by Carmel Brulez

Created on: November 20, 2009   Last Updated: November 21, 2009

WAYS TO IMPROVE EMPLOYEE MORALE AND GROW PRODUCTIVITY

Having owned and ran businesses where I had to rely on staff to bring in sales and customers I do realise that they will not bother to try hard and may not even bother to bring in an average income for you unless you make sure they are happy in their work, feel valued and appreciated and feel it is worth their while.

Praising them and thanking them and giving them a pat on the back just is not enough. If they see that your bank balance grows and grows they will not be happy with just a smile and a handshake, the will expect to share in your success, especially if it was down to them that you became successful in the first place.

One way to make sure that employees are happy and do their best and increase productivity is to offer them bonuses according to how well they do. Set them targets so that if they achieve higher than average they get a commission of some sort on the basis that the harder they try and the better they succeed the more their bonus is. This is a win win situation because you are not paying out anything if they fail. And if you have various people working together doing the same job and one earns a lot more than the other you will not be blamed for paying the other more. They may be jealous and feel resentful but they cannot fail to see that it was down to them that they earnt less than the other one who achieved more. Staff are human and can be selfish, they will not bother to increase your profits if all of that profit comes to you and it would be selfish of you to expect or hope they will.

Another way to make sure that employees are happy and do their best and improve on their performance is to have a competition of some sort where the one who achieves or improves things the most by a certain date, probably in a year's time, will win a worthwhile prize or bonus. This can work very well and can be used together with paying staff for extra sales and productivity as individuals.

One of the best ways to improve sales and productivity though is to re examine the costs involved in providing the service or products you sell and finding a way to produce things cheaper, and either lowering the price so that you sell more of the products and then gain a much bigger profit even though the profit margin per item is less, or increasing the price if you can sell just as much at a higher rate. This would increase profits, which boosts the company and boosts employee morale at the same time. Finding other services or products to add to the existing portfolio is another idea. If you ask your staff for ideas of how to improve things they will be pleased to help, it flatters their ego that you want their opinion, and it could result in big improvements which they benefit from.

I would also suggest that you weed out any staff who do not get on with the other staff well and are argumentative, disruptive or difficult and those who do not pull their weight. Not only are they not earning their wages but they do not induce the hard working staff to do their best.

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