Despite the global automation of business processes, the human factor still plays a key role in the work of a company at any level. And every manager sooner or later faces the question of increasing the productivity of his employees.

To do this, it is important to determine the motive that encourages each employee to do their job well. Respectively,motivation of labor personnelshould be the main focus of any organization's personnel policy.

Main types of motivation

To choose the right ones ways to motivate employees, should

highlight the following types of motivation:

• material

• social

• psychological

The main motivation for employees of companies at various levels is primarily wages and monetary incentives -material motivation of personnel.However, it is impossible to increase wages indefinitely. Firstly, it is costly for the company. Secondly, wages in each industry are dictated by the labor market. And thirdly, the motivational effect of a salary increase lasts no more than three months.

The question arises,How can a manager motivate employees to work?in the least costly way for the company? There are many options to achieve increased work efficiency usingnon-material methods of motivation. What methods of motivation can be introduced in a company andhow to motivate employees.

1. Additional training and advanced training with career prospects

In fact, it is impossible to increase the salary of an ordinary employee to the level of a department head. But it is quite possible to give him a chance to become a leader. Seminars, conferences, internships, and visits to specialized exhibitions are an excellent way to encourage promising employees with a view to moving up the career ladder.

2. Flexible schedule for the most important employees

A good reward for distinguished employees could be a convenient work schedule without a clear time limit or a transfer to a partially remote work mode.

3. Unscheduled day off

Instead of a bonus, you can give the employee an extraordinary day off. You can time this to coincide with some event in the employee’s life - for example, the birthday of his child. Or declare a clear sunny day a day to go to the park. Or time the start of seasonal sales by setting aside a day for shopping after completing certain work, and thus motivate employees to fulfill the plan.

4. Congratulations on significant dates

Events can be very different - birthday, anniversary of work in the company, marriage, promotion, etc. It is important that, in addition to colleagues, managers be present when congratulating.

5. Supporting personal hobbies and interests of employees not related to work

Management often has little interest in what an employee does in his free time. Meanwhile, such information may be useful if it is necessary to encourage this employee. If he is interested in dancing, you can pay for a trip to a dance competition or reward a fitness enthusiast with a gym membership. For theater fans, the best reward is tickets to the premiere of a play with the participation of your favorite actor.

6. Recognition of employee success and personal praise

This can be written or verbal gratitude, expressed personally or in the presence of the team. It is important that the employee feels that the manager sees and appreciates his work.

7. Creative approach to work motivation

For creative, creative individuals, methods of encouragement should also be non-standard. Equipping your workplace with new equipment that no one else in the department or office has will be the best motivator for effective work.

8. Creating a bank of ideas and feedback

A wise leader will definitely create conditions in the organization for the generation and implementation of rational ideas from employees. Let them post their ideas, suggestions and recommendations on the company's internal website. The most successful ones can be adopted, and the author must be singled out and awarded.

9. Comfortable workplaces and relaxation areas

If the office creates comfortable working conditions with rest areas where you can relieve stress and restore strength, the working day will be as efficient as possible.

10. Targeted financial incentives

Financial incentives for an employee can be made more effective if you replace the traditional envelope with a trip to a good resort, a gift certificate for the purchase of household appliances or a fashionable gadget, or an excursion tour for the whole family. Discounts on company goods or services, provision of an interest-free loan for the purchase of a car, etc. will serve as a good motivator.

Examples of the most effective incentives include combinations of material and non-material motivation methods. A properly developed staff motivation system helps to find a balance between material and non-material incentives. Thanks to this, employees will not only be satisfied with their income, but also feel valued and important to the company.

If you want stronger results in the management of your company, then this can help you . This is an effective tool for monitoring staff working time, which provides a complete analysis of the working time of the entire company and will help to develop an effective motivation system for each employee. right now and you will receive a 14-day free version of the product.

How successful a company is directly depends on the work of its employees and their attitude towards their work. People must have an incentive, a desire to work. Therefore, a lot of attention should be paid to motivation. There are many ways to motivate subordinates.

We present to your attention 17 most effective

Take an interest in the results of your employees' work

As you know, information is important in any matter, including in the matter of motivation. The more information you collect, the better you can understand how to motivate your subordinates. Therefore, it will not be amiss if you take an interest in the results of your team’s work. Ask employees questions that will force them to think about the work they have done and tell you about specific results. Thus, the exchange of information within the team improves.

Find out if your subordinate is satisfied with his job

For your employees to perform well, they must like what they do. Otherwise, even the most effective methods of motivation will not help. Talk to the staff. Ask whether your subordinates like their work and whether it suits them. It may happen that the tasks you set for a particular employee do not correspond to his qualifications. In this case, you will need to slightly change the task or break it down into smaller ones. Remember that it is better to explain something once again and support the person than to receive bad work from him.

Ask your subordinates what they would like

In any team there are so-called performers who clearly carry out the task assigned to them. But there are also those who approach their work creatively. Such employees always have many ideas and suggestions regarding their personal work and even the work of the company as a whole. The task of a good boss is to find such people and give them the opportunity to prove themselves. Believe me, the best motivation for a person is when he understands that he is seen as a professional.

