You, as a business owner, can hire the most talented, educated, and experienced employees in the industry to grow your business. But, if they’re not motivated to bring their best selves to work every day and to work together for the good of the company, all of that talent will be wasted.

The hiring process is just the beginning. Once you’ve onboarded your team, it’s time to get them motivated and keep them motivated. The future of your business is at stake.

How to Motivate Employees in the Workplace

There are many tactics you can utilize to inspire your employees’ best work. Understanding how these will affect your team members is the first step to improving workplace satisfaction and ultimately your bottom line.

1. Competitive Pay

It seems fairly obvious. If you don’t pay your employees what they are worth (and more), they will underperform. They’ll always have one foot out the door from the moment they start.

Underpaying your staff sends the message that you don’t value their hard work and their talents. If you don’t value their hard work, they won’t either.

Here’s how to make competitive pay work for you:

• Before you float a position, research the general pay scale and then go above it. You will attract brighter talent and foster more loyalty.

• Stay abreast of how raises are being handled in your industry and do even better. Institute performance based raises in addition to cost-of-living raises.
• Make sure that your brand new employees are not coming in at a higher salary than your seasoned employees. No, you don’t want your employees discussing salary. And yes, they do it anyway. Nothing tells your experienced employees that they are expendable like bringing in a newbie at a higher pay rate.

Pay your employees well and they will return more rewards.

2. Benefits

While health insurance is the first thought that springs to mind during the benefits discussion, it shouldn’t be the only one. Employees expect health insurance, so offering that doesn’t set you apart from the crowd or motivate your staff.

It’s time to think outside the box:

• Wellness programs – this can include gym memberships, massages, weight loss or smoking cessation support, You can offer monetary rewards for participation and completion. This not only motivates employees, but also decreases sick days and may lower your health insurance costs.
• Tuition reimbursement – Students are graduating with more and more student loans every year. In addition, some employees may want to go back to school so they can move up in your company.Offering money for tuition or towards student loans can help motivate your employees to grow and improve. It also sends the message that you appreciate personal development and want your employees to have upward mobility.
• Telecommuting – People love to work from home and to make their own schedule. Whenever possible, give your trusted employees the option to skip the office and work from the comfort of their homes.Creating their own schedule can be appealing to many employees and you will likely find that they work more efficiently when given this freedom. This will also keep them from feeling like they are being micro-managed, a situation which will ensure that your employees do the bare minimum and harbor resentment towards management.

Get creative with your use of benefits and your employees will thank you in improved performance.

2. Ensuring managers have leadership qualities

Your employee is doing a fantastic job in their current role so you reward them with a promotion. This seems good in theory, but what if that employee isn’t management material? The Peter principle states that “managers rise to the level of their incompetence”.
Managers need to possess leadership qualities. If you plan to promote for a job well done, make sure that:

1. a) the employee already shows these qualities, or
2. b) you give them sufficient training to succeed in their new position.

When you promote (or even worse, hire) a leader without leadership qualities, the employee will suffer, the team will suffer, and your business will suffer.

3. Performance reviews

It may seem counterintuitive for anyone who has ever had the dreaded “review”, however checking in with your employees on a regular basis and discussing their performance can be a win-win situation.

Here’s how:

• Review expectations: Here’s what’s expected of you.
• Offer positive feedback: Here’s what you did well.
• Provide constructive suggestions: Here are the areas in which you need to improve, and how to do it. (be specific!).
• Utilize financial rewards and incentives: Bonuses, raises, promotions, etc.
• Create a safe space: Allow your employee to review the leadership and motivation they are receiving. And don’t forget to listen.

4. Engage with them personally through staff meetings

No one wants to work for the Wizard of Oz, a giant talking head who can’t be bothered speaking to his team. The best bosses are the ones who know their employees on a professional level, yet also care about them on a personal level.

Take the time to speak to your employees through one on one meetings and staff meetings, and most importantly, listen to your employees when they speak to you. The greatest ideas, breakthroughs, and solutions will come from the employees that are in the thick of it.

Front line, middle management; these are the people who understand how your business is run. Take advantage of this wealth of knowledge and show your appreciation for their hard work.
_______________

No matter what type of building you occupy, how much you’ve spent in equipment or inventory, and how much you love your customers, your employees are your biggest investment and your best assets. Treat them with respect and provide them with constant sources of motivation, and your business will boom.

Written by: Brad Mishlove, CEO and founder of Catapult Groups, an executive coaching organization is committed to inspiring business owners and entrepreneurs by keeping them accountable for their own success through peer advisory groups and one-on-one executive coaching.

The Busy Christmas Season

Why hire temp staff during busy periods like Christmas? Well, we are all aware that hotels and hospitals alike don’t get to close their doors over the holiday season, in fact it’s one of their busiest periods. There is a higher demand for staff and in turn the need for temp staff increases. Permanent employees may want to take holidays at Christmas time. Staff are more prone to getting sick due to the colder weather. These circumstances mean they can’t work as much over the Christmas season. This can leave a company short-staffed. They end up over-working the smaller number of employees they have left. This is when temp staff become an option and are of great benefit. Experienced temp staff are essential. Rather than just filling a temp position as quick as you can, take time to research the agency you’re hiring temps from. If they are experienced and have a good work ethic, you and your team will appreciate them much more.

Time For Temps

Many different scenarios result in a company being understaffed, especially last minute. A chef-de-partie calls in sick on the morning of a banqueting event… Call for a temp chef. A catering assistant in a hospital has to leave for 2 weeks to see their family as they aren’t from Ireland… Call for a temp catering assistant. A cleaner who doesn’t live close to work can’t come in due to bad weather conditions… call for a temp cleaner. Temps provide you with last minute cover to prevent any disruption to the working day.

Temp Staff Vs Permanent Staff

While the divide between permanent and temp staff can be difficult, hiring short-term employees can also help the overall workplace mood.  If permanent employees are forced to work long hours; double shifts, weekends and nights, morale can quickly decrease. Employees can become stressed, frustrated and even burn-out. That’s why offering extra help during Christmas ensures your core team stays happy and remains productive. Smaller companies have to be able to adapt their team during busy periods, but hiring permanent staff can be time-consuming and expensive. Temp staff can provide a quick fix for unexpected events, long-term leaves, and special projects.

Three Q Temps

That’s why team Three Q pride ourselves on having skilled employees with stellar experience who excel in all tasks that are assigned to them. Clients can expect the most professional, versatile and hardworking staff who adapt to a mind-set as if they are part of your own team. Our temps staff team are very experienced in their respective fields and many of them have been with us for over 5 years. Find out more about Hiring Temps.

Employee Recognition – 6 Ways To Show Appreciation To Your Hard Working Staff.

Employee recognition doesn’t have to be all about paid bonuses and monetary rewards, sometimes it’s the smaller things that can be more meaningful and make employees feel more appreciated. However it can be hard to think of ways to incorporate recognition into the workplace so here are a few ideas:

1. Show Appreciation In Team Meetings 

A lot of the time, people overlook verbal praise as a way to show appreciation. Set aside just 20 minutes a week to meet with your team. Talk about their strengths of the week and remind them of how much you appreciate the work that they do for the team.

Everybody loves to hear about the “great job” that they’re doing and to be quite honest, good feedback from a manager can sometimes lead to an employee working even harder because they want to make you happy and continue to be recognised. It’s a very important cycle. If you are happy with their work you and you let them know, they will be happy with you for giving that feedback and they will work hard. The cycle will continue.

2. Reward Special Achievements 

Show that you recognize someone’s overtime hours by giving them extra free time during the work day. Offer a 2-hour lunch, a late arrival or an early finish. Most of our Three Q Team love an early Friday! It costs you nothing but it goes a long way in communicating your gratitude. It will also push other employees to work hard because everyone will want to be rewarded!

3. Send a Deserving Employee Snail Mail

Admit it, it makes you feel good when you see a letter in your mailbox (not your e-mail – your actual mailbox) with your name on it (When you know it’s not a bill, that is). So imagine you get that envelope, and you open it to find a letter from your employer, singing your praises. How good would YOU feel? So why not?  Use this in work for employee recognition. It takes absolutely no time to write a short note and it’s all for the cost of a stamp, but it will make a big statement.

4. Everyone Loves A Meme 

Catch your staff off guard by creating a funny, personalized meme about them and e-mailing it out to everyone. Choose your image and type a funny message that includes the recipient’s name and a congrats for all the great work they have done. This one takes a little creativity but it’s free and it’s funny and it will make your employees happy. So just give it a try!

5. Motivation Mascot

Provide your team with a mascot! Buy a big, cheap, silly object and make it a symbol for the employee of the week! Every Monday, put it on a different person’s door or desk to show that they are the chosen one. Don’t fear if, at first, your staff acts like it’s cheesy because it is but within a couple of weeks they’ll be anxious to see where it is at the start of every week.

Here at Three Q, we ring a bell when a team member wins big! The individual themselves will ring it and the team usually come running to see and hear what there win is! We love to celebrate our successes as a team!

6. Reward With A Duvet Day

The joy of sleeping a little longer and working in pyjamas cannot be overstated. So let this be a reward! Choose an employee that has been going above and beyond and reward them! It would be interesting to see just how many of your employees follow suit! You’ll have your whole team on their best behaviour battling for this reward no doubt!

The truth is, it doesn’t really matter what you do to show your appreciation. Rewards and gratitude can take just about any form. As long as you show that you have noticed the hard work within your team. These ideas are not revolutionary, but if you utilize them frequently, they could have a dramatic impact on relationships and productivity.

Nurses – Put Yourself First For Once And Unwind With Yoga!

Nurses are extremely skilled and are great at taking care of others. However, more often than not, they forget to take care of themselves.

It’s been proven that taking part in yoga consistently, has positive effects on stress relief and emotional health. A study carried out in 2015, found that after completing an 8 week yoga intervention, the participants reported significantly higher levels of self-care and less emotional exhaustion. Before you take care of anyone else, you have to put your own health first!

So for all of those days that you are taking care of everyone around you, don’t forget that you’re allowed to be selfish and take care of #1 first! (That’s you by the way!)

So why not take even 30 minutes a day. Just for you to unwind. Any time, any place that has a flat surface and just breathe.

Here are some of the ways that Yoga can help you do just that!

Here are some of the benefits of Yoga:

• Increased Flexibility.
• Stress Relief – Modulates perceived stress and anxiety by slowing down rapid breathing and heart rates, lowering blood pressure and increasing heart rate variability.
• Increased muscle strength and tone.
• Improved respiration, energy and vitality.
• Maintaining a balanced metabolism.
• Weight reduction.
• Cardio and circulatory health.
• Improved athletic performance.
• Protection from injury.

Regular Yoga practice during stressful weeks can also improve mental clarity and concentration, making nurses more likely to manage their stress and pressure more effectively.

Never done yoga before? Hakuna Matata, my friend because there are so many styles of yoga that you can try as a beginner. Hatha Yoga is often recommended for beginners for the following reasons:

• It’s gentle,
• It has a slower pace
• It encourages people to focus on correct alignment and form, to support their bodies.

The best-known styles of Yoga include Hatha, Bikram, Kundalini and Ashtanga Yoga. It is important to find a class that suits your work and lifestyle and discuss benefits you want with the instructor before signing up.

I don’t have the time or the schedule for Yoga classes every week!

I thought we might run into this problem! Don’t worry you don’t need to go to classes because there are so many great channels on Youtube that you can watch and learn from in your own time and for free! I highly recommend Yoga With Adrienne for a great 30 day yoga challenge!

The importance of training plans for employee morale cannot be over estimated.  Happy employees are motivated employees and this leads straight to your bottom line.  Training plans ensure that employees have a better understanding of what is asked of them and ensures that whatever you see as fit for their role, is known to them. It makes employees much more confident in their role and in turn gives you confidence in your employee’s abilities. Here is a few points to think about when adding training to your company.

1. Stress training as investment. The reason training is often considered optional at many companies is because it is thought of as an expense rather than an investment. While it’s true that training can be costly up front, it’s a long-term investment in the growth and development of your human resources.

2. Determine your needs. As you probably don’t have unlimited time or funds to execute an employee training program, you should decide early on what the focus of your training program should be.

3. Promote a culture of learning amongst employees. In today’s fast-paced economy, if a business isn’t learning, it’s going to fall behind. A business learns as its people learn. Communicate your expectations that all employees should take the necessary steps to hone their skills and stay on top of their professions or fields of work. Make sure you support those efforts by providing the resources needed to accomplish this goal.

4. Get management on board. Once you have developed a prioritized list of training topics that address key needs within your company, you need to convince management to rally behind the initiative.

5. Start out small. Before rolling out your training program to the masses, rehearse with a small group of users and gather their feedback. This sort of informal benchmarking exposes weaknesses in your training plans and helps you fine-tune the training process.

6. Clarify connections. Some employees may feel that the training they’re receiving isn’t relevant to their job. It’s important to help them understand the connection early on, so they don’t view the training sessions as a waste of valuable time. Employees should see the training as an important addition to their professional portfolios. Award people with completion certificates at the end of the program.

7. Make it ongoing. Don’t limit training solely to new employees. Organized, ongoing training programs will maintain all employees’ skill levels, and continually motivate them to grow and improve professionally.

8. Measure results. Without measurable results, it’s almost impossible to view training as anything but an expense. Decide how you’re going to obtain an acceptable rate of return on your investment. Determine what kind of growth or other measure is a reasonable result of the training you provide. You’ll have an easier time budgeting funds for future training if you can demonstrate concrete results.

Source: www.allbusiness.com/ten-employee-training-tips-1465-1.html