Employee Motivation on a Budget

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Employee Motivation on a Budget
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Keep Morale High, and Costs Low!
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Motivation in Difficult Times

• In tough economic times, employee morale can
  decline as they worry about the economy, and the
  threat of potential job-losses.
• All of this worrying about external factors can
  make your employees lose sight of what will keep
  their jobs, and your organization secure
  Staying focused, and producing high-quality work
  quickly and efficiently.
• The obvious answer is to provide motivation for
  employees but with budget cuts and fears of
  over-spending, it must be accomplished with a
  minimum financial impact.

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Actively Provide Encouragement and Recognition

• Consider the implementation of a regular
  Recognition program, wherein management employees
  are encouraged to provide positive verbal
  recognition to a minimum of three employees per
  day, regarding a specific aspect of their work.
• Verbal recognition costs nothing, but can be an
  important way to keep a team encouraged through
  stressful and busy periods.
• Management should document these forms of
  recognition, and showcase exceptional employee
  performance through programs like Employee of
  the Week / Month.
• Prizes for this type of award dont need to be
  extravagant, and can be as simple as ticket
  vouchers to the movies.

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Provide Professional Development Opportunities

• Employees that feel their career is progressing
  in a meaningful fashion are heavily invested in
  their performance.
• Training and development dont have to cost a
  fortune. Consider
• Job-shadowing
• Mentoring
• Career-development plans
• Promoting the organizations intention to hire
  from within through succession planning.
• Try to incorporate extra staff members into
  meetings outside their immediate domain. This can
  mean bringing a junior employee to a meeting,
  providing a broader understanding of the company
  workings, and to learn how these meetings
  operate.

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Create a Casual Atmosphere

• Consider offering casual dress days, and/or theme
  days (e.g. Hawaiian shirt day).
• Employees that are dressed in a relaxed manner
  will feel more relaxed at work.
• Wearing jeans to work is a small gesture that can
  mean a lot to your employees.

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Offer Flexible Work Arrangements

• Some organizations have
• provided flexible work
• schedules for employees
• that would prefer to work
• early in the morning, or
• later at night when most of
• the workforce is not
• present.
• Another perk (besides not having to deal with
  people) is the ability to avoid traffic on the
  commute.
• Where possible, flex-time schedules may greatly
  increase morale, and make your employees lives
  easier.

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Communicate Goals and Timelines

• Everyone benefits when tasks and processes are
  clear employees have a framework for
  expectations, and managers know what they should
  be receiving/seeing.
• Help your employees contextualize small tasks and
  details by associating them with a big picture
  concept, and encourage information sharing.
• Consider using Status Meetings for management to
  discuss major initiatives, goals, and current
  issues (regular agendas cut back on the number of
  issue-specific meetings required between same
  management team members).

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Provide Feedback Mechanisms

• Feedback mechanisms exist for employees to
  suggest ideas and contribute to the
  organizations plans.
• No one wants to be a cog in a machine, and great
  ideas can come from anywhere in the organization.
  
• Formal or informal open door policies generate
  results, and keep staff thinking about the next
  great idea for the company.

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Use Active Listening and Promote Communication

• Staff benefit when they feel that they receive
  fair treatment, support and that work-load or
  work-place issues can be talked about.
• Encourage staff to speak with management if they
  feel issues/obstacles have made goals, timelines
  or environments untenable.

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Provide Ownership of Responsibilities

• Allowing staff members to run with things, and
  empowering them officially to make judgment calls
  (without fear of ramification) can keep them
  motivated.
• Freedom allows employees to meet their goals in a
  way that makes sense to them, and often creates a
  sense of personal pride in their daily work.

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Offer Socialization Opportunities

• By offering your employees opportunities to
  socialize together, it may work to increase their
  overall morale, and increase their ability to
  work together as a team.
• Consider implementing a social committee to
  create programs like charity work, sports teams,
  pot-luck dinners, etc.

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Final Thought

• Keeping your employees motivated doesnt need to
  cost a lot of money, and is crucial in the
  continuance of a successful organization.
• Keeping your workforce motivated and engaged in
  their work will help them to focus on their work,
  and create success for themselves and the
  organization as a whole.