Ask questions in such a way that they can be answered in detail

The most common mistake many managers make is that when talking to people, they ask questions as if they were conducting a test. Either the employee answers “yes” or he answers “no”, and nothing else. In reality, questions like these are more suited to statistics than conversation. If you want to achieve a high level of motivation in your people, ask questions in such a way that their answer is detailed. This will show that you treat people with respect. This will increase their self-esteem, and therefore motivation.

Recognize that employees can be motivated by more than just their work at the company.
The company's successful operation is like a well-oiled machine. However, this mechanism consists of living people. Everyone may have their own hobbies or interests that have nothing to do with working in the company. And you, as a good leader, must recognize this. Find out who is interested in what. Perhaps help from management will be very helpful. After all, if your employees achieve success in their passion, this will be a huge incentive for them to work well.

Bank of ideas as a motivation tool

A good leader constantly communicates with the team and listens to everyone. Believe me, this is not a waste of time. After all, your subordinates always have some thoughts or ideas that they share only among themselves, believing that their superiors will not be interested. And among them there may be truly competent and worthwhile proposals. Creating a kind of “idea bank” will help you discover them. Keep a special folder or journal in which all your employees' suggestions will be recorded. And for yourself, develop the habit of filling out at least a page of the journal a day. This will teach you to listen carefully to people and increase the team's trust in you.

Motivation by knowledge

A true professional is a person who constantly improves and strives to achieve the best results in his profession. Therefore, the opportunity to learn and improve your level of knowledge is the best way to motivate. A wise leader always takes advantage of his employees' desire to learn. And there are many ways to do this. For example, education, trainings, conferences. At the same time, let the employee choose the course himself, and free training can serve as a reward for good work.

Teach your subordinates to evaluate their work

Employees who constantly monitor their work know how to evaluate it correctly. They may have their own system by which they mark their successes and failures. But if this does not happen, you must explain to employees that this is for their own good. As an example, offer your version of assessing labor productivity in a team.

Set clear goals for employees

If your subordinate does not clearly understand what he is doing, how good his work is, and how the company will benefit, there will be no effect. Therefore, set clear goals for your employees. Make them feel that their work is assessed promptly, accurately and regularly.

Encourage positive communication among subordinates

A good motivating factor for employees is how their work is appreciated by their colleagues. Positive feedback from colleagues significantly increases motivation levels. But this is a kind of culture of relationships in the team, which can and should be developed. Try to teach your subordinates to recognize each other's achievements and come up with a reward program. As a result, the quality of your team’s work will increase significantly.

Take care to enhance interaction between employees

The more often the company's management communicates with ordinary employees, the more positively this will affect the work as a whole. Therefore, we recommend holding events where both the management and subordinates can relax together and communicate freely. And the work itself can be structured so that there is as much contact as possible between ordinary employees and managers.

Explain to your employees how and why you will reward them.

Nothing motivates employees more than rewarding their work. But randomly rewarding or encouraging anyone can lead to completely different results. If you have your own reward system, explain it to your employees and be sure to answer all questions. By doing this, you show respect to the team.

A motivated beginner is better than an unmotivated expert

When hiring new employees, try to pay more attention to their attitude towards work. A person who, as they say, “is passionate about the cause” is a person with high internal motivation. Even if the candidate is not highly qualified, it will be easier to train him than to spend time motivating a specialist.

Small but frequent rewards are the path to quality work

In enterprises, it is most often customary to reward employees “on occasion”. For example, the successful completion of a project or the end of the year serves as an occasion for holding an entire ceremony for presenting valuable gifts or major awards. However, such a system causes more interest in the gift itself than in improving the quality of work. To prevent this from happening, we suggest that you reward your staff with more modest prizes, but more often. This way, people will see the results of their work now, and this will serve as an incentive to improve.

When rewarding a group, don't forget about individuals

Any team is a team. However, people often feel that their personal merits to the entire team or a separate group are simply not noticed. By rewarding a group, managers forget about its individual members, and this has a bad effect on the personal self-esteem of the staff. This situation can be corrected if managers or group leaders give a weekly report on the progress of individual members.

Track your motivation levels

It is impossible to improve motivation without tracking its level. Therefore, we recommend that you conduct surveys or tests from time to time that measure your level of motivation. This way you will learn to manage it and know when it needs to be increased and what methods are suitable in a given case.

Motivate with control

Proper control over the team can improve employee motivation. What does it mean? This means that you allow employees to make independent decisions in matters for which centralized control is not needed. For example, if your subordinates somehow decorate their workplace, this will not harm the company, and employees will feel more comfortable. The level of motivation will increase, which means productivity will also increase.

Add your thoughts on employee motivation.

Another great motivator is the recognition of experienced employees that new employees are doing an excellent job with their responsibilities. If you support this approach to new employees among your employees, then a friendly team will eventually form. And there will be no constant staff turnover. Why leave a department where you are valued and respected?

Alexandra A.

I won’t discover America, but banal corporate parties help to unite the team and then demand results from people, and not always only on holidays. A sense of community, responsibility and a healthy atmosphere among employees will also manifest themselves on vacation when not at work, by taking part in gaming competitions. We recently went to paintball at work - a lot of impressions and positive things!

