As every employee is an individual with their own motivations and reasons to come to work it’s a given that money, whilst important isn’t the prime reason people come to work. As employers we’d like to think that people actually enjoy being at work and some even measure employee satisfaction, regularly and take notice of the research.
American psychologist Abraham Maslow created the 'Hierarchy of Needs', a theory of psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human needs in priority, culminating in self-actualisation. Unfortunately (or not) his model has been Meme’d with “WiFi” becoming the foundation of all our needs.
So we have a rough idea of what employees are seeking, they want to attain self actualisation for themselves, how can we as employers contribute to this lofty objective?
In a recent report from engagement specialists PEAKON* they found that :
Strong leadership is the biggest driver of employee engagement across both genders:
So strong leadership is the most important motivational factor an employer can deliver to get the most out of their employees. But what is strong leadership?
I reckon that the following contributes to strong leadership, what do you think?
There are a few simple steps that you too could follow to motivate your employees and it costs you very little but the important thing is to be a great leader, no matter where you are in the organisation. Get to know your employees motivations, have clearly defined performance objectives, regular 1-2-1 meetings and offering training and support where it's needed.
*Understanding male and female motivation in the workplace PEAKON ENGAGEMENT REPORT October 2016
You balance your time between being in the business and running the operation, and out of the business and thinking about how you want your business to grow and how you can make your business as efficient as possible. The one key question that is vitally important and will make the difference between whether you achieve your goals or not is what a model employee would look like to you.
Are you sure you’ve covered all the why’s and wherefore’s and how you’ll nurture your newbie in the first few weeks of employment with you? It's really easy to make assumptions that because a new employee may have the skillset that you are looking for to jump to conclusions, hoping that it will all work out fine. It’s almost guaranteed that they’ll have superficial knowledge of who you are and how you do things.