If they are not able to meet their KPIs, find out why and help them set a concrete action plan on how to get back on track.
To keep track of our employees’ professional development, we at JustLogin conduct a yearly survey using our performance management application, JustAppraisal. After the exercise is conducted, individual reports will be pulled out for evaluation by department heads during a one-to-one performance review.
As you focus on growing your company, do not forget to nurture your employees as well. This is because ultimately, as you set the goals and visions for the company, your employees will be working with you to achieve them.
3. There is a Time for Everything
Employers need to remember that employees have a life outside of work.
Provide employees with an adequate number of leave to take time off from work so that they can attend to their own personal matters. It’s also important to educate them about their available leave so that they can plan their workload in advance and get quick approvals. As your company grows, it may get tedious keeping track of who is on leave. Using a leave system (you can check out our JustLeave to know more) can help you to manage your employees’ leave and company resourcing effectively.
It’s also crucial to monitor employee working hours. This will enable you to pinpoint workers who are putting in a lot of overtime hours, and hence are more likely facing issues on workload, time management, or any other problems that should be addressed. At JustLogin, we use a time attendance system, JustClock, to monitor the working hours of our employees. We are able to generate a report for overtime hours using the system. Management then uses this report to identify problems early and work with employees to come up with solutions.
Workers who are burnt out and overworked will eventually lose their motivation to do their best. Recognize early signs of this to prevent it from happening to your employees.
4. “I’m seeing you more than I see (inserts someone important)”
No man is an island. Humans are social creatures – we crave having good friendships and positive interactions with one another. This point is especially important because we are at our workplace one-third (or more) of our time each day. We are spending more of our waking hours with co-workers than we do with our friends and family! It is therefore important to ensure that all your employees are comfortable with each other and have a good working relationship.
The quality of the working environment and employee relationships play a huge role in improving morale and productivity in the office. As how career coach and author of 10 Ways to Improve Your Relationships with Your Boss (Or Anyone), Cecilia Harry puts it:
“We rely on others to contribute support, expertise, and other resources to best meet the needs of a client, fulfill the mission of the agency, or create a profit,”
So what can you do to create a healthy working environment both professional and socially for your employees? For starters, you can give your employees opportunities to build quality relationships with their co-workers. Organize team bonding activities to allow them to get to know one another outside of work. Encourage cohesiveness and teamwork in the company instead of competition. Manage disagreements among your employees by meeting the affected parties to talk things out and settle the issues together. If your employees are too busy fighting with one another, they will not have the time to fight against your competitors.
As the saying goes, “life is not complex, we are complex.” Different factors motivate different people and they change over time. Motivating your employees to do their best at work can be challenging. However, I believe if they can see that you genuinely care about their personal and professional well-being, they will put in the effort to care about your business too.
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