I believe that you need to live the life of a team. Each team is a group of like-minded people. The main task of every leader is to direct this group in the right direction. Of course, working in a friendly, close-knit team is simpler and easier, but the team must be united. Never break away from the team, no matter how busy you are. Only with such meetings, in a relaxed atmosphere, will you be able to see your employees from the other side; here their qualities that you did not know about can be revealed.

I'll take some notes. But I don’t agree about corporate parties - there are people who work great, are in good standing with their bosses and colleagues, but they don’t want/can’t “unite” with the team. These are, for example, mothers with children - most often they do not go on holidays with everyone. Well, everyone can remember their own examples.

raw, as a rule, most people limit their work and personal life, so they cannot tolerate all kinds of trips and voluntary-compulsory events organized by their superiors. Moreover, as you correctly noted, there is a high percentage of family people who have their own affairs and concerns.
The best way to motivate employees is through competition and prospects. If a person realizes that he will earn more, have a higher status, and so on, then he will work more productively.

Motivation motivation! You can't talk too much with employees, but you can't get impudent either. Always look for the golden mean and everything will be fine!

Remembering my own experience working in an office, I can say that the best motivation is money. All sorts of bonuses, potential salary growth. Because there still comes a moment when everything gets to you and you want to get the fuck out. Well, management should make it clear at least occasionally that the person is valued and generally give some kind of assessment to the work. This is especially important for beginners - sometimes you come to work, but they don’t tell you anything - whether you are performing your duties correctly or incorrectly, what should be changed or everything is ok as is.

Mario, well, you shouldn’t forget about career growth, otherwise even if the salary is high and there are no development prospects, the employee will eventually begin to do it poorly, laze around in the workplace, and so on. Of course, you can hold him accountable for this - reprimand him, deprive him of a bonus, other options, but it’s still better to motivate him to be productive by providing growth prospects.

My business is very small: 4 people, plus me. But all four have been working with me for more than 3 years! And I motivate them simply: I pay wages on time, I don’t offend them with additional days off and bonuses, sometimes I allow them to go home early - in a word, I do everything that is called “humane treatment of people.” And of course, since I can’t provide people with career growth (there’s simply nowhere to grow!), I regularly increase (not in words, but in reality) wages every six months!

A bonus at the end of the month, but not for everyone, but for the best, excellent motivation for employees, the staff of your business. Although, if the business is small and you have, say, 2 salespeople, a scrubber, a watchman and a fireman, how can you determine which of them is the best?!

SemenS
In our team, after every corporate event, topics for gossip and gossip appear: Who ate how much, who drank how much, who danced how, who behaved in general, what they said, and so on. After this, grievances arise and disputes arise. So it also depends on the members of the team.

Only an idea that management communicates to each employee can unite and motivate a team. An employee must clearly understand what he must do in order for the organization as a whole to become more competitive. The employee must feel like a part of a single whole. Ideal conditions must be created for him to work effectively. And corporate parties, deprivation of bonuses, and ratings for the best employee, as a rule, do not bring the expected effect.

We unite more during some sporting events or various competitions, KVNs, where everyone feels the other’s shoulder. You can also get closer by doing joint agricultural work (we still practice voluntary-forced trips to the field). As the famous cartoon said: “Working together unites.”

If one department receives a larger bonus than the other (and this often happens in enterprises), then I don’t think that the team will unite during away sporting events or competitions.

Perhaps I am largely an egoist and materialist, but I believe that very often economic reasons are at the core. You cannot make large differences in wages in one position, that is, everyone performing a certain amount of work should receive the same salary, and you should not be particularly sensitive to your likings at work in front of your colleagues.

In the USSR, everything was approximately as described by the author of the previous post. The consequences were very dire, and they were reflected in the disadvantages of the command-market economy, visible to everyone. And this kind of motivation is only suitable for command-administrative systems!

Now, in order to motivate any employee to work, it is enough to say that you will give a small bonus, or an increase in salary, this method of motivation always works, and 99% without fail, since everyone loves money and will do what they are told.

Yuran123,
Yes, salary is very important. But there are people who love their specialty, there are many people who are lonely in their personal lives and are fulfilled at work, so the team still needs to be united. If a manager does not motivate his employees, he himself may eventually lose his chair. If the manager is a professional, you can arrange interesting educational presentations in interactive rooms during dinner. We went with the school several times, it was very cool!

But the quality of work will be very low, since the employee will try to do as much work as possible in the hope of receiving a bonus. Then, for example, products of poor quality reach the consumer, who, having bought it once, will not purchase it again, which means the manufacturer will begin to have problems with sales and, as a result, the enterprise will simply go down the drain...

It’s all about motivating and increasing employees’ motivation to do their work. The main methods of influence for superiors. Non-material types of incentives in the work environment and at work.

The content of the article:

Motivating employees is an issue that interests almost every leader of any group of people. After all, in order for the productivity of their work to grow, they need very great interest on the part of each participant in the process. Many modern companies conduct casting, look for ideal managers and staff, organize training in psychology, and much more. All this is just for the sake of somehow arousing even more interest among your employees.

Why is staff motivation necessary?

A person who has relatively little time in business will ask a similar question. Inexperienced workers who do not fully understand their business will also think the same way. But smarter and more experienced managers know the value of this skill.

