Motivating Your Employees - Change Your Attitude

A while ago I used to have a manager that was a master of mobbing. We all "loved" her. She would burst into the room in the morning, always trying to surprise us while doing something illegal, she would never say "good morning", she would throw her laptop on the desk and start working as if none of us were in the room. Imagine our rest of the day - we were all sad, our motivation was gone (had we had any left in the first place from the day before :)), we were all looking at the clock hoping it would miraculously turn to 5pm on the spot so we could all run to the tram. I wandered along the factory all day begging for a smile for anyone to brighten up my day...just a little at least as the dark clouds came over me again as soon as I entered our HR office.

Well, do you get it? See what's wrong here? Of course! A manager is responsible for a lot of things and among them is team attitude. Your team looks up to you - you have a bad day - don't let them see it because they will borrow your attitude and have a bad day also. You are nice and smiling all the time - they will be happy and smiling all the time. Genuine smile, I mean, not fake, they're not stupid to buy it...

What can you do as a manager to motivate your team from this point of view?

-Never enter the office in the morning without smiling and greeting them;

-Always make eye contact while talking to your team members – it’s not fun for someone to stand by your desk and look at you while reading emails – that’s not a conversation;

-Treat your team members with respect – remember they help you achieve your goals – no, really! You’re not alone there. You wouldn’t be able to achieve your team goals without your team;

-Never take in the office calls or have discussions where you estimate you would get angry – go in a separate room – an angry attitude from a manager shouting influences everybody, even if the manager is not shouting at someone present in the office;

-Always offer negative feedback in a one-to-one meeting; positive feedback can be offered publicly;

-Try to leave your personal issues at home;

-Be positive, expect positive things from your team and they will achieve them – be negative and show them you don’t trust them (see my manager trying to catch us while doing something illegal – we neved did by the way) and they will dissappoint you;

-Speak nicely of people, not necessarily your team members – your manager, your colleagues, your family. Your team will see that you are a good person and will appreciate the positive atmosphere you are creating;

-Don’t be afraid to show them you have weakneses too – you are human too and they will see you as one of the team, having faith to come to you for an open discussion;

-Roll up your sleeves – don’t give them tasks and flee. Try to show them you are able to work together with them on the tasks even if for some time. I know managers are busy, but taking the time to work by them will make them respect you. Trust me. You don’t want them to see you as a God from above that is almighty. You want them to respect and care for you. You will have your ups and downs and if they don’t respect and care for you, you will be alone during your downs;

-Make time for them – even if a few minutes. They will appreciate it. A lunch out or even in the office together, a short meeting, a few minutes spent near your desk talking, try to make time for each of them;

-Be fair – tream them equally when they go wrong or when they are successful;

What else would you add to my list?
Take care,
Geo

Non-Financial Motivators

As HR Manager in a fresh company (by fresh I also mean new subsidiary of a larger one) your main job besides monitoring the market and drowning your managers in reports is thinking really really hard about how to motivate the company's employees. Simple as it may seem, it's a huge task if your budgets don't include salary increases and bonuses as often as the people may like and also if your managers keep shouting "Mind the costs, please!. We are planning to be a profitable company, not a non-profit humanitarian organization."

What can you do then? Well, put your thinking caps on, start reading HR books, browse HR websites and contact your fellow HR friends in need. Ideas will surely pop-up. Here are a few from my side:

