How business managers can motivate their employees

One of the most important tasks that any business manager has is motivating their employees. How successful you are in managing and motivating your employees will play a direct part in how successful your entire business will be. Savvy business managers know that value of their staff and seek to find ways to motivate their employees to perform their very best. The bottom line is that if your employees feel motivated and appreciated they will do far more to make your business productive. This not only benefits the company in higher productivity but provides employees with higher morale and job satisfaction which leads to higher employee retention. This is important since the cost of recruiting, hiring, and training new employees is prohibitive and should be avoided by businesses wherever possible. Here is what you need to know about how business managers can motivate their employees-

- Give easy to understand instructions-Nothing is more frustrating then not understanding what you are supposed to be doing. You will seriously damage employee morale and motivation if you can't clearly explain to your employees what you need from them. You want to be as clear as possible when you are asking your employees to perform any task. This will help to build their pride and sense of achievement as they perform their job duties. It is equally important that you offer an open door policy where employees can seek further clarification without ramifications if they need to do so.
- Offer praise and recognize performance-Many business managers feel that their employees only want money. Studies show that while money is always appreciated many employees are looking just as much for non monetary forms of compensation. Successful business managers take every opportunity to praise their employees and offer recognition for a job well done. It is important to understand that if you only hand out criticism your employees will soon begin to resent you and mistrust you. You should take the time to offer praise to employees that excel and work with mediocre employees so that they can improve their performance. The bottom line is that you don't need to spend a lot to offer formal recognition to your employees. Just make sure that you do it in a way that means something to your staff and that it is delivered in a way that is heartfelt and genuine.
- Take a look at how much each employee does-Often times it can be easy for work to snowball and certain employees to end up dealing with the majority of it. Business managers who want to motivate their staff will periodically look at workloads in order to make sure that no one is working to much or to little. This lets your employees know that you care about how much they are working and it often motivates them to work harder on their assigned tasks when they know that the boss is aware of what they do. If you find that you have certain employees that are working to much you can reassign tasks which can help to motivate them and give under working employees a fresh chance to use their creativity and skills.
- Focus on teamwork-Employees often feel much more energized and motivated when they feel that they are working toward a common goal. Savvy business managers will use teamwork as a way to motivate their employees to work together. This increase in teamwork can have a resulting effect on increasing morale which leads to the end result of higher productivity and job satisfaction. When your employees know that they are part of a team (from the top down), they are far more likely to recommit to their jobs with renewed energy and higher morale.