There are several performance indicators that are growing rapidly as staff become more interested in them. Their efforts in this case bring much more profit, benefit and a number of the following things:

• Having a goal. The psyche of many people is structured in such a way that the presence of some final landmark makes the path to it faster and more accurate. That is, if a person knows what he is working for and really wants to achieve the final result, then this will happen much faster. Compared to disinterest, having a goal significantly speeds up any process.
• Increased profits. The income from each business depends on the amount of work done. It, in turn, is directly proportional to how this volume is fulfilled. In companies where a person's salary is based on output, productivity is much higher than with a fixed salary. Many employers like this scheme.
• Quality improvement. Every company owner will agree that they prefer to choose employees who are interested in what they do. In this case, they will not only sit the required number of hours and complete tasks. They will try and practically put their soul into their work. People whose work involves creativity are even more vulnerable and need their own interest. Without it, the whole process may not move forward at all, despite the employer’s good conditions.
• Cohesion. The presence of such a trait is very important for any team. Especially in cases where the result depends on the cooperation of several people at once. If they are all interested in achieving the same best end result, then the work will move forward at a very high speed and productivity. Otherwise, such orders are fulfilled slowly, and constant quarrels and misunderstandings arise in teams.

Basic methods of motivation depending on the type of employee

Today's modern society has taken business and personnel management to a whole new level. At the beginning of the 21st century, a science called socionics appeared. Its essence is to divide people into several groups. They all differ in their interests and motives that help them complete any amount of work.

In accordance with this, methods of motivating employees are chosen based on their membership in a particular group:

1. Prestige-oriented. For this group of people, the greatest satisfaction comes from being honored among the public. It is important for them to be in the center of attention, to constantly listen to praise from their superiors. This attitude makes them work better and faster just to get recognition from others. To interest such an employee, you need to do this by moving up the career ladder, which will help achieve a very big result. Sometimes management applies a “horizontal” promotion to such individuals. This means that the level of the position does not change much, but it sounds a little different and has its own privileges. Nevertheless, the employee develops a feeling of some special importance and necessity.
2. Supporting uniqueness. There is a category of creative people and scientists. The main motivation for them is not anything material or prestigious, but freedom of action. For such employees, it is best to create individual working conditions or a comfortable team, and you can be sure of achieving optimal productivity in the near future. If we add to all this periodic refresher courses, the result will not take long to arrive. In such an environment, brilliant ideas and plans will continue to be born, which will allow advancement in the business market and increase the flow of money into the company.
3. Concerned with personal interests. Nothing attracts a single person on the planet more than self-interest. Many modern innovative corporations operate on this principle. All of them purposefully, even when searching for an employee, encourage him with hopes of improving his personal comfort. Many people are lured by the idea that a company's products or technology can somehow help them. For example, this principle is often used by the inventors of detergents and cleaning products and various devices that help in the household. Thus, the employee tries twice as hard and as diligently, because he does it for himself too.
4. Comfort lovers. There is a category of people who want to live for today. That is, it is important for them that it feels good at that very moment and minute. Such individuals need to be provided with optimal working conditions. This includes a comfortable place, equipped technically, air conditioners or heaters depending on the time of year. Some employees turn their attention to the availability of an optimal lunch break or cafeteria that could satisfy their need. When fulfilling such requests, employers often receive a good response.
5. Financially dependent. This attitude works in almost every group of people and provides a positive effect. After a salary increase, many employees actually perform their quotas better and more productively. But, unfortunately, this does not last very long. In most cases, after a short period of time, new demands for an increase are received from people. All this will be repeated at certain intervals until management stops satisfying these requests. Ultimately, such a mechanism leads to an even greater storm of negativity among the staff. Therefore, it is recommended to use it in rare cases and only if there are compelling arguments for this.

Types of employee motivation

Many modern publishing houses write about how to properly motivate staff, because this issue, as already mentioned, is of great interest to many companies. The value of knowledge that will help them build relationships between employees differently is very great, but it requires special effort. Today there are many methods and techniques used for this purpose. But each of them still consists of similar basic elements. These are unique little tricks that help employers achieve a positive result without using additional funds.

Non-material motivation of employees

The basis of such a mechanism is always a change in personal attitude towards staff and one’s communication with them. This includes all activities that are spiritually beneficial. These elements are invisible but tangible to workers.

Among the most frequently used types of non-material motivation of employees are the following:

