No Bull Business Blog

No more raises: 5 ways to motivate employees

Excerpted from the Executive Report: Motivating Without Money: 91 Inexpensive Ways to Keep Employees Happy

 

There will be very few raises this year, but there are still ways to motivate employees and boost morale. Here are five ways:

1. Make your people the face of your organization. You have to advertise anyway, so why not put their smiling faces in your ads or feature them in company publications, such as newsletters.
2. Give shiny cars. You can buy express car washes for about $5. So for $100, you can give 20 employees clean cars.
3. Add a handwritten note to your employees' paychecks from time to time. Highlight something they did, how you felt about it and the effect it will have on the company, co-workers or customers. For instance, "Jill, your perseverance helped us find the software bug. I'm proud you're part of my team. You saved us a lot of time and money."
4. Give employees space to do their own bragging. Put up a large bulletin board and invite them to fill it with certificates, newspaper clippings, artwork and other noteworthy items about themselves or their loved ones.
5. After someone puts in an extra effort, send a care package home to the employee's family. Include items with the company logo and passes for all family members to see a movie.

 

DIGGING DEEPER
Motivating employees is a never-ending job for managers. But there are plenty of ways to do it. For more ideas, read the Executive Report: Motivating Without Money: 91 Inexpensive Ways to Keep Employees Happy.

Is delegating a dirty word?

Excerpted from the Executive Report: Taking Control - 163 Ways to Save Time.

Delegating is a dirty word to many people.

Because doing it properly takes time and energy, they often think: "In the time it would take me to teach someone else to do this task, I could do it myself."

Or: "The only way I can be sure this task will be done right, is if I do it myself."

Here are two reasons to toss out both those ideas:

• Look at the big picture. While it may take more time than you'd like to explain how to do the task the first time around, it will save huge amounts of your time in the long run.
• Perfectionism is one of the biggest time-wasters. Are there some tasks that need to be perfect and require your expertise? Absolutely. But there are so many more tasks that don't need to be perfect, and where "good enough" is just fine. Productive people know how to tell the difference - and so can you.

DIGGING DEEPER

For most managers, working harder really isn't an option. But they try to do it anyway. But there are plenty of ways to streamline your job, eliminate distractions and get others involved. For help, read the Executive Report: Taking Control - 163 Ways to Save Time.

Use the word 'behavior' instead of 'attitude'

Excerpted from the the Executive Report: Dealing With and Eliminating Unacceptable Behavior.

You may think a person has a good attitude or bad attitude, but unless you're crawling around inside his or her head you really don't know.

Managers should steer clear of using the word "attitude" in the work setting.

Instead, use "behavior."

You can actually see and document behavior.

You can tell a worker: "It's unacceptable for you to suck your teeth and walk away while I am giving you instructions."

That's more clear and specific than "I don't like your attitude."

DIGGING DEEPER:
For the most part, employees do the right thing at work. But there are always those moments of "unacceptable behavior." Get a handle on it with the Executive Report: Dealing With and Eliminating Unacceptable Behavior.

Got any 'plate lickers' at your place?

We all know folks who don't miss an opportunity to get a free meal. BuzzWhack.com  calls them "plate lickers." Here's BuzzWhack's  definition:

plate lickers: People who show up for the free food. Could be members of a customer's staff who invite themselves to a working lunch. They provide no input, have no decision-making authority, generally dress slovenly and order the most expensive thing on the menu. After lunch, they will go back to their cubicles and complain about you, the restaurant and their station in life.

BuzzWhack.com