The Easiest Way to Motivate Employees in a Bad Economy

By Lois Moncrief

You can motivate employees even in a bad economy without “raises” or “promotions”. Most employees can be motivated by being told or shown that they are “appreciated” and “valued”.

The Easiest Form of Showing Appreciation

The easiest form of showing appreciation is saying, “Thank You!” when the employee does a good job. To have the most impact, this must be done very sincerely and thoughtfully.

It must also be done as soon as possible after the good job is completed – the effect is lost the greater the time between the good job and the “Thank You” is said.

Different Ways To Do This

Face to Face

There are, of course, several ways you can do this. The easiest and least impactful is for you to go up to the employee and face them and say something like, “I really appreciate your effort and accomplishment on (insert the good job information here). Thank you very much.”

Be sure not to hurry when you say it or say it very casually but say it with true sincerity and looking at the employee’s eyes.

If this is done in front of other employees it accomplishes some additional motivation for the employee and his peers who are present to hear the thank you.

The employee has been honored and others know.

The employees who hear the “thank you” are more motivated to work harder for you as they also hope to be recognized in front of their peers.

Ceremony

For you to have an even larger impact, this can be handled as a ceremony or in a meeting – maybe even including you giving a “thank you” letter or a “certificate of thanks” to the employee for his accomplishment.

One to One Meeting

Another option is for you to call the employee into your office and thank him or her. This gives him “special one on one attention” and gives you, the manager, an opportunity to get some feedback from the employee on work issues and get to know the employee better.

Make It Stick

One last thought, I know you are busy but for this method of “thanking an employee” for his work to have a lasting affect it can’t be a rare and occasional thing neither can it be so frequent that it loses its value.

The point is you, as a manager, need to use this tool with consistency and frequency (as justified by the circumstances) to have a lasting impact on motivating your employees.

It is best to use this tool when your employee goes the “extra mile” in some fashion.
Do not use it just for your employee doing his job in an average way.

Copyright (c) 2009  Lois Moncrief    Globebic LLC    All  Rights Reserved