• Clarity of task. Not all people quickly grasp someone else's spoken language. Many people need some time to comprehend and understand what they have been asked to do. The same situation often happens at work. Due to their busy schedule, bosses prefer to distribute work over the phone or on the go. As a result of this behavior, some of the spoken information is lost, confused and not implemented. Ultimately, a dissatisfied employer loses not only profits, but also a valuable employee. To prevent this from happening, you need to clearly formulate your wishes. It is best that they are recorded on paper or electronically, and for each employee individually. In this case, everyone will be able to follow the existing standards, and there will be no confusion in the future.
• Team atmosphere. This recommendation is rarely followed correctly. After all, good relationships, if they have developed, often turn into long intimate conversations, off-topic discussions and the collection of gossip. Because of this environment, workers are more likely to be distracted than to work, and there is virtually no efficiency. But it’s also bad if the situation develops differently. When the team is divided into winners and laggards, the quality and overall performance of the enterprise suffers. It is best that relationships among staff are simply good and carry only a healthy spirit of competition.
• Introduction of new amendments. Not all workers like changes in the production process. Most people who hold a position for a long time prefer to leave everything the same until they retire. Well, the new staff cannot come to terms with such a decision, which brings discord between the company’s employees. It is necessary to constantly make adjustments to the work of the enterprise. Due to the release of new techniques and changes in the direction of the company, this becomes the responsibility of its leaders. Do all this very carefully, so you should always warn about such changes in advance. You can set aside a certain period of time to adapt to new products and allow you to ask your superiors for help.
• Engagement in solving important problems. Often all personnel at work independently divide themselves into higher and lower clans, which is very bad. In this situation, small employees of the enterprise decide that their work is practically invisible and does not require special efforts. They refer to the fact that there are more important employees who should notice all problems and problems, as well as solve global issues. This opinion must be changed by organizing a regrouping of people. The employer can independently select teams, puzzle them with important points and offer to find the optimal solution. People will feel the trust of their superiors and try not to let them down, even if their position in the enterprise does not change after that. This is also a good chance to find new talents and evaluate existing personnel again in practice.
• Creating a convenient work schedule. For many people, when choosing a place of work, the decisive factor is clock time. This is especially true for women with children, students or people living far away. The presence of such related problems often does not allow them to get the desired job, even if they are good specialists in their field. Therefore, this factor should be taken into account and, when hiring, try to meet the person and think together about a possible schedule. Sometimes it is also useful to change it during the process to improve performance and adapt to any new circumstances.

Material motivation of employees

It is not difficult to guess what lies at the basis of this technique. Many people wonder how to motivate employees other than money. Of course, this is not always exactly such compensation. Today there are many other types of material incentives that are not measured in banknotes at all. Due to the fact that many people find such attention from their superiors very flattering, it is used more often than others.

There are the following types of material motivation for personnel:

1. Status for highlighting. This is an interesting marketing ploy that was invented a very, very long time ago. Today, many companies successfully use it. The essence of the method is to create invisible rates and increases. For example, “the best employee” or “the most creative employee” can be selected at any time interval in almost every enterprise. To reinforce this not only verbally, you can create a board with photos, announce at meetings, and note financially. A slightly different option is to choose leaders of small teams or companies. Placing responsibility on one person means showing your trust in him, forcing him to be more responsible not only for his work, but also to monitor the correctness of its performance by other employees.
2. Control of rewards and punishments. A smart leader always tries to stick to the golden mean between these two branches of power. After all, only in this case can you maintain discipline, authority and productivity at the same time. We must not forget to praise and encourage a person in some way for the work done, to remind of its importance and necessity. This will help gain respect and motivate further cooperation. But it is important not to overdo it with such actions. We should also not forget about preventive measures. It is best to adopt a company charter, which would contain all the rules and regulations, as well as the penalties that follow for their violation (monetary fines). In this case, all violations will be clearly traced and noted fairly.
3. Taking care of your health. This point is especially important for people. That is why they love it when he is represented in the company at a high level. Safety rules, a clear work and rest schedule are important today, but are already considered more of an obligation than an encouragement. Now employees are attracted to additional services in the form of vacation packages, regular corporate events and gift certificates for various types of services. Not a single employee will refuse such a gift. Moreover, the return from it will then be several times greater than before. The feeling of gratitude motivates to improve work capacity and quality.
4. Attention to person. Employees very much love those bosses who are close to them. They intersect at work, not only at meetings, but also during the work process. A pleasant moment would be to congratulate you on your birthday and present a symbolic gift in the form of a package of coffee, for example. Professional holidays, name days or simply World Women's Day should always be noticed and taken into account. Such attentiveness should be perceived very well by people, and the assessment will be the highest. Employees will no longer be able to let such a caring employer down, nor will they want to.
5. Gift Rewards. This type of motivation has a more subtle and hidden meaning. After all, outwardly it will manifest itself in the form of small things that will be awarded on a special occasion. For example, souvenirs for coming up with bright ideas or a cap for “the best cashier of the year.” Such rewards can take a completely different form, for example, a food voucher at a buffet, theater or cinema tickets, medals from props. No matter how externally these things look, the person who receives such a prize will feel special and try harder to get to this place again.
6. VIP privileges. This is relevant for managers of reputable companies that can afford to provide such services. This could be a card of a famous fitness center or golf club. To get it, you need to complete the monthly plan in the shortest possible time, find a dozen clients or sell real estate. Concluding such large transactions allows a person to receive not only the expected payment for completing the work, but also to be pleasantly surprised by the attention and care of his superiors. This will be a very good motivator in the future.

How to motivate staff - watch the video:

Few people know how to properly motivate employees. Despite the existence of so many ways, this problem continues to plague many employers. In order not to ask such a question so often, it is worth taking just a few steps to meet employees, support some of their needs and ensure normal working conditions. The use of additional incentives is also welcome and has a good return on staff.

Center for Distance Education

Motivation does improve basic job performance. A highly motivated employee actually performs better. Organizations whose employees perform well generally perform better, and changing employee attitudes increase company profitability. We offer you several ways to increase motivation and improve the quality of work of employees that have proven themselves in practice.

