The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best – Epictetus

No matter what kind of industry you’re in, the link between performance and employee motivation is undeniable.

Each time you delegate tasks to your employees, you probably already expect them to complete it with a level of dedication and commitment to produce quality results. But how can you perform tasks properly if you aren’t motivated? This is the question that managers must strive to work on, and integrate into their company.

Knowing that you already go to work with numerous emails waiting and more projects to perform each day can seem monotonous, but to the motivated employee it’s part of the day’s work and they will complete it as efficiently as possible.

You may not have thought about this before, but the efficiency level of your employees isn’t just bound by their qualifications and ability. There is more to employee efficiency, and for managers to understand this we must look at willingness.

If you’re able to create the ideal balance between your employees’ abilities and their willingness or motivation to work, you will enjoy better productivity and overall improved operations with a lower cost.

Now let’s learn 5 simple ways to motivate your staff:

1. Make sure that your working environment is friendly to everyone

Remember that your staff spends a large amount of their daily lives in the office, so the environment should be as appealing and conducive to work as possible. A good working atmosphere helps people look forward to work each day. Some things you can think about include giving your staff  more space so they don’t feel cramped.

Ensuring that they have enough natural light around will also help them be more productive. The room temperature is also important, maybe you can gather a consensus on what your team feels is the ideal temperature to keep in the office.

2. Food can be a great incentive, as people can be more excited to come to work knowing that there’s free food around.

This also means that they don’t have to step out of the office just to get some coffee or afternoon snacks that will help get them through the day. You don’t need to spend too much money on this; basic coffee and tea as well as occasional donuts and pizza will suffice.

3. Learn how to build ownership among your employees, which will help them feel that they are more responsible for the product or service you provide.

This will also help build their self-esteem, instead of letting them feel that they simply work at your company. Meeting your company’s goals will mean that you will need to have projects in place. One of the best ways is to delegate employees to head projects that can utilise each person’s strength.

4. Keep your employees informed about what’s going on in the business

Top management and business owners know much more about the bigger picture than employees do. It will pay off when you share this information with the team. Make it common knowledge for them to understand new developments in the industry, possible new products in the pipeline, as well as any new challenges that may lie ahead for everyone.

Sharing intelligence will further strengthen your employees’ self-esteem. This will also help them feel that they are an important part of your business.

5. Positive reinforcement by acknowledging the hard work and dedication of your employees is crucial to motivation

Sometimes, we may not realise that we continually try to  motivate employees to do something, but forget to recognise them once they have done it. This may cause your employees to be less motivated the next time you ask them to do something.

As a leader, it is your job to motivate your employees. If your team feels like talking to you will simply drain them of energy rather than inspire them, you are not getting the best out of your team.

Why not leave a comment about what motivates your employes.