by Kuok Wei

Created on: June 14, 2007   Last Updated: June 13, 2009

In every company, the human aspect should never ever be overlooked. What is a company without its staff? Remember, it is the staff that drives the company and determines how competitive we are.

Firstly, staff will never be fully motivated unless the company and managers put in an effort to do so. Depending on the behavior of the staff member, different methods should be used to motivate them. Certain staff wants more flexibility, some want to be left alone, while some would like to get some concern from their superiors.

Hence, when wanting to motivate the staff, we cannot apply a general method across all staffs as this would not be effective. A good guide would be to study the maslows hierarchical theory.

Different people at different stages would be motivated by different things. Once one level is satisfied, we need to use the appropriate incentive to motivate them to move on to the next level.

How can we motivate our staff? Managers need to understand their workers well first. A working environment should not be strained but relaxed and conducive. Managers would want to interact more with the workers and chat with them. A casual chat could motivate a worker more than a manager checking up on a staff.

It boils down to how good the staff feels working for us, dealing with potential leaders, we should assign them responsibilities, give them opportunities to showcase their talents and not under utilize their talents.

If we can understand how our workers feel and think, we can take the right steps in dealing with them or motivating them. Example: Staff who tend to be over performing should be given more challenges, pick up the pace, share with them the whole picture and where the company is heading. Staff who are more passive, managers can try to open up to them more, if they are uncomfortable with it then nothing much can be done. Forcing it on your employees will not do good.

Some activities include family days for employees, company events and outings which prove to be useful in motivating the staff and creating a sense of belonging.

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