1. Recognize that subordinates may be motivated by something not directly related to their job. Dynamic employees with significant growth potential tend to be passionate about sports, hobbies, or other non-work related activities. These outside interests should not conflict with work. You can leverage your employees' desire to excel in an area they are passionate about to fuel their growth and motivation in the workplace.

Recognize that they are living people with their own interests. Find out what makes them tick. Help your employees with their activities and take an interest in their achievements. Your positive attitude towards your subordinate's hobbies will definitely affect his work. Thanks to the support of management, this situation becomes doubly advantageous: the more success an employee achieves in life, the higher the quality and productivity of his work.

2. Teach subordinates to measure the degree of success of the work done. Employees who continually monitor their performance are able to notice and document their own growth. They create rating tables for themselves and mark their victories and defeats better than the leader himself.

How to achieve this? Any performance goal can be measured in a simple rating system. If the task does not involve expressing the result in numerical form, create a scale for assessing labor productivity.

3. Track your motivation level. In most organizations, managers have no idea about the actual level of motivation of their subordinates. Company surveys of employee job satisfaction do not include motivation assessments. If you start measuring your motivation, you'll likely soon learn how to manage it. Without data on your motivation level, you will never be able to improve this indicator.

Periodically measure employee motivation. Let junior managers also regularly monitor changes in the motivation levels of their subordinates.

4. Find out from your subordinates what they would like. Different employees have different goals and desires, which means they need to be provided with different opportunities for work and professional growth. You cannot motivate specific people with general programs. To increase motivation, it is necessary to find an individual approach to each subordinate.

One way to do this is to delegate authority, goals and objectives to each employee when developing an overall plan or project. Another way is to give subordinates the opportunity to independently develop their own strategic goals and plans.

5. Ask employees about their performance. The more information, the higher the motivation. It is for this reason that a good leader strives to increase communication within the organization. Try to talk less about yourself and ask others more about their work.

Ask your subordinate questions aimed at getting him to think about the work he has done and report on specific results. Questions “What results did your team achieve yesterday?” or “How many calls have you been able to handle in the last hour?” stimulate an increase in the employee’s level of self-information. And possession of information promotes internal motivation.

6. Explain to your subordinates the reward system you have adopted. Arbitrariness in incentives and rewards leads to cynicism, not to increased motivation. If a new program is taken out of thin air, employees begin to feel that managers do not respect them. Show respect to employees and, if necessary, thoroughly explain to employees the nature of the new incentive program; its goals and objectives. Provide clear answers to subordinates' questions about how this reward system can affect their current activities.

7. Increase interaction. In many organizations, managers and their subordinates are too busy and therefore rarely see each other. They have almost no opportunity to communicate. To increase the intensity of contacts between the organization's management and staff, you can, for example, draw up a plan for meetings and events so that managers are at the same time and in the same place with their subordinates. Organize work in the office in such a way that managers interact with ordinary employees more often. You can't increase the motivation of someone you rarely see.

8. Create a bank of ideas. What do your subordinates think? They may have good ideas, but most employees believe that no one cares about their ideas. At the same time, most managers would like their subordinates to share their ideas and fresh thoughts with them, it’s just that managers are bad at asking. Most often, they interrupt the subordinate or reject his proposals out of hand. Such managers immediately deprive employees of self-confidence and cannot achieve their goals themselves.

Is it possible to avoid this? The easiest way to solve this problem is to create a special notepad, folder, file, mailbox on the wall, etc. and enter ideas from subordinates into it. Managers who set themselves the task of filling out at least a page of such a notebook or file a day very quickly develop the skill of listening carefully to employees who “suddenly” have a lot of ideas.

9. Motivate with knowledge. To achieve professionalism in any job, an employee must strive to become the best in his specialty. A person who is passionate about learning will definitely grow in his position and develop additional skills. Therefore, you can use knowledge and learning as a reward and motivating factor.

What's the best way to do this? There are many ways. Send for additional training, conferences and training those employees who have achieved significant results in their work and whose successes have been recognized by their colleagues. Make additional knowledge an advantage to inspire employees to continue learning. Invite your subordinate to choose the training course himself and provide him with the opportunity to study for free. Knowledge is a powerful motivating factor; it is surprisingly cheap compared to its true price!

10. Reward individuals for the collective contribution of the group. In this era of teamwork, people often feel that their individual contributions go unrecognized. Companies are more willing to recognize the successes of the group as a whole. However, the manager needs to encourage team members also on an individual level. Only in this way can he increase their personal motivation.

This can be achieved, for example, by challenging managers or team leaders to report weekly on the key accomplishments of individual members. With the help of such reports you will be able to summarize the results at the end of the reporting period. Strive to ensure that immediate managers and colleagues recognize the contribution of individual employees to the common cause.

11. Encourage positive communication between subordinates. Personal positive assessments of employee performance are an effective motivating factor. A corporate culture that supports the desire to give each other positive feedback on the results of each completed task increases the level of motivation and productivity.

How can this be achieved in practice? First, you can develop a culture of mutual recognition among subordinates by developing a rewards program that rewards employees based on the results of a survey of their peers. When employees begin to recognize and reward each other for their successes, their motivation levels will increase significantly.

12. Find out if the subordinate is suitable for his job. Trying to motivate an employee who doesn't like his job won't work. However, when faced with a lack of motivation among subordinates, many managers focus on the work they do rather than on the people themselves. Changing the work parameters of employees can lead to a significant increase in motivation.

