Your top employees are the backbone of your business and there’s nothing your competitors would like more than to lure them away. If you’re not offering these key assets the right motivation and utilizing the right retention strategies, you could be at risk for losing your employees.
Let’s look at motivation first. While every employee is going to have different motivating factors, there are company -wide changes that you can make that will help your employees fire up their own self-motivators and keep them productive.
Offering incentivized rewards for production is a great way to fire up your employees. Set up team competitions that will keep everyone working and achieving together. While singular rewards can also be used, team rewards are a great way to keep everyone on task and working as a team, rather than introducing a cut-throat element to the workplace.
Other motivators include paid time off that can be earned after a specific amount of time, or as one of the above mentioned rewards. Bonuses are also always appreciated and can be tied to performance to ensure that you’re not spending without also increasing production.
All of these factors will also help you retain your top employees. By rewarding them for their performance they’ll feel appreciated and motivated to keep earning more. You can also implement plans to offer encouragement and recognition for employee performance.
One great way to keep your top employees, particularly if you don’t have room to promote any of them at the time is to put them in charge of teams or create a special task force they can man. This helps them feel as though they are progressing within your organization.
You’ll notice that monetary rewards don’t play a very large role in these strategies. While money is a motivating factor, other things such as paid time off and recognition often weigh more in an employee’s mind. Simply taking the time to say thank you and that their work is appreciated is often enough to keep an employee loyal for many years.
There’s no magic recipe for employee motivation and retention, but consistently noticing what they do, and encouraging your managers to practice one-on-one and open door management techniques will go a long way towards keeping your employees happy and productive.
Do you have a question about motivating your employees? Ask the experts at ContemporaryStaffing for help today!