Is it possible to motivate an employee

Technology has changed the way businesses operate, as well as the way we work. Especially after the past year, where working from home has become more of the norm. So, whether you offer a work-from-home opportunity or flexi time, you should try to have various scheduling options if you want to attract top talent.

Is food the key to employee retention? It makes sense: When your employer pays attention to your physical needs, you get the impression that they care about you as a person — not just what you can do for the company.

Sometimes all people want is some recognition for a job well done. If an employee has been putting in a lot of time working on a project, or they went out of their way to help out a colleague, do not hesitate to praise them.

Long-time employees know the ins and outs of things, and they also make running your business a lot more enjoyable. Instead of guessing how to motivate your team, actually sit down with them and find out what they value. Doing the unexpected might be the best thing you can do for your employees, and your company. Scheduling is integrated into your POS system so you can plan your workflows in minutes and view vital analytics.

Custom permissions also let your team take control of their time from their mobiles, ensuring they can play a more active part in the business and keep track of their progress. We think businesses are as unique as the people who run them.

Get individualized content on the topics you care about most by telling us a little more about yourself. Back to Town Square. What the pandemic taught us about how to motivate staff COVID has had a huge impact on the way businesses operate, from social distancing to advanced health and safety precautions. Make your business a pleasant place to be.

Be a respectful, honest and supportive manager. Offer employee rewards. Here are some rewards you could look to incorporate: A quarterly bonus. Private healthcare. Offering to pay for additional credentials or qualifications.

Profit-sharing in your company. Of course, every employee is different, so managers should consider the individual when deciding how to show appreciation. Some employees are motivated by the opportunity to take on new, challenging work, a sign that their manager trusts and relies on them, says Chester Elton, co-author with Gostick of Leading with Gratitude. Meanwhile, more socially oriented employees might appreciate a lunch outing with their co-workers to celebrate a win.

If possible, reward employees by giving them more flexibility in their schedules or by putting them on the path to a promotion. It really helped keep the team going during a stressful week.

And yet, 70 percent of employees are not engaged at work. White points to something his father did as the head of a manufacturing business. He would regularly take front-line workers onto the production floor to see the finished product so they could witness how their piece of the puzzle fit into the larger picture. Managers must carefully monitor the amount of attention and direction they give employees.

Micromanagement is a motivation killer. On the flip side, not paying enough attention to employees can be demotivating, too. In a post-coronavirus world, maintaining communication will be especially crucial, as more employees are now working remotely. Teams can stay connected through video calls, virtual team lunches and instant messaging. Elton recommends that businesses encourage their managers to block out time in their days solely for employee interaction and allot resources for management training and development, which often fall by the wayside in tough times like many companies are facing now.

Organizations play a vital role in providing the tools and training to help managers with soft skills that are so necessary during challenging economic times. Jennifer Thomas is a freelance writer in Chicago.

Illustration by Michael Morgenstern. Celebrate small wins. On-track projects were green, yellow meant the initiative had issues, and red meant the program was behind schedule. Every time the project progressed from red to yellow and yellow to green, each step forward was celebrated.

It showed the team that it was expected to make progress. Amp up the autonomy. Every relationship, including work relationships, is built on trust. Defaulting to transparency is one of the best ways to encourage an atmosphere of trust amongst you and your team, and a team that trusts you will be more motivated and engaged with their work.

Transparency also helps ensure that everyone is working with the same information. That in itself can benefit the team. For many employees, that understanding starts with transparency, and ends with clarity. Without clarity, transparency begins to lose its effectiveness and motivational power. Make sure you're giving everyone a very clear and concise mission they can get motivated about in the first place, because it's nearly impossible to invest genuine motivation into something you're unaware of, or confused about.

It's easier to achieve success when you can envision it. Professionals of all types, from athletes to musicians and CEOs, all practice this technique to improve their motivation. Luckily, if you're providing a clear objective, you're already more than halfway there. Help the team understand what it would mean to achieve that objective. When someone makes real progress toward that objective or outcome, share that progress as a source of motivation for everyone. Although it's commonly stated that millennial employees are motivated by purposeful work , that's really true of most employees.

We met with Imperative's Arthur Woods , who explained why purpose is a vital factor in employee motivation, and how to help share and express that purpose.

Erica Dhawan echoed Arthur's advice in an article about motivation that she wrote for The Muse. She explains why it's so important to take time to explain the purpose behind the work you do:.

Autonomy and flexible work schedules are incredibly effective motivators. Giving employees more agency around when and how they get their work done can actually improve their efficiency, and help keep them motivated. In her article for Monster. Tell your employees what needs to be done by what deadline; allow them to decide when they will do the actual work. For some, that may mean coming in early; for others that might involve working on the weekend. The key here is that you're giving employees the freedom to work on their project when their motivation is strongest, not just when they're in the workplace.

Giving employees more control over their work also helps eliminate one of the worst enemies of motivation in the workplace: micromanagement. Want to save these ideas for later? We're not talking about hiring a bouncer for your office although you should make sure your employees feel safe at your workplace! Psychological theory suggests that there is a hierarchy of basic needs that people require before they can be motivated to reach their full potential.

Security falls right beneath physiological needs like food and water. Once employees feel secure, they're more likely to be motivated to reach, and further stretch their potential. Your posture not only says a lot about your motivation levels, it can actually impact them. Amy Cuddy gave an outstanding TED presentation about what your own body language can tell you, and how it affects your mood, your work, and your interactions with others.

Take a moment to think about your own posture, and the postures you're seeing around the workplace. What are they saying? If what they're saying isn't positive, try experimenting with different postures, and see how they impact your overall motivation.

Teamwork is one of the greatest motivators out there. Knowing that your colleagues have your back and are your cheerleaders is an amazing feeling.

When your motivation dips, your teammates are right there with you, rooting for you as you complete your next project. In fact, employee happiness is much more closely correlated with peer relationships at work, rather than relationships with managers or supervisors. Think about how you're structuring your work environment: does it encourage teamwork , or does it limit interactions amongst employees? If you're not giving employees an opportunity to work cohesively, you're missing out on a huge opportunity.

There are many ways you can improve peer relationships — one of which is peer recognition and rewards. Rewarding employees for their hard work is a motivational rule that nearly goes without saying. However, there are several ways to go about doing that, and some are more effective than others. Annual bonuses are a common way many employers reward employees for their hard work. Unfortunately, they don't often provide the motivation they're designed to.

An annual bonus perceived as routine, disappointing, or unfair can even damage motivation in the workplace. Providing smaller, more consistent rewards is a great way to boost motivation consistently over time.

Need some reward ideas? Download our big list of Creative Reward Ideas!