What Really Motivates your Staff?
Your staff is the heart of your business. When you retain the right employees, not only is work performed in a more efficient manner, but it also becomes possible for your business to attain its goals and move ahead of the competition. The business world is simply too competitive today not to recruit the best professionals possible for your business. At the same time, it is also important to make certain that you know how to retain those valuable employees once you find them. By understanding what drives your staff, you can learn how to motivate them and keep them.
Allowing them to be creative
While many businesses believe that the best way to motivate staff is with money that is not always the case. Instead of money, recent studies have demonstrated that the most important motivating factor for employees is how creative they feel while working. Strictly monetary rewards can actually serve to stifle creativity. While it is important to make certain that your employees are paid well, motivation based on monetary gain can actually remove the element of interest from the job.
Employees that are more highly sought after are typically those that are willing to learn and explore, those that willingly seek out challenges. Therefore, it only makes sense, that it is important to continue providing employees with opportunities to exercise the same qualities that first drew your company to them in the first place.
Having a fun and supportive Work Culture
Establishing order in the workplace is important, but studies have also shown that attempting to impose too many formal processes may actually impede your staff’s ability to succeed. This is something that one of the largest and most successful businesses in the world, Google, has come to understand well. The search engine giant is well known for providing employees with a fun workplace with a variety of amenities that are aimed at helping employees remain energetic, including nap pods.
The culture of your company can have a significant impact upon the motivation of your employees. Employees will not only feel motivated in an environment in which they feel comfortable, but they will also have a stronger desire to stay there. Consider whether your company culture is one that is warm, welcoming, supportive, and even fun. Or, is your company culture one in which employees feel constantly threatened, stifled, and under-appreciated? Even extremely well paid employees may not be able to reach their full potential and consider leaving a company where the culture is not supportive. A sense of worth is actually one of the strongest driving factors for performing a job well than external factors, such as monetary gains.
Ultimately, intrinsic motivation can often prove to be quite beneficial in retaining employees who can help your business to reach its goals. When performing recruiting, it is important for businesses to actively seek out prospects who embrace the idea of challenges and who enjoy them. Employees who understand that financial rewards have little meaning without a true passion for what they are doing are those who will provide your business with a competitive edge.
