Each employee will inevitably be motivated to excel in his or her job position by different factors, depending on wants, needs, and personal preferences. As an employer, the goal must be to learn how to identify the different things that motivate each employee and implement several different strategies to fulfill their need for motivational regardless of its origin, while still keeping in line with the company or organization’s over-arching goals. This article will include a few tips on how to motivate employees looking to fulfill different types of needs for supervisors looking to get that extra 10% from their staff.
1) Express authentic gratitude when employees achieve success
Frequently employees feel that their employers do not value their work individually, especially in larger companies. They are under the impression that the only feedback they can expect to receive from their bosses is negative feedback. A simple gesture such as individually thanking an employee for his or her hard work will not only help fulfill the employee’s self-esteem need, but it will help the employer seem sincere and interested in the employee’s well being. People take more pride in their work when they know it is appreciated and recognized.
2) Offer opportunities to achieve company recognition for success
Many employees who are motivated by a need for achievement would relish the opportunity to receive company-wide acclaim for their success with a goal or project. Instituting awards for employee performance within the company or offering a visible token of the success, such as a small trophy for perfect attendance or top sales award, might motivate some employees to do well simply for the sake of garnering this type of recognition.
3) Be passionate about the company and what you are doing as a leader
Employers need to remind the staff why they are there – be clear about the company’s goals and how each employee’s role helps to further the completion of those goals. People often learn from example, so leaders can try to motivate their employees by being motivated. If an employee can tell that you love what you do every day, he or she may feel more motivated to embrace their job as well. This strategy may strike a chord with an employee motivated by the need for affiliation, as he or she would greatly value the chance to be part of an enthusiastic, tight-knit organization.
4) Create an ideal work environment
Employees want to work somewhere they can feel comfortable, relaxed, safe, and secure. By tapping into an employee’s need for safety and security by creating an ideal, satisfying work-environment employers can increase the level to which employees feel “at home at work.” This feeling of comfort with the environment may actually increase the likelihood that they want to come to work each day. Allowing for some degree of personalization of the employee’s individual workspace will undoubtedly promote a feeling of familiarity and decrease stress.
5) Motivating employees through incentives
Most, if not all employees are motivated by financial incentives to fulfill their primary needs, at least to some extent. Employers can use money as a motivating factor to increase their employees’ performances by offering compensation such as commission for sales, performance or yearly bonuses, annual raises, offering company cars, phones, or computers or even offering the option to buy stock in the company.
Employers can implement one or all of these strategies in an effort to increase their employees’ motivation. This list is certainly not exhaustive, but these brief examples provide a few strong recommendations for how to motivate employees with fundamentally different needs facilitating their motivation.
