by Eric Goudie

Created on: August 18, 2010

Motivating employees is extremely difficult.

No matter how much you wish it to be otherwise it’s highly unlikely that anyone under your supervision will actually be as motivated to do their job as you are, and if you start spouting off a bunch of hollow platitudes about the value and joy of working together towards the overall success of the company you’re likely to be met with indifference, eye-rolling and snide comments behind your back.

If you can’t motivate your employees with your soaring rhetoric, you might want to try one or more of the following tips:

Give them money

It’s really that simple. If you want someone to work harder, offer them more money. People work to make money, and most of them would like to make more money if they could. By offering bonuses, commissions, overtime or other monetary incentives to your employees you’ll be motivating them with the one thing that means more to them than any pizza party or Employee of the Month award.

Give them time off

There’s a good chance that most of the people in your office would rather be somewhere else right now. Letting everyone go home half an hour early on a slow Friday is a treat that won’t be forgotten by smart employees, who just might show their appreciation by pushing themselves a little bit harder on Monday morning.

Let them work from home

Telecommuting is a powerful motivational tool for the right employee. Anyone who makes a long drive through rush-hour traffic twice a day to sit at a computer doing a job that could be done from anywhere would likely relish the chance to work from home, even if it were only for a couple of days each week.

Weed out the trouble-makers

There’s probably someone in your office that nobody can stand working with or being around. Maybe they are hopelessly incompetent when it comes to office dynamics, actively undermine their co-workers, or maybe they just smell bad. Whatever the problem is you should make fixing it a priority, and if an employee can’t be rehabilitated, get rid of them. Tossing out the rotten apple will make the office a more pleasant place to be for everyone, and it shows your employees that you actually care about making their work more bearable.

Back off

Being a micro-manager is anti-motivational. Give your employees enough rope to hang themselves with, and the good ones will deliver, while the bad ones will write their own pink slips. Always be available to provide help and guidance, but let your staff take some real ownership and responsibility over their duties. Feeling important is a powerful motivation to do your job better.

In the end happy employees are more likely to be motivated than unhappy employees. Do everything you can to genuinely increase an employee’s happiness without decreasing their productivity, and the motivation to participate in your company’s success should be the result.

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