Ten Tips for Employee Engagement and Motivation

Our digital business world doesn’t have to lessen the ability to get the best out of your employees. How can you keep people engaged and motivated in their work whether remote or in-person? Here are ten tips to keep productivity up.

1. Set extremely clear expectations. Let people know what success looks like and their role in making it happen. Ambiguity breeds mediocrity and stresses no matter the work environment. Help people understand exactly what they need to do to deliver superior work.
2. Recognize employees for their efforts. Be intentional and make that extra point to catch people doing things right. Celebrate every win, big or small. This lets people know that you appreciate them and their work.
3. Provide tips and training on time management. It’s especially hard to manage our time right now and many of us feel overwhelmed. Help people overcome this feeling and be efficient with their time.
4. Over-focus on culture. A strong culture is essential to the success of your organization. Talk about your organization’s values and celebrate when people exemplify them. Plus, continue to have conscious discussions around culture and how to maintain it.
5. Get personal. This doesn’t mean you have to become best friends but ask about others’ family, hobbies and interests. Trust is built by creating these personal connections.
6. Get employee feedback on how they’re feeling. Don’t just talk about work and how they are doing on projects, ask employees how they are doing as a person.
7. Encourage health and wellness. Get creative with this and do things like have a weightloss contest, start jogging or get ready for a marathon. Ideas like this help people to focus on physical and mental wellness.
8. Host virtual meetings and casual hangouts. Plan fun ways to connect with teammates such as virtual happy hours, lunches, video games or other enjoyable activities. However, make these completely optional. Forcing someone to attend an event they do not want to will make it a not so happy hour.
9. Make sure employees feel heard and valued. People can feel isolated and disconnected from the team. Be sure to let them know that you appreciate their hard work and listen to them when they come to you with ideas.
10. Trust your team. Set extremely clear expectations, check for understanding and don’t micromanage. You’ve got good people on your team. Give them clear directions and let them go do great work.

While many of these ring true in a virtual or in-person business setting, they are critical to continue getting the best out of your team.

–John

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For some fascinating statistics on organizational culture, here is a link to a great resource. https://blog.greenthumbs.in/employee-engagement-stats