Are Your Employees Motivated?

Business owners may spend a lot of time planning ways to motivate staff and managers. However, it seems that starting with why staff members are not motivated should be the first step in the process. If you know why your staff isn’t motivated, it is much easier to put into play the strategies that will change attitudes and banish apathy.

Interestingly enough a Gallup poll found that 70% of US employees were disengaged. Having that many employees who are not motivated to do the best job they can has to have a great impact on customer satisfaction and profits.

Until you understand the reasons for your employees’ lack of motivation it’s going to be hard to change the behavior, especially if the lack of motivation extends to a number of employees in the same company. 

Start with a simple employee survey that asks questions such as:

• What rewards do you want for your work?
  If you don’t know what motivates your employees to perform at top level, you may well be rewarding them in ways that do not resonate with them.
• Does your environment encourage motivation?
  There may be things that can be changed with the work environment that will encourage a more positive attitude in employees.
• How can the company make your job easier?
  Many inspirational ideas for a better work environment come from the employees. They are the ones dealing with all the little things that could be better organized. Plus they may have some good ideas on how things can be changed or streamlined. They may not have said anything because no one thought to ask them
• Are they happy with the management style of the company owners or managers?
  Management style should vary from employee to employee. Some employees prefer to be macro-managed rather than micro-managed. Find out which employee prefers which style.  Preference for different management styles may also vary from younger to older employees.

Next week’s blog will be about how to motivate employees.

A tip of the glass from me to you.