7 Strategies to Motivate & Inspire Your Staff

Productivity is key when it comes to creating a successful business. But for productivity to be steady or even increase, you need inspired and motivated people on your staff. Creating teams is a great way for employees and company leaders to get things done and accomplish pre-set goals. So how do you go about lighting a fire instead of draining energy? Here are 8 strategies to keep in mind.

• Provide a Pleasant Work Space

You won’t have to spend a lot of money to create a work space that motivates and inspires. Little touches here and there will be enough for employees to feel like their work is their home away from home. Try incorporating some of these tried and true ideas:

• Place real or silk plants in offices, hallways and welcome centers. Bringing nature inside will calm and invigorate employees.
• Replace or supplement fluorescent lights with LEDs and uplights (especially around the plants) to create mood and atmosphere. Fluorescent lights are hard on the body and contribute to feelings of sadness and depression.
• Allow personal items. Let your employees personalize their own workspace with items and photos. They will feel more valued, wanted, and unique.
• Set & Reward Clear Goals

Studies have proven that employees will actively waste time at work – not because they are innately unproductive but because they aren’t aware of their priorities. Be sure to set clear priorities and reward them when goals are accomplished.

• Hold weekly meetings and keep an open-door policy about the priorities for the week.
• Reward the successful completion of project goals with things like corporate luncheons, an egift card (which can be easily sent via text or email), and shout-outs on social media and in meetings.
• Encourage Happiness

If the pandemic taught workers anything, it was that their time at work should be fulfilling and productive. Unhappy workers are leaving their jobs at unprecedented levels, so encouraging happiness will create a motivated and lively crew.

• Make their work-life balance a priority for you by offering more vacation and sick time (as you can) and accepting employee’s personal needs.
• Reward employees with more vacation time. This can be accrued based on project completion goals, time worked or a combination of them both.
• Acknowledge their accomplishments. Most people don’t toot their own horn, so as their employer if one of your people does something great, make sure the company knows about it.
• Never Punish Failure

Humans are a part of what make your company great, so along with accepting the accomplishments, you must accept the failures as well. To err is human, as they say, and instead of criticizing, help employees learn from their mistakes in a positive way.

• Have faith in employees and encourage them to try the task again.
• If a task is clearly outside of an employee’s wheelhouse, help them discover their strengths and put them on a team that is better suited for them.

• Don’t Hold Useless Meetings

Professionals waste nearly 4 hours of ‘useless’ meeting time every week. This time could be better spent on priorities and tasks that are necessary for the smooth functioning of the business.

• Create a meeting agenda and distribute it in advance. If you’re doing it online, you can create a space for up votes, down votes and open space for employees to offer their own topics, making the meeting time more useful.
• Only invite the people who are vital to the meeting.
• Don’t waste time on small talk and start and end the meeting as quickly as possible.
• Don’t Micromanage

The idea of working while someone is looking over your shoulder is enough to make most people shudder. Second guessing employees’ decisions all of the time will get you a team of unhappy people.

• If you’re unsure if an employee can successfully complete a task, let them try and if they don’t, put them on a different team that utilizes other skills they have.
• Provide clear goals with what you expect so there is no reason for you to check in too often. Let your employees use their problem solving skills to figure out how best to achieve these goals.

• Foster Collaboration

Sometimes, it’s the quiet ones that have the best ideas. Don’t let this happen to you and your business. Provide a safe space for all employees to offer their input whether it’s in one-on-one meetings, team meetings or anonymously online.

• Regularly ask your employees, “How can we do things better? What can be improved?”
• Listen to their answers and implement solutions when it’s possible.

More than ever before, keeping good staff is difficult these days. Business owners must embrace the idea of keeping employees happy in addition to providing them with a paycheck. Don’t let good employees slip through your fingers, motivate and inspire them with the right strategies.