First of all, make sure that the tasks match the employee's qualifications. Otherwise, break the work into a series of small but meaningful tasks, or spend more time explaining and supporting. If you're looking to improve motivation and productivity, you'll need to make some changes to most of the tasks you assign to your employees.

13. Look for people who are intrinsically motivated. When companies hire workers, they are most often interested in their level of competence, rather than their work ethic. However, attitude determines motivation, which in turn has a major influence on the employee’s desire to learn and perform well. Why not start recruiting employees who are highly intrinsically motivated? It is much easier to train a motivated employee than to motivate a qualified specialist.

Hire people who have previously demonstrated high levels of optimism, enthusiasm, motivation to work, and a desire to grow. To identify such attitudes, you can use an interview or references from a previous job.

14. Reward subordinates in smaller amounts, but more often. It is common practice in most companies to give employees valuable rewards and pay large bonuses based on the completion of a project, quarter or year. Award ceremonies for the best employees are rare and attract the close attention of all company employees. But they usually have less of an impact on motivation than smaller, more frequent rewards.

Plan your expenses for awards and incentives so that you reward your subordinates more often. As a result, the connection between work and results will become more obvious to them. Employees will feel more likely to succeed. If you do use large rewards, have them preceded by a series of smaller rewards. This will allow you to focus the staff's attention on the gradual improvement in the quality of work, rather than on the reward itself.

15. Motivation by control. Managers are convinced that control is their prerogative. But in reality, control has a motivating effect. The main idea of ​​this method is to provide employees with the opportunity to independently make decisions on all issues that do not require centralized control.

Allow staff to independently make changes to any aspect of their work environment that does not pose a threat to the safety and image of the organization. For example, Amazon.com delivery workers are allowed to wear headphones while working and listen to music of their choice. Many companies allow you to decorate your workplace. By giving your employee more independence (within reasonable limits), you can achieve increased motivation.

16. Ask questions that require a detailed answer. In surveys and research, the most common questions that can be answered are yes or no. Such questions are processed in order to obtain numerical results of the study. However, in a normal conversation, questions that require a set number of answers seem rude and indicate your desire to control the interlocutor. They signal that you are not interested in the other person's answer or opinion. At the same time, managers constantly use questions in conversations with subordinates that require an unambiguous positive or negative answer. Ask open-ended questions more often, and your subordinates will feel that you treat them with respect. As a result, their motivation will increase significantly.

Try asking questions that start with “Why?”, “How?”, “Could you tell me about”, “What did you mean when”. And don't forget to listen to the answer.

17. Make assignments clearer. The subordinate must be clear about what he is doing, why he is doing it, and how well he is doing his job. Research has shown that task clarity has a greater impact on sales force motivation than sales experience or commission size. This principle applies to other specialties as well. You can achieve greater results if you help employees see their personal contributions to the common good, and if employees feel confident that their work is evaluated regularly, promptly and accurately.

It often happens that an employee does his job carelessly, clearly without enthusiasm and maximum dedication. It is clear that this makes any work done less efficiently and causes many problems for the manager of such an employee. What's the matter? How to motivate an employee to effectively perform job duties?

Almost all, or at least many, human needs can be reduced to a few basic groups. Moreover, while the need remains unsatisfied, it acts as a motivating factor; as soon as it is satisfied, the next, so to speak, higher need comes into play.

These are the needs, from lowest to highest:

1. Basic needs are those related to survival and maintaining health. These include the need for food, sleep, shelter and love.
2. Reliability and safety needs include physical safety as well as emotional and economic security.
3. The need to belong to a certain social group and the sympathy of its members is the desire of each person to be accepted by others 4., to become part of the team, to enjoy their sympathy.
4. The need for a certain social status is associated with a person’s place in society and the social hierarchy.
5. The need for power is associated with the desire to exercise control and control over others.
6. The need for competition is like the desire to win, to gamble.
7. The need for independence emphasizes the importance of freedom and self-control.
8. The need for achievement reflects the desire to learn and improve.

The most difficult thing for a manager is to find out what motives guide subordinate employees when trying to make their lives better.

The best indicator of the leading motives of employees is their behavior. Observant managers know that people's behaviors and actions signal their motivational needs. At the same time, the manager must follow the rule: to record exactly the model of a person’s behavior, and not his individual traits.

A behavior pattern is the most frequently repeated, and therefore characteristic, set of reactions for a person. This set of reactions is closely related to needs. That is why, using this set, it is possible to identify the motivational type of an employee - and decide how to stimulate his desire to work in order to achieve prosperity for his home company.

Listed below are behavioral “sets” that correspond to a specific leading motivation of the individual.

Motivation by social status

Behavior of an employee who can be motivated by social status:

• wears expensive clothes, strives to have symbols of status in society: office, title, etc., wants to correspond to corporate values;
• prefers expensive accessories;
• appreciates everything prestigious and strives to be thought of as a professional, takes pride in his work.

Rewards aimed at motivating such an employee should give him greater weight.

This could be: a high title, an office, use of a certain canteen or club, the right to wear rare or unique things (for example, a tie with the company logo), the right to a car with a driver, treatment by the boss as an equal.

