The Art Of Motivation - Appreciation or Compensation?
It is a broadly known fact, that every business's success
hinges on the performance of their staff.
Without buy in, loyalty and enthusiasm from their key team members, no business
stands a chance of becoming or remaining successful. After all, it is your team members who are
providing service to your customers on a daily basis and it is absolutely
essential that they feel motivated to be the best that they possibly can while
they are in the workplace.
A 2006 Gallup
study in Australia,
showed that disengaged workers cost Australia's
economy about $32.7 billion a year and there is a very good chance that some of
that massive amount of money should be showing on your bottom line. The study also showed that while 18% of all
employees were "actively disengaged", a further 61% were "not engaged". This adds up to a staggering 79% of all
workers who are no longer motivated in their place of work.
To drill down even deeper into this issue, it is a fact that
when an employee becomes "actively disengaged" in the workplace, they not only under
perform, but become disruptive, less loyal, less profitable and actually spend
time in planning how to undermine both the business they work for as well
as the accomplishments of their
workmates. I refer to this occurrence as "Silent Sabotage" and it can have a
very powerful and negative impact within the business. What a nightmare!
On the other hand, there are many and obvious benefits to be
had by achieving and maintaining motivation within your business team. A motivated team will almost always afford
greater:
- Employee
commitment and satisfaction
- Employee
performance
- Employee
retention
- Customer
retention
- Greater profitability
Now the big question is this. What can you do to motivate your team? Well the reality is "nothing". As an employer, all you can do, is provide
the right work environment so that your team members can grow to be self motivated,
leading ultimately to higher performance in their jobs.
What you can do.
Some business owners mistakenly believe that because they
pay their staff above the award rate, that this should provide all the motivation
that is required for their staff to perform well. Actually, after the first week or so, this
has about a zero impact on your employees.
Research has shown that money actually comes quite low down on the list
of motivators and doesn't motivate for
long after a pay raise. Money may
attract new staff initially, but rarely motivates existing staff to use their
potential more effectively in the long term.
This is not to say that financial rewards should be ruled
out as a great incentive. However,
compensation for a job well done is only one of many factors that needs to be
considered if you are to successfully build a motivated team. Perhaps it is
time to take a good hard look at your existing pay structure and judge whether
it is actually rewarding performance and not just attendance. Do you have a great performance based commission
scheme in place? Is it achievable for
your staff or will they just take one look at it and not bother trying at all
because it is virtually impossible to achieve?
If you are not sure how to structure this in your business, ask your business
coach to help you implement one as soon as possible.
Another very important factor which needs to be considered,
is understanding what it is that motivates each of your team members as an
individual outside of financial reward. For
an employer, this means taking the time to get to know your team members
individually and finding out what makes them "tick". What makes each team member
feel appreciated and helps them to remain motivated in the work place.
If you have read the book "The Five Love Languages" by Dr.
Gary Chapman, you will already have a great understanding of the five different
ways in which all people like to be shown they are loved and appreciated. This works as effectively in the workplace as
it does in the home and can be used as an effective tool by employers to establish
ways in which they can show their staff how much they are appreciated.
The five languages explored by Dr Chapman are:
- Physical Touch
- Gifts
- Words of Endearment
- Acts of Service
- Quality Time
Make the time to have a personal conversation (tip: don't call it an appraisal) with
each of your team members and find out what makes them feel appreciated. Take a note of what they would like to
receive from you that would mean a lot to them.
Some things you might expect to hear are requests for:
- More interesting and varied work or
greater responsibility
- On going professional development
training
- Gift vouchers for pampering treatments
or other products and services
- Words of thanks and encouragement
- Constructive feedback and personal
concern
- Something they can enjoy with their
family (such as move tickets, bottle of wine)
- Time off on their birthday or for
special occasions
- Flexible working hours
These are just a few examples of what you may hear and your
staff will undoubtedly come up with many more suggestions. The important thing to remember here, is that
every team member is unique and not everyone will respond to the same tokens of
appreciation. It won't work if you just
lump everyone into a basket and give them all the occasional gift certificate
or business service to say thanks.
While you are taking the time to talk to your staff, take
the opportunity to find out what their de-motivators are also. These are not just the opposite of what
motivates your staff and need to be identified and, if possible, eliminated
from the work environment as they can have a very harmful impact on staff
performance. Such things as boring work,
lack of quality equipment or product with which to work, cluttered or untidy
work environment, preferential treatment of other staff, lack of recognition or
lack of professional development may be mentioned. Some of these things are easily fixed almost immediately,
while others may take a little more planning.
Either way, they need to be heard and addressed as soon as
possible. The fact that you show your
concern and are willing to fix things is, in itself, a real motivator.
There are lots of other simple and low cost things that you
can do (some every day) in the workplace to support motivation in your
team. Try finding something that each
team member is doing well and tell them so.
Encourage team camaraderie by having special employee dinners or
evenings out to the local cinemas. Run a
Secret Santa at Christmas and of course always have a group celebration for
every staff member's birthday with a card signed by all and a special cake for
every one to enjoy!
"People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well,
neither does bathing -- that's why we recommend it daily." --Zig Ziglar
Twyla Dell writes of motivating employees, "The heart of
motivation is to give people what they really want most from work. The more you are able to provide what they
want, the more you should expect what you really want, namely: productivity,
quality and service.
At the end of the day, motivation must come from within each
individual. No employer is ever the single and ongoing source of motivation for
a person. While the employers support, inspiration, encouragement, and example
will at times motivate staff, employers greatest role in motivating is to
recognise people for who they are, and to help them find their own way forward
by making best use of their own strengths and abilities. So it follows that employers who focus on
these aspects - people's true motivational needs and values - are the true
leaders.
When you help people to enrich their work , you will truly
motivate and when you take on the role of the person who will encourage and
help your staff to grow and develop, improved performance is almost inevitable.
"Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you
want them to do because they want to do it." --Dwight D. Eisenhower
Pam Stellema is a Specialist Business Coach.
Her area of expertise lies in coaching and motivating business owners,
managers and their key staff towards maximising productivity and profits, excellence
in customer service and client retention, and recruiting and retaining key
staff. Pam can be contacted on 0431 975515, 0755 296 426 or email her at ask@pamstellema.com.au
