Business Management Skills

The concept of employee motivation is not at all a new idea. It has been around as long as there have been employees and employers. While the concept itself is not new, new research and awareness have made new aspects of employee motivation not only a possibility, but a reality in the world today.
It was not at all uncommon in the past for an employer to offer some system of rewards and privileges as a means of employee motivation. Recent thinking however has given way to the fact that this process may actually alienate other workers who, for whatever reason, may not be as capable in a particular field or endeavor. Ultimately, the belief was that this was actually contrary to effective employee motivation and in reality, decreased employee productivity. Since the main idea behind employee motivation is to increase worker productivity, this was seen as very limited in scope and detrimental in the long run regarding employer-employee relations.

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An important way to motivate employees is to eliminate negativity in the workplace atmosphere and replace it with a positive motivating environment.

An Environment that Motivates Employees

Would you like to find out what those-in-the-know have to say about employee motivation? The information in the article below comes straight from well-informed experts with special knowledge about employee motivation.

The success of an organization does not solely depend on management but on the work of its employees as well. An employee that enjoys his or her position and feels rewarded by their efforts will ultimately be the most successful in their careers and the most beneficial to the company.

There is nothing like being around happy, satisfied employees who bring their optimism and productivity to the organization. These are the employees who are the most attentive to the needs of the customer and strive to go that extra mile to be the most helpful.

A positive attitude is contagious and can change the attitude of every staff member around. However, just as a positive mindset is easily spread, so is a negative one. If a member of the team is unhappy, watch out! His or her negative attitude can become infectious – contaminating fellow coworker and customers alike.

Pessimistic employees can breed an atmosphere of low morale which equals decreased productivity, employee turnover, and unproductive time spent gossiping and complaining among coworkers.

In order to combat negativity in the workplace, it is essential that employees receive ongoing motivation from management to perform their work to the best of their abilities. Regular contact with employees is necessary to show that you care about their contributions.

Another way to beat low morale is to develop an employee satisfaction survey. This is an easy, anonymous way for employees to voice their concerns and problems without being identified. Issues that are brought up from the survey can be addressed during an organizational meeting.

It seems like new information is discovered about something every day. And the topic of employee motivation is no exception. Keep reading to get more fresh news about employee motivation.

Other ways that an employer can create an environment that motivates employees include:

~Staff lunches
~Holiday celebrations
~Employee of the month
~Continuing education programs

An organization that recognizes that its employees are valuable and deserve to receive a certain amount of praise and recognition will benefit from increased productivity and employee satisfaction and retention, which in turn, will positively affect customer satisfaction. Otherwise, the expense of training each new employee so that they may excel in some OTHER organization is foolish, time-consuming and expensive.

Management with the “easy-come-easy-go” mentality creates conflict, confusion and quite a bit of turnover in the workplace. Nothing positive can be gained by treating employees in such a manner. It’s no wonder that some employees treat their positions as a 9-to-5 job.

Any organization can make changes for the better and help create an environment that is conducive to employee happiness. After all, the success of your business depends upon it.

The organization with the right approach will be the one to reap the rewards of success.

Hopefully the sections above have contributed to your understanding of employee motivation. Share your new understanding about employee motivation with others. They’ll thank you for it.
By Hans Hasselfors

About the Author:
Hans Hasselfors is the founder of http://www.SubmitYourNewArticle.com. You may find varied employee motivation articles in our article directory.

Boosting Employee Morale Increases Productivity

The question asked by executives and managers – “How can I motivate my employees?” – is sometimes difficult to answer. Since each employee is motivated by a variety of difficult incentives, you need to find out what is of value for each person. Research shows that people often leave an employer because they haven’t received the recognition they want, or feedback on how they are doing. With this in mind, designing a positive, employee-driven motivation program works with some of your employees, but then what do you do for the others?

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Analyzing Motivation

To inspire people to work – individually or in groups in ways that produce the best results, you need to tap into their own personal motivational forces.

1) What is motivation?

The art of motivating people starts with learning how to influence individuals’ behavior. Once you understand this, you are more likely to gain the results that both the organization and its members want.

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One good reason why employee incentives sometimes prove to be ineffective for companies is because of the mistaken belief of employers that everything begins and ends with the employees. In truth, employee incentive programs can only be successful if you incorporate, integrate, and relate it with everything that makes up your company.

Make Your Company Goals and Mission-Vision Employee Centric
Remember that employee incentive programs are made up of two sections: financial and non-financial incentives. To achieve and provide the latter, start by reviewing your company’s goals and mission-vision statement. Are all of them all about you earning profit and nothing else? Is there any mention made about how employees benefit if and when your company does well? Is there any mention made about how much a company relies on its workforce?

Once you’ve made the necessary corrections, take the time to explain the changes you’ve made to your employees. Make sure that they understand the need for cooperation and harmony. Lastly, emphasize the give and take relationship between the company and the employees.

Make the Financial Incentives Sound as Exciting as Possible
When introducing an employee incentive program to your workforce, do it the way you would advertise a new product to your market. Make everything sound as exciting and as attractive as possible. Don’t rely on mere figures to convince your employees to follow your directives. Yes, they’re powerful, but why leave it at that when you can make them sound even more tantalizing?

Be Fair and Realistic with What You Want to Get
Employee incentive programs that offer multimillion dollars’ worth of commission won’t work if you’re asking your employees to give you the stars and the moon.

When deciding on the goals for your employee incentive programs, make sure that they adhere to two important conditions. Firstly, they must fair to your employees. Don’t ask them to do something that – although achievable – might compromise their values and principles. Don’t take advantage of your employees if you become aware that they’re at desperate straits and liable to do anything for the incentive you’re offering.

Secondly, they must be realistic. Don’t give out rewards that are obviously unattainable because you’ve attached impossible goals to them. Don’t dangle incentives in your employees’ noses if you don’t mean to give them out in the first place. Consider time constraints as well. Are you giving them enough time to complete the task at hand? What about the required resources? Do all your employees have equal access to the necessary resources?

Options, Options, Options
The most effective employee incentive programs are those that provide employees with numerous options to choose from. You must always be flexible when creating and modifying your employee incentive program. Don’t expect all your employees to fall in love with your first choice. People tend to have different priorities and perspectives, and to ensure that your employee incentive program will work, give your employees the freedom to choose the reward they wish – but only within reason and within your power, of course.

Use Winning Employees as Models
When an employee is rewarded by your employee incentive program, take lots of photos of how happy he or she is with the rewards provided and use this as an example to motivate other employees to work harder in the future. A picture speaks a thousand words, after all, so seeing the actual effects of the employee incentive program will cause your employees to respond more favorably than having you expound on and on about its benefits.
By Mario R. Churchill

Mario Churchill is a freelance author and has written many articles on various subjects. For more information on sales incentives or employee incentives checkout his websites.

The motivation of employees can be a challenge for managers. This article looks at some basic methods of motivation.
How To Motivate Your Employees

Dealing with employees can be the toughest thing when running a business. Employees are the life and the blood of business. Your customers will judge your business based on how your employees treat them. So it is best to provide your customers with the top employees you can get.
First, have an employee mission statement. Something that lets all of your employees know what you and your company stand for. For example, at my friend’s restaurant their employee statement is ” We will always put the needs of the customer first.” Your statement does not have to be long just effective. Read more