Employee Motivation Strategies:
When people think of honoring employees for jobs well done, they
may typically think of monetary rewards. However, these may be
neither necessary nor the best type of reward. Once offered,
cash bonuses can come to be expected and quickly forgotten,
especially if they are the only recognition employees receive.
By contrast, frequent, positive feedback provided within an
enjoyable, team-oriented environment makes a tremendous
difference in employees' sense of being valued and, as a result,
their commitment to your company. With or without financial
rewards, these cultural aspects of the workplace could be the
smartest investment in the staff and business.
Recognize and Reward High-Quality Work
Employees are bound to be much more productive when they work in
a positive, supportive environment. For example, Tejas
Securities Group, Inc., a full-service broker/dealer and
investment banking firm, strives to maintain an enjoyable,
family-oriented atmosphere in which all employees focus on
achieving team goals. This company goes an extra step by
bringing in catered lunches every day for all the employees to
enjoy together. "In this environment, everybody wins. We enjoy
the dynamics of striving toward our goals together as a team,"
said Kurt Rechner, President and Chief Operating Officer of
Tejas Securities Group.
Praising employees for achieving their goals is important in
maintaining an enjoyable work environment. Management can show
their appreciation with positive feedback, however, if they go a
bit beyond verbal praise, they can enhance employees' motivation
without spending a lot of money. For example, celebrate
successes with bagels or pizza. Invite employees to share their
experiences in, and coworkers' contributions toward,
accomplishing the goals. Peer recognition will further reinforce
employees' sense of teamwork and commitment. Conclude the
celebration by presenting mugs, T-shirts or other tangible items
that will serve as reminders of their success and inspiration
for ongoing achievement.
With these good intentions, there are still potential drawbacks.
For example, improvements in performance may be temporary,
rather than long term. In addition, employees could lose their
intrinsic motivation: they can become motivated solely for
gaining a tangible prize, especially if it's a substantial
monetary reward, rather than for experiencing the satisfaction
of accomplishment. These challenges can be avoided by
maintaining a positive, motivating atmosphere.
Inspire Employees' Creativity and Empower Them to Use It
Recognizing success is critical, and equally important is
inspiring employees to work toward achievements. Your staff will
be inspired by knowing their contributions are valued and that
management is confident in their capabilities. At Tejas
Securities Group for example, "The Chairman's Cup", a silver
chalice inscribed with its name, is awarded each month to an
employee who is recognized for their individual contribution to
the overall team's success. The winner is then announced in a
company wide meeting and is awarded the cup to display at their
work station. Rechner noted "This announcement and award has
become a fun and highly anticipated event, recognizing the
ongoing importance of individual contribution to the company's
success."
Inspire creativity by providing freedom, time and other
resources to employees. Ask them what they need to maximize
their innovative thinking and productivity, and provide it with
enthusiasm and encouragement.
To further stimulate employees' creativity and confidence,
support continual education through classes, seminars,
subscriptions and memberships. Make information easily
accessible through a work library. Ask employees to offer new
ideas, request proposals for new projects, and share employees'
suggestions through publications, meetings and recognition
events. Most importantly, take action on those ideas that have
potential benefit for the company, and recognize employees who
made any resulting achievements possible.
While encouraging creativity and rewarding success may come
somewhat easily, it may be more difficult to stay optimistic
when mistakes are made. However, this is where positive
reinforcement is even more critical. Employees will be much less
likely to offer ideas if they are intimidated by management's
reactions to possible mistakes. Keep in mind and express to
employees that mistakes are learning opportunities, which could
lead to innovative ideas that have a major, profitable impact on
your company. If an idea doesn't work out, recognize the
initiative and effort. Employees will feel further inspired and
satisfied, knowing that management truly listens to their ideas
and supports their efforts. According to Rechner at Tejas
Securities Group, "management's openness to staff members'
input, feedback, ideas and suggestions is the cornerstone of
good communications and strong employee relationships. Everybody
wins when they are all part of a supportive team."
All of these steps contribute to a sense of entrepreneurship and
empowerment, which are essential to reinforcing teamwork and
dedication. Empowerment should be initiated on three levels:
encouraging employees to be more active in their work; involving
staff members to improve processes and procedures; and enabling
them to make more and bigger decisions.
In addition to motivation and job satisfaction, employees
benefit with strengthened confidence to accept and pursue new
responsibilities. Once a few employees succeed, their enthusiasm
and motivation would become contagious throughout their teams or
departments. As a result, those groups would become more
enthusiastic, proactive and therefore, successful, which further
stimulates their team spirit.
Ultimately, your company has much to gain by empowering staff
members. By maximizing employees' talents and motivation,
managers could invest more time in strategic planning and
further motivating employees.
Be Wary of Financial Incentives and Rewards
Certainly, monetary incentives and rewards could be part of your
employee-recognition program. However, it is critical that these
incentives not be the only or primary strategy for motivating
and retaining employees.