One manager could not restrain his obstinate subordinate, who was constantly planning to quit. The boss tried all methods - from additional bonuses to various bonuses. The solution to this employee’s motivation turned out to be surprisingly simple: it turns out that he dreamed of a corporate mobile phone number, considering it an attribute of high status (in his mind), without which he felt inferior. Providing a corporate phone number solved all management problems.

Motivation by reliability

Behavior:

• dresses cleanly and neatly;
• follows long-established habits;
• negatively perceives innovations in the organization, likes to go into details, is restless;
• if he is criticized, defends himself in any case and to the last, loves rules and instructions, needs accuracy and clarity of instructions;
• workaholic, feels discomfort without instructions.

People of this type like to take action when they are given comprehensive guidance.

For successful motivation, they must be rewarded:

• feedback that will give them a feeling of support, security and confidence in the future;
• short-term goals and frequent feedback;
• a detailed explanation of all aspects of company policy, especially those entailing changes;
• clear instructions that precisely express the requirements;
• good social benefit programs;
• high appreciation of long work experience and dedication to the company; the ability to quickly access the boss at the required time;
• rewards that give the right to be a member of the team.

The managers of one holding company, after a long search, finally selected an employee for the position of manager of a large retail chain. The new manager had extensive administrative experience, and he was entrusted not only with ensuring the day-to-day operation of the stores, but also with determining the strategic aspects of the chain’s management and policy. After a few months of his activity, management invited a consultant.

The main problem was the stagnation that emerged in the chain of stores. The founders could not understand why the system was not improving. At the same time, nothing but praise was expressed to the new manager: all reports were provided to him on time, and information flows were perfectly debugged. He himself spent 12-13 hours at work, showing extraordinary diligence and responsibility.

Yes, he was an excellent workaholic performer, but the problem was that his main motive - reliability - did not allow him to go beyond the usual instructions and regulations. To optimize the management situation, the consultant recommended hiring a managerial employee with a leading motivation for developing existing ideas and generating new ones as an assistant.

Motivated by a sense of belonging

Employee behavior that can be motivated by a sense of belonging:

• likes to be a member of clubs, visit pubs,
• enjoys the team's game,
• corresponds to the value orientations of the group,
• loyal to team values, likes to share his opinion before making a decision, opposes change if it bothers the group, strives to be popular, knows how to convey his thoughts well and concisely to keep his teammates in the loop.

People with social needs want to belong to a group.

They may be motivated by: confirmation that their activities meet the team's goals, encouragement to be committed to the team, learning environments that help the team improve, rewards that highlight shared effort, opportunities to interact with the team while working, and support from superiors.

An example is the situation of one qualified financier leaving one audit company for another for a much lower salary. To the perplexed questions of his acquaintances, this man answered: “I don’t like the situation in the old company at all: people are completely alien to each other, and everyone pulls the blanket over themselves. In the new company, I immediately felt some kind of warmth towards myself.”

Motivation of an employee who feels the need for competition

Behavior typical of such employees:

• work hard to achieve goals, take risks;
• game organizers love to test their strength (“life is a competition”);
• They are jealous of their rivals, always want to win, and do not know how to lose;
• do not work well with teams, “individualists”.

The motivation of such workers can be anything related to social recognition.

Eg:

• promoting their goals and frequent feedback;
• setting new challenging tasks, public recognition of results;
• reward with prizes for the “best”, membership in prestigious clubs.

Such people are usually very jealous of the appearance of new employees who show great promise, seeing them as rivals and fearing to be defeated. The most common problem with these types of employees, especially if they occupy high positions, is that they tend to behave (often unconsciously) in such a way as to eliminate those who seem to be better than them, even at the cost of great losses to their company.

Motivation by recognition

Behavior characteristic of an employee who can be motivated by recognition:

• feels the need for praise and loves it very much;
• pays attention to successes;
• boasts of awards;
• loves to be the center of attention;
• works hard, wanting to succeed.

Such an employee can be motivated by setting short-term goals and quick feedback, praise - written and oral, publicizing the results of his work, public praise, and prizes of various kinds.

In one organization, during a training session, the wholesale sales manager stood out from the entire group. However, his claim to flaunt his competence and desire to argue with the coach was of an unusual nature: he entered into discussions only when he appeared in the management room.

It turned out that in this way he wanted to earn the boss’s recognition. At the same time, to his misfortune, he often expressed the most ridiculous ideas and had absolutely no idea that this only irritated the leader. There were jokes about this employee in the company, and they came up with a funny nickname for him. Nevertheless, the boss knew very well that this ambitious person did not have to pay bonuses - suffice it to say about his irreplaceability and special significance for the company.

Motivation by power

Such an employee likes to make decisions and organize the work of others.

The typical behavior of such an employee is:

• enjoys directing the work of others;
• thinks clearly and is able to express his ideas well;
• likes to participate in the management of affairs;
• can make difficult decisions, can make constructive criticism of the organization's activities, and takes initiative.

The motivation in this case could be:

• greater powers as its performance improves;
• delegating a large part of the work to him;
• assignment of complex work that allows management of others, permission to perform a representative role;
• involvement in discussions of professional advice and access to participation in decision-making;
• regular discussion of prospects.

Knowing these types of leading motivation, you can always easily determine how to most effectively motivate any employee to obtain maximum returns for the company.