7 Ways Keep Your Employees Engaged and Motivated

As it turns out, money can’t buy happiness. At least when it comes to job satisfaction. In fact, job satisfaction usually veers more toward intangibles such as feeling part of the team or being appreciated and valued. Monetary rewards rarely rank that high when employees are polled on job satisfaction.

So how do you achieve this in your own business? With the great resignation happening all over the world and concerns about the lack of company loyalty in the new generation, it’s no surprise that companies are scrambling to retain their employees. Here are a few strategies you can use to keep your staff happy and motivated.

Servant Leadership

Leadership is one of the primary factors in employee motivation. Servant leadership is a great way to introduce empathy in the workplace. Supportive leaders understand the power of collaboration. Building trust and providing a sympathetic ear are great ways to keep your most valuable employees while developing new talent. Excellent leaders accept their employees’ efforts and contribute to their growth. They model respect and knowhow to set boundaries well. It’s important that you lead by example to create a conducive working environment for growth and increased productivity.

Transparency

Trust is a basic and essential part of any professional relationship including the one between you and your team. It does, however, take time and continual effort to build. Transparency, feedback, and openness from the start about how responsibility will be defined, are all necessary foundations that will help over time.

It is essential to communicate transparency in your role and set expectations for their roles and responsibilities. Clarity and an understanding of the expected results provides no room for misinterpretation and misunderstandings.

Communicate Constantly

The only way to provide clarity is through communication. Communication is a key part of a good leader’s traits. Creating a climate of open communication in which employees work together cohesively can make a great company. Keep tabs on your team with a variety of channels including email, training sessions and in-person meetings to keep your finger on the pulse of your company and to understand where the gaps may be and how you can improve on your vision for the company. It is necessary that you ask questions often to ensure alignment across the board.

No problem is too great and if anything, employees that raises issues and mistakes they’ve made should be rewarded for their vulnerability and transparency. The goal is to use the information gathered from your team to make consistent improvements in the outcomes of the company as a whole.

Understand and Commit to Work-Life Balance

Everyone’s got a life outside work. Take that into consideration when planning meetings or setting deadlines. Those last-minute Friday evening deadlines for deliverables on Monday morning or 6pm meetings have no place in our modern society.

The wellbeing and productivity of your employees depend heavily on the amount of time they spend at work and outside of work. Helping them find that balance and providing them with a safe space to ask for personal days without judgement or to take off days when they need to is the best way to retain great employees. They know that you have their best interest at heart.

Encourage Teamwork

To go far, we need to go together. Create a culture of collaboration where individuals need to work together for the overall success of the company.

With teamwork, teams can learn to trust each other and to look past themselves and their own capabilities. In a healthy competitive environment, teams can innovate and help each other, boosting creativity and productivity at the same time.

Keep Them Engaged

Develop a plan to make sure all of your employees are engaged in the planning and decision-making process. Get their contributions so that it can win you some buy-in for the overall success of the company. It can also help empower your employees and motivate them to work more productively.

Avoid Downsizing at All Cost

An employer that is trying to reduce the financial burden of handling a slow period in the economy should make every effort to avoid layoffs. Employees should be able to trust their companies to work on retaining them rather than looking at them as numbers and slashing their roles when it’s convenient. Planning in advance for unforeseen circumstances and mitigating risks by not overemploying or by wasting resources on unnecessary costs is a great way to plan for a business’ sustainability. You may be surprised to know that people are reasonable enough to know when a business is suffering because of circumstances and will be willing to take a pay cut as a crisis strategy if they know that they have job security.

To Sum it Up

When employees are proud of their work and feel supported by their workplace, turnover tends to be a much smaller concern. Whenever a business gives employees recognition and support, turnover rates drop significantly. Treat everyone with respect as people that are here to support your business goals. Leading with empathy and being actively and genuinely concerned for their wellbeing is the best employee retention strategy there is.

What are some of the ways you retain your best employees? If you’re trying to find a way to scale your design team without unnecessary overhead, reach out to Mad Creative Beanstalk to get designs your brand deserves at scale.


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