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Motivating Your Employees
28.02.2008 ob 21:45Usually, the established way is to reward the employees for a successfully performed work after the work has been completed or even after a certain period when it becomes clear whether their work was also (and mainly) financially effective. This is, of course, also the right way to proceed and a normal succession of events.
However, one thing is worth considering: would not a reversed schedule, that is rewarding in advance for a motivated approach to work, be a more effective method of stimulating employees to perform their work effectively!?
The most popular form of New Year’s “trade union” parties or lunches and dinners have more or less lost their true purpose. Once (perhaps during my parents’ active professional life), these meant actual “partying” where a company’s management truly provided for all their employees, commended them for their successful work, rewarded individuals especially for their last year’s accomplishments, and enjoyed themselves together with their employees over a glass of champagne (or juice) until the late morning hours. These days, however, this way of ending a business year has become routine, soulless and without actual results. Often, it is merely an obligation that has to be fulfilled and that has to be attended at least for the sake of the co-workers. The transition into the new year is in itself a milestone representing the end of the old and the beginning of a new year. There is therefore no need, unless of course there are substantial reasons, to also celebrate the end of the business year. A milestone or a transition from one business period to the next can occur at any time of the year, particularly if a company functions as a project management system working on separate projects that can last for only a few months or several years.
Motivating your employees is of great importance if you wish to create a "pleasant atmosphere" in your company, drawing a parallel to well performed work tasks attributed to the employees. The system of stimulation and reward should therefore be diverse. Routine rewarding is monotonous and in time it no longer represents the kind of motivation that would actually stimulate the employees towards better work because they know exactly what to expect and what comes after a job that is not necessarily performed in the most successful or creative way. But if you offer them a different reward each time or allow them in advance to enjoy themselves while facing new challenges in the sense of encouragement for a job well done, their approach towards work will be energetic and full of uncertain (but impatient) expectation of what is to come after a successfully completed job and as an introduction into a new work project.
And it is precisely these parties and adventures during outdoor activities for the management and employees that today have increasingly greater meaning and significance. Various spring or autumn picnics and outdoor team sporting activities organised for the employees are a popular and effective way of both rewarding and business socializing.
Depending on the season, you can for instance organize a picnic in the autumn period when most of the employees return from their annual leave and their thoughts are still elsewhere, lacking true motivation in their work and nostalgic for the sea and the holidays. This picnic can put the final touch to the end of the annual leaves and to the introduction into a "new" working period (even if it is not a new year), reminding the employees in a friendly way that the idleness is over and inviting them to engage in active work. As a way of socializing and motivating them for work, you can also invite them to join various adrenaline outdoor sports. For instance, an adrenaline picnic would be an idea that is on offer not far from Ljubljana and includes bold rides in hovercraft vehicles, buggies and four-wheel drive vehicles, and you can also try your skills on the bungee trampoline or in games such as Paintball and others.
In short and in conclusion let me give you this advice: be imaginative and creative in rewarding and motivating your employees because they will repay you with the same amount of work and creativity that will finally give you the good business results you expect.
Urška Č.
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