Wasp Barcode Technologies: The Barcode Solution People

Do you have a Motivated Workforce?

In our current economic climate of uncertainty, staff moral and motivation is lacking, especially when many businesses are making cutbacks and redundancies. Employees are the core to any business and unhappy staff often leads to unproductive staff, which affects profitability. Therefore, keeping staff motivated and in high spirits is one of the most important things a business owner can do. The general saying is ‘happy staff are productive staff’ and how we keep our staff feeling this way takes on various forms. Here are Wasp’s 6 top tips to keeping a motivated and happy work force: 1)      Build trust – Showing your employees that you trust them, by giving them more control over a particular task or allowing them to make more decisions on their own, can be a great motivator. By building a mutual trust, not only will they give you their best performance, but they will respect you for allowing them to show you what they are capable of. This respect will lead to better results in the long term. 2)      Listen – Staff are often demoralised when their ideas and views are not heard or listened to. Take time to listen to staff ideas, whether it’s in a regular meeting or during one-to-one sessions with individual team members. Take on board their contributions, even if they are not currently the direction you wish to take. By recognising their input they will feel more appreciated. 3)      Communicate – If you communicate regularly with your staff you will get better results. You will also build better relationships with your staff members as this regular communication will give them opportunities to respond and open up to you with any suggestions or areas of concerns they may have. 4)      Treat everyone fairly – All staff members should be treated fairly and equal. Staff that are not treated fairly do not feel valued or secure in their position. This can lead to high stress levels, which will have a negative impact on their performance and in turn their productivity. 5)      Purposefulness – Staff who have a clear purpose and direction are more motivated and productive. If every team member has a clear directive and knows what their contribution is, it connects everyone together and encourages engagement and additional motivation between team members. 6)      Be thoughtful – It’s often the little things that make the difference and taking an active part in getting to know your employees builds relationships and makes them feel valued as human beings. Ask employees about their weekends, find out about what activities outside of work they enjoy doing, and remember important dates, such as their birthday. Being thoughtful goes a long way. In this current economic climate, keeping staff motivated can be an arduous task, especially with no disposable resources and the numerous cost cutting exercises most businesses are facing. However, by taking the time to motivate your employees, you will keep them happy and more importantly keep them loyal to your business.  After all, good employees are hard to replace.