I have recently been asked about ways to motivate employees. The subject is very vast and I must emphasize that it always depends on the personality of each employee. But, there are some ideas that seem to work for most people. I have written a list of the things that have worked for me in my business. Of course you need to have the resources, before you have the employee motivation ideas, because the greatest motivation will always be more money. But there are a lot of other things you can do in order to stimulate your employees even if you don’t have the adequate resources. If you can’t afford to go positive by rewarding employees for good work, you can always go negative, by threatening with some sort of punishment if they don’t do their job properly. I’m sure that no one want’s to go negative, but sometimes it’s the only way to avoid your business going into bankruptcy. So let’s get on with it, and see if any of the advice that I will give you will be of use:

1.    Prizes. As I said, if you can afford it, prizes will always be the best employee motivation ideas. Pay raises will get you a long way in the realms of quality work, but you can’t always afford it. A good idea is to organize office contests. Who makes the best product, who get’s the biggest client or who sells the most goods, whatever your line of work might be, a contest is always a way you can improve the quality of work as long as you can assure a great prize such as a paid vacation or a brand new iPhone or something.

2.    Promotions. Another fool proof way to get your employees motivated is to promote one of them. Of course you should always leave the decision about who is going to get the promotion to the very end. The more time passes from when you announce that you will promote someone to announcing the actual decision, the more employees will try to impress you with their work, and thus the better quality of it. It seems like a cheap trick for everyone who doesn’t get the promotion but it is very effective and this is what makes it one of the best employee motivation ideas.

3.    Pay decrease. If you get nowhere with the carrot, you can always try the stick. If you see that you can’t get through to your employees just tell them that whoever doesn’t reach the quality standard you want will have their pays cut. Everybody will respond to this because everybody reacts when you take something from them. You just need to stay firm on your position and don’t weaken if they threaten with a strike or something similar. If you do that, you will see that their work will improve.

4.    Make them feel like they are part of something that matters. You need to have a bit of charisma to make this idea work. It is one of the great employee motivation ideas if you can pull it of. In order to have any chance of making it work you need to make sure that your employees use the product you are selling. If you can get them hooked on what you are selling they will voluntarily do their best to improve the product.

5.    Give yourself as an example. A great way to motivate your troops, even from Ancient times is to give yourself as an example. Ok, I’m not saying that you should be Caesar and charge into battle, but you could be the first one to get in and the last one to leave the office. This will motivate your employees because they will see that you receive no special treatment because of your position.

6.    Threaten company bankruptcy. If the financial situation is getting worse than you can always threaten your employees that if their work doesn’t improve, the company will go under and they will lose their jobs. Most people hate change so they will try to do everything in their power to avoid loosing their jobs.

7.    Offer shares as a bonus. Another way to get employees motivated, and also to keep them tied to the fortune of your business is to offer shares as a reward for their good work.

These were just a few of the most effective employee motivation ideas that have worked for me. I am sure that there are many other ways you can try to get your employees motivated, but especially for small businesses you should always take into consideration the personality of each individual employee in order to see what will work for him.     

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