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Money is not the best motivator.
This has been proven by studies again and again. As Dan Pink’s famous TED talk describes:
“If you want people to perform better, you reward them. Money does quite the opposite. It dulls thinking and creativity”.
But how do you then motivate your team to work harder and achieve more for your organization? We’ve summed up the top 5 best ways you can recognise your teams current success and motivate them to be creative and inspired.
Time is really one of the best things you can give your team as a little thank you for their hard work. It will go a long way and they will come back more motivated and energized than ever before. Netflix is a great example of this, who gives employees unlimited paid maternity and paternity leave, after which they can choose to come back either full time or part time and then take off additional time if any situations require it. This makes the workers more focused and loyal to the company.
Team building activities have been proven to be one of the best ways to streamline focus in your organization and increase motivation. It allows workers to bond in an environment away from the office, building up the team spirit. People tend to be more creative and are more efficient when they are working with people they feel comfortable with. Plus, it increases your teams communication and ability to work together, and therefore helps to solve any problem your business might face.
There are hundreds of activities out there you can pick from but you want it to be something creative, unique and that would get the whole team engaged and excited. That’s why mobile gaming trucks like Game Vault are perfect, as it would get the whole team involved and isn’t your standard team outing.
It’s surprising how far a proper written acknowledgement from the boss can go. Behavioral economist Dan Ariely conducted an experiment in a real workplace, where workers were given either a pizza voucher, a $30 bonus or a complimentary text message from the boss at the end of the first workday of the week as an incentive to meet targets. Although on the first day, pizza was the best motivator, over the course of the week it was the compliment from the boss that had the best overall effect, trumping even the cash bonus.
Although you probably have yearly or so reviews, making time to actually hear what your employees want outside of that, might be just the appreciation they are looking for. Employees want growth and development at work and as a leader, you have the chance to talk to them about opportunities within your company.
It will show that you want them to stay and that you appreciate where they want to go and the goals that they want to achieve for themselves as well. You might be able to help them network with people you know, if something they want to do isn’t something you’re able to help them with. This opportunity to engage with you will lead to a strong feeling of loyalty and appreciation from your workers.
Consider monthly awards for your hard working employees. Get not just you but other team members to nominate their peers for awards. You can have ones such as a superstar award or an innovation award. You can also make it fun and have for example, the biggest screw up award, which would surely get workers engaged, as they’d be able to nominate each other for things like spilling coffee on the computer or getting a parking ticket on the company car.
Recognition and appreciation of your team will increase your teams motivation and their want to meet targets and objectives. And although bonuses are great, they are not the best way to achieve this. So get your team out of the office and get them engaged in some fun activities or have a personal one on one chat with them at the local coffee shop. You will see tremendous results and your team will be inspired and energized to work harder.
And always remember how important a simple thank you gesture can be.
