A few weeks ago during the Motivation Webinar, Kurt Nelson reviewed some practical everyday things you can do to increase employee motivation in each of the Four Drives.  Regardless if you attended or reviewed the webinar slides, the following tips are good reminders and may spark further ideas for you today on how to increase your employee’s motivation!

Drive to Achieve & Acquire:

  • Recognize or provide incentives for your employees in a customized manner (one size does not fit all)
  • Ensure recognition is timely and focuses on achievements
  • Reward your employees with appropriate and individualized tools, (i.e. a $20 gas card would not be a motivator for someone that telecommutes)
  • Make recognition a priority utilizing formal and informal methods – ensure you do this on a regular basis
  • Get creative, some of the best recognition is low cost but high in creativity

Creative Resource: 1001 Ways to Reward Employees, Bob Nelson PhD

Drive to Bond & Belong:

  • Create and support opportunities for employees to connect on a personal level, i.e. potluck lunches, business book clubs, work softball teams, bowling leagues, etc.
  • Develop formal job sharing/rotation where peers learn other jobs on the team
  • Understand that there is a human need to connect with others, remember to balance the perspective of employees ‘goofing off’
  • Organize a share and tell day, where employees get together and share what they do within the company and how their job fits into the bigger picture

Resource: http://www.thiagi.com

Drive to Comprehend & Challenge:

  • Provide challenging work assignments that allow your employees to grow
  • Create opportunities for your employees to cross train into other areas of the company that they might be interested in learning
  • Share fun/interesting magazines or journals with your employees, highlight interesting articles and then have them pass along to the next person
  • Set achievable but realistic stretch goals – have a goal setting meeting with employees

Resource: Work Motivation: History, Theory, Research and Practice by Gary Lathum

 Drive to Define & Defend:

  • Provide time off /company time for charitable work
  • Ensure you have a clear Mission
  • Be transparent with information, this will foster an environment of trust and pride
  • Actions speak louder than words, have your employees back, believe in them
  • Ask for testimonials from customers have them share their experience with your company and then share those with your employees

Resource: Driven HBR Article: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/2543.html

What tips do you have to increase employee motivation in each of the Four Drives? We would love to hear your ideas, leave a comment below.

Susan

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