On the surface, financial incentives may seem to be the most
meaningful forms of motivation for employees. However, the
short-term benefits may be far outweighed by long-term
disadvantages, which could turn your costly financial incentives
into serious deterrents to employees' productivity. As a result,
your company's profitability could suffer, and you may be faced
with further costs of replacing employees who leave for more
satisfying work environments.
Typical of human nature, people tend to think about what their
employers have (or haven't!) done for them recently, especially
if they do not feel appreciated. Furthermore, a brief word of
gratitude only when a financial reward is presented will not be
perceived as a sincere expression of appreciation. The easiest
and most cost-effective way to avoid this pattern is to maintain
open communication with positive feedback and encouragement at
all times, with occasional celebrations - where presentation of
cash rewards or announcement of new financial incentives, if
any, should be just a small part of these events.
Similarly, if cash bonuses are presented on a schedule, such as
around the holidays, they probably come to be expected. This
reaction could be avoided if bonuses are given randomly, when
you have extra money to share with employees. However, before
deciding to present cash bonuses, determine if that money could
be better used to expand your business. Express to employees how
their contributions resulted in the extra cash flow, and rally
them up for investing that money into exciting new possibilities
for themselves and the organization.
In addition to cash bonuses, other types of monetary rewards are
profit-sharing plans and Employee Stock Option Programs (ESOPs).
Profit-sharing plans are simple types of retirement plans in
which employers contribute an amount of money equal to a certain
percentage of eligible employees' salaries. With ESOPs, the
company contributes to a trust, and these funds are allocated to
individual employee accounts. Also, employees can reserve part
of their paychecks to purchase shares of the company's stock.
Profit-sharing plans offer a strong incentive for employees to
be more involved with the company. The staff is more likely to
work as a team and accept greater responsibility for increasing
the company's profitability. Another advantage is that financial
benefits are measurable and objective. As a result, management
would not risk showing favoritism, which would cause this
motivational strategy to backfire.
On the contrary, profit-sharing plans can also have potential
drawbacks. They do not guarantee that employees will be focused
on customer service, productivity or other essential elements
for the company's success. If profit levels are ever too low to
be shared, employees will feel disappointed or even resentful.
Even if this does not occur, employees may object to the lack of
acknowledgment for their individual achievements. Of course,
this particular disadvantage can be overcome with strategies
discussed previously. In any case, a negative situation would
lead to lower employee morale, which inevitably diminishes
employees' motivation and performance.
On the positive side for ESOPs, employees directly gain a sense
of ownership, usually at levels proportionate to how much stock
each employee has. The potential disadvantage, similar to
profit-sharing programs, is if stock options do not work out.
Furthermore, emotional stress often associated with fluctuations
in stocks could interfere with employees' productivity.
Certainly, financial incentives and rewards can be true
motivators, but only when balanced against the potential
drawbacks and packaged with ongoing verbal recognition,
encouragement and support. At Tejas Securities Group, for
example, "We supplement our employee-recognition program with an
ESOP. The employees' sense of ownership and the stock
investments' potential are icing on the cake - on top of the
essential substance of open communication, teamwork and positive
reinforcement," Rechner said. Launch a Positive, Ongoing Cycle
with the Best Choices for Your Staff
When handled in a consistently positive manner within a
team-oriented atmosphere, all of these strategies contribute to
an ongoing positive cycle: motivated employees are encouraged to
be creative, which leads to accomplishments that gain
recognition, which strengthens their sense of job satisfaction
and boosts their motivation. With all of these factors in place,
staff members will produce more for the company.
The entire process should be continual and even begin with the
hiring selection. "It's essential to start with quality people
as the foundation, and then motivate them to succeed," said
Rechner at Tejas Securities Group. It takes hard work, some
money and a bit of luck to recruit employees who have the
technical skills and personal qualities you need to strengthen
your business. Maximize your investment in these individuals by
establishing and maintaining a positive relationship with them.
Company Information Tejas Securities Group, Inc., a Texas
corporation ("Tejas Securities"), is a wholly owned subsidiary
and a primary business operating unit of Tejas Incorporated, a
publicly traded financial services company. Tejas Securities
Group is a full service brokerage and investment banking firm
that focuses on the following: (i) proprietary research on
distressed debt and special situation securities, (ii) trading
and other brokerage services to value-based institutional and
retail investors active in fixed income and equity instruments,
and (iii) corporate finance and strategic advisory services to
middle-market companies within our target industries. To learn
more about Tejas Securities Group, please visit the Company's
web site at http://www.tejassec.com.
This article is copyrighted by Tejas Securities Groups, Inc. It
may not be reproduced in whole or in part and may not be posted
on other websites, without the express written permission of the
author who may be contacted via email at
tejas@digitalbrandexpressions.com