Non-monetary Motivational Strategies
What can managers do to motivate employees given the additional federal restrictions with elimination of the "safe harbors"?
Clearly communicate a career path that can be achieved over time and will require increasing responsibility and job knowledge.
Develop pathways to reach achievement. In my area, faculty have never received compensation for enrollment of students, they just teach. I am happy to see this practice go away, I use to work in a job where this was a factor and a lot of time was wasted over who actually received and worked the lead, in my opinion it never seemed to work out right.
Just Clearly communicate. Communication is EVERYTHING
Often the best way to motivate employees is by managing the individual, rather than attempting to blanket the same strategy across the masses. I subscribe to the philospohy outlined in Beverly Kaye's book, Love 'Em or Lose 'Em. The focus of the book is leadership based on positive motivation, and thusly, how to retain good employees. Some of the basics include:
-Treat employees fairly and respectfully. Thank them. Challenge and develop them. Care about them and you will engage them and retain them.
-Consider your solid citizens, not just your high potentials. Stars are people at any level who bring value to the organization.
-Encourage talented employees to stay with the enterprise (if n ot your own department). Talent will be the key differentiating factor in the competitive battle ahead.
Agreed - communication is key, knowing the regulations with frequent reminders, engