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How to motivate your staff?
allthatyouwant
Posts: 1,381 Forum Member
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I am thinking of ways to motivate my staff and imrpove my boring staff room - are there any cooll rituals or ideas you have at work? And how would you wantpto be motivated? So far I have stuff like after work clubs, newsletters and motivatonal pictures etc...
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Have a quiz night at a local pub. It works every time.
You can have my idea if you like. I got a sign that said "Damn I'm Good!' and initiated a monthly DIG award. The person who won it had the sign on their desk for a month and then awarded it to the next person. They could make the award for whatever reason they chose: work, customer related, size of heel worn without tripping, most inventive lunch .... whatever.
Bit of fun, cost nothing.
I'm guessing not everyone is in the staff room at the same time? So you're looking for ways to increase teamwork with people who may not see each other all the time and may take their breaks at different times?
How about a table with a jigsaw puzzle on that everyone can have a go at while they are on their break. If the puzzle gets completed within the week you buy a packet of hobnobs they can have with their tea. If it gets done in two days, it's cupcakes all round. You can get jigsaws pretty cheap from the charity shops. Obviously you'll only do this a couple of times a year. You need some other ideas too!
My general advice - let them know this is you doing it. If your manager offers to let you claim for the jigsaw and cakes - don't.
With more money.
Oh, and whilst you are at it, install an indoor ice rink too! That should keep 'em motivated until the days they retire!
You're never too old for lego and scalextrix!
Well if it's a larger company and you are answering to directors in a head office who are detached from the core of the business then it can be more difficult and corporate philosophy tends to be more about sales figures than anything else, and that trickles down from them so that can make things more difficult.
Team events with staff is the most obvious thing, but then they can be hated. My experiences are more with agencies (like ad agencies and things) but then that will likely have a different type of culture entirely and they tend to be smaller, tight knit teams. So I don't think I can offer any suggestions that would be useful.
But, some stuff folk in my industry do could translate in some way, so I'll offer some things we and other agencies have done as suggestions that you could translate.
An out of work team; talking a regular thing. Like little sport teams or bands and things which helps build friendships and do something different outside of the work environment. Proper bond building, not just one off things.
Some give the team freebies, in an agency environment it's not unusual to give the staff gadgets like smartphones, tablets or whatever the latest gadget is. That could possibly be translated in some way.
Shares or profit share are always nice, but that's going to be down to HO.
The first one though, that can be useful for team building, setting something up that the staff can participate in on a regular basis and has nothing at all to do with work on any level, the only relationship there is to work is that you all happen to work in the same place.
As others have suggested, interesting stuff in the staff room would be a good one. It should be a place to relax and get away from work, not a place to sit and wait till you're back on the floor.
Yes of course; if staff are unhappy, disenfranchised or just need more motivation generally, then the correct answer is to take a sledgehammer to your workforce and repeat the cycle.
You know, that's why so many service industries suffer from poor service problems; crap staff retention and poor morale.
We used to have freebie Fridays, the boss would leave baskets of fruit or sweets out on a Friday and once a month would order Chinese or pizza for us all to tuck into. Got people away from their desks and mingling.
When I worked away our boss would put his credit card behind the bar after work for a couple of hours, that got us all out and talking to each other. You could do a meal night once every few months.
If money is a factor, why not do a prize draw once a week, people pay a quid to guess the lottery bonus ball, whichever bonus ball is drawn the person who chose it wins all the money.
Dress down Fridays, pay a quid to wear what you like, people are more relaxed in their own clothes instead of jeans.
Yeah but then the people who got sacked would probably try to claim unfair dismissal so that wouldn't work. I don't think you can sack someone for lack of motivation. Maybe I should ask my Labour Law lecturer... on second thoughts maybe not
Hard to say what works for your team, or even why you feel the need to motivate them.
This may sound like a good thing, but not everyone will achieve this, some will over achieve, and people will react to both.