• Thorough recruitment process - start from the beginning; verify candidates' motivation to make sure you have no surprises later on; how can you verify that? ask them what they know about the company, about the position, where they have seen the job posting, how they have prepared for the interview, what are their short term future plans concerning career development; if they have no idea about the position, the company and they are just desperate for the job or want to be promoted in 4 months, forget about it. They don't want your company or your position. One more thing, don't conceal any information when making the offer - tell the candidates all about the salary, the benefits, about the difficulties they will encounter, about shifts, any contract clauses - you don't want them to find out one month after they are hired. They will quit and you will start recruitment all over again. Better avoid that and hire a candidate that is prepared and willing to accept all the conditions.
• Detailed training plan for each new joiner - this means the best Induction you can think of and then a clear training path later on. By Induction I mean details about the company, the position, Human Resources procedures that might affect or help them, the team, the manager, job description, personal objectives. A proper induction can take even up to a week leaving the employee confident about coming to work and knowing where to go to get details or have a problem solved. Then, personal training plan can be discussed with HR and with the employee's manager allowing the employee to select a certain career path in the company and having all the instruments he/she needs to achieve that. 
• Proper information channels - an engaged employee is an informed one; an employee who knows nothing about the company doesn't care too much about its status. Make sure employees receive enough information about company results, company plans, clients, perspectives. Knowing the big pictures allows each employee to understand his/her role in the business. Displaying an org chart for the employee to actually see their place is also useful to keep them informed. This way they also find out the structure of the organization and can imagine their future career path.
• Proper communication between manager and employee, between top management and employees and between colleagues and teams; employees need to feel like part of the whole and need to understand what's going on around them. If they can be involved in decisions affecting their work or at least consulted, even better. Channels you can use for communication: regular newsletters, short emails from time to time, larger scale meetings where all employees are allowed to come and meet the managers, scheduled meetings with top management allowing each employee to speak directly to the "big boss", printed bulletins and reports, company intranet with plenty of news, internal boards with printed materials displayed, employees being invited to other company subsidiaries to meet other teams and exchange information.
• Support offered - make sure each employee has someone to rely on at first - at least for a while. A Buddy program which includes connecting an old employee with a new one who can go to the first with various issues anytime can facilitate proper integration in the company.
• Regular performance evaluation -  each employee needs to know what their job is, what their objectives are and how they've done throughout the year; two meetings each year are OK. Employees need to know when they have done a good job and also what's there to improve; rewards like salary increases or bonuses can be added, but we're discussing non-financial motivators, so I'll skip that. Simply telling the employee how they are doing makes them feel appreciated and allows them to know that someone cares about their job. 
•  Internal promotions - making sure that as many positions as possible are covered from the inside; making sure that employees are involved in trainings that prepare them for that; making sure that all open positions are published internally first and that the recruitment process is fair and transparent.
• Fair recruitment process for external candidates that are being recommended bu employee for the job - hiring someone's friend or family is OK but only if they pass the same recruitment process like everyone else and they get the position in a fair manner. Employees need to trust HR and management.
• Work environment - try to make sure as managers and as HR representatives that employees have all they need to perform a good job; if the company can't afford all that, at least make sure that you show the employees that you have done your best. Listen to them, encourage them, talk to them first and try to avoid disciplinary actions and any other negative motivators unless absolutely necessary. Try to make the environment as pleasant and open as possible. A dictatorship doesn't work for most employees.Terror and intimidation as well.
• Allow employees to have time for their families and personal life. You need balanced individuals in your company not robots. Only balanced and happy individuals have an open mind and not only perform a good job, but are also open to innovation.
• Facilitate good communication between departments - allow employees to know each other, team buildings are not always expensive, but can do wonders. Also, employees working together from different locations work better if they have seen each other at least once. You don't need each department to work perfectly separately, but your entire company as a whole to achieve great performance.
• Encourage employees to be task oriented not time schedule oriented. Where possible, allow those who are efficient and finish their job (well done of course) go home earlier.
• Remote work - where possible allow employees to work remotely from time to time - this increases engagement because employees get time for themselves and can solve family matters in the mean time (mothers who don't have a babysitter available can work from home for a few days); also, they save money on transportation to work.
• Always reward results - not necessarily with bonuses. There are a lot of ancient methods that still work - employee of the month board, public congratulations during a meeting with the entire team, a day off, asking the good employee to train others, etc.

Here are just a few items that we have implemented in the company where I work.
Any new ideas from your side are welcome. Please post them as comments.

Kind Regards,
Geo

Engagement Strategies: Motivating Your Employees – Good Communication

One non-financial manner of motivating your employees is to permanently keep them involved and informed. Please make sure that your employees get:

1.   An internal bulletin – monthly is the best, but you can select any time frame you find suitable; you can even send a survey to involve the employees in the decision concerning theme and timeline; an internal bulletin can include: manager’s message, new hired employees, promotions, HR and financial data, interviews with the team members, news and many more.

2.  Regular surveys consulting the employees on certain issues - presenting the results is very important – the employees feel involved if you do and they see it as a waste of their time if you don’t. Explaining the decision and basing it on the results is also important.

3.  Communication boards inside the company. These boards are also called “Visual management boards”. They must be placed in visible places and must include information of general interest.

4.   Periodic meetings between managers and teams – individual one on one meetings and group meetings – these meetings can be used to communicate feedback, ask for ideas, solutions, take decisions together. All are very important and advisable to implement.

Engagement Strategies: Motivating Your Employees – Proper Training and Development

One good motivating factor for your employees is training. Make sure you do the following for EACH of your employees:

1.  At least a week Induction training in order to introduce the employee in the company; for managers, consider even more – up to a month; by Induction training I mean introduction to company history, company activity, company financial, HR or any other useful details, company mission, vision, values, team, HR policies and procedures, team policies and procedures, client specifications. Al these make sure the employee becomes part of the team.

2.  Assigning a mentor – selecting an older employee to guide the new one through a determined period of time.

3.  Assess employee skills when hired; prepare a training plan for short and long term to make sure skills are improved allowing the employee to perform better and even to get promoted. Offering trainings and development opportunities shows the employees you care. Some of these trainings may be internal – so with lower costs.

4.  Helping the employee pursue higher education. If company budgets allow it, paying for employees certifications and studies, even partially helps with the motivation.

5.  Talk to the employees and the managers about their training and development needs and try to fulfill them.

Engagement Strategies: Motivating Your Employees - Proper Recruitment and Selection

Please don't consider this title as confusing - recruitment and selection can be considered a motivation factor.
How exactly you may say? Well...here's what you can do in terms of recruitment to motivate employees:


1. Selecting the best candidates according to job requirements - this creates a good image and confidence about the HR department - people have the courage to come to you later on for advice, this makes sure that the candidates selected fit the team and work well with their team members, this helps create a strong team; the team manager has the possibility to choose his/her team members making sure the team is fit to work together. All these characteristics of a team motivate the team members.


2. Discussing with the candidates the strengths, weaknesses and career path for the job they apply for - this helps the candidates select the proper job by knowing all the pluses and minuses. They know what they are getting into and they don't get false expectations.


3.Telling selected candidates about salary and complete benefits package so they are aware of the full offer before accepting - this helps candidates with not having "surprises" later on after accepting the job. "Surprises" can cause people to resign sooner than expected. This will create more work for you (maybe you will select someone without thorough testing just to fill the jobs - be careful about this vicious circle), a negative atmosphere in the team and a bad image of the company.

Engagement Strategies: Employee Motivation Idea - Employee of the Year Selection

Here's a proposal for you to think about - how can you select the employee of the year for a team as fair as possible. Prepare an Excel file, include the names of the people in the teams, insert the criteria and give weights to each of them.

Here's a file you can use:
http://www.comialarm-resurseumane.go.ro/HR/Employee_of_the_Year_Criteria_Excel97-2003.xls

Take into consideration the following criteria:
- mid-year rating grade - rates from 1 to 5 were considered, 1 being the best, 5 the worst;
- annual rating grade - given in October so you can have the final Employee of the year selected by December.

Additional criteria:

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Team Work

Employee consistently demonstrates the spirit of teamwork by offering support to fellow employees whenever a need arises for a collective effort in accomplishing a task or goal.  Employee takes a positive approach in interacting with fellow employees.

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Reliability

Employee is always on time for work, doesn't waste time on too long breaks, his colleagues and his manager can always trust that he/she will perform the activity he/she was entrusted with, will respect deadlines and will promote quality of work

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Innovation

Employee has developed an original idea or suggestion that has a positive effect on the operations, policy and/or procedure.  The end result of the idea or suggestion is a reduction in cost(s) to the operation or increased efficiency or accountability.

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Personal development interest - Learning & Development

This criteria defines the person's interest in developing themselves, his/her interest in being part of trainings and in improving the knowledge

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Professionalism

Employee conducts himself or herself in a manner consistent with the values and goals of the company.  Employee demonstrates an above average knowledge of their job responsibilities and delivers a high quality job performance and services.

Customer focus

Employee consistently recognizes and meets the needs and requirements of internal/external (where applicable) customers.  Employee demonstrates compassion in dealing with the customer, being mindful of how his or her attitude and actions are perceived.  Employees use problem-solving techniques, when necessary, to satisfy the customer’s needs and reflects a positive image of the institution.

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Quality

Employee consistently uses a systematic approach to accomplishing his/her responsibilities, taking care to minimize errors.  Employee acknowledges and takes pride in ownership of the day-to-day processes for which he/she is responsible and utilizes initiative where necessary to meet overall goals.