Employee Management

Motivate Your Employees to Help You Succeed

Familiarity with your team can help everyone thrive

Among the challenges of running a small business is finding good employees and then keeping them motivated so that they thrive. When you do that successfully, your business will thrive too.

But don't assume you need books or seminars to build motivation. As a small business owner/manager, you have an advantage larger organizations don't have: You know your employees. Chances are you work side by side with them on a regular basis. You've heard about their families and friends; you know their backgrounds and ambitions.

All of that is valuable information for an employer who wants to find effective ways to motivate his team but may lack the resources to offer generous pay raises or bonuses. Consider four ways you can turn the information you glean from your familiarity with employees into a motivation strategy:

  1. Ensure a positive work environment. If you're hearing that there are internal conflicts or office politics that are creating an unpleasant work environment, you are the one who can fix it. The fact that you listened — and you acted — will be a sign that you care about creating a positive place to work.
  2. Foster teamwork. Make sure you have a mission statement and that your employees understand why their role is important to the overall success of their company. In your conversations with employees, strengthen the notion that your company is a team and that when you win, they win too. Then follow through. Even if it's a small gesture like ordering in lunch for everyone after a big deal is signed, make sure they share in the successes.
  3. Get creative about rewards and incentives. Money isn't the only way to motivate employees to work harder or smarter. Perhaps you've got a young parent working for you who could benefit from flexible hours or the opportunity to work from home one day a week. Maybe your salesperson has just put in a lot of long days to make a big deal happen and would prefer extra time off to a bonus. When you show you're willing to be flexible to meet your employees' needs you'll likely discover your employees will reward you.
  4. Provide learning and growth opportunities. When employees are bored with their jobs, it generally shows. You notice it, and so do your customers. When you interview employees for a job, take time to ask about areas of interest. Maybe your new receptionist who is taking creative writing classes in the evening would thoroughly enjoy the chance to help develop some marketing materials. Maybe the new waiter who said he hopes to be a chef someday could do a shift in the kitchen every so often and get some on-the-job training. Giving employees an opportunity to learn new skills and pursue special interests may be one of the most effective things you can do to motivate them — and it's all good for business.

Setting and Monitoring Performance Objectives

Once you determine strategies for motivating your employees, your next task is to decide what you want to motivate them to do. It may be as simple as sitting down and talking about what you hope they can achieve and what you can do to help them meet your expectations. But it may also make sense to get it down on paper so you both have a clear understanding of those expectations.

Keep in mind that employees may be intimidated at a term like "performance review" which is used in many large organizations. But even so, there are valid reasons to sit down with each employee once or twice a year to talk specifically about their job. This is a time to review accomplishments and set objectives. You might break the discussion into the following topic areas:

  • Performance goals and objectives
  • Skills and knowledge development
  • Processes and methods
  • Feedback

You can print out the basic Job Performance Review Guide from the template collection listed below under Tools. Use it to jot down notes and actions as you talk through these topics. You can also customize the guide to reflect additional topics you think should be part of a performance review.

Use this one-on-one time to put your motivational strategies to work. For instance, here's a possible scenario:

Problem: You've noticed your front desk manager — who is also your bookkeeper — seems irritable with customers on occasion. Apparently the bill paying and invoicing and waiting on people all at the same time can be very stressful during busy periods.

Solution: Let's say this person is also the young parent mentioned earlier. You might discuss in her performance review that you want to make customer service a top priority and in working toward that objective, you would be willing to allow her to work at home on bookkeeping chores one afternoon a week.

Every business is different, of course. But one thing small business owners or managers have in common is the ability to turn the close relationships they have with employees into a business advantage that lets everyone win.

Reprinted with permission by Microsoft Corp and the Microsoft Small Business Center. All rights reserved.

Tags: job performance review guide, ordering in lunch, strategy for motivating, time to review accomplishment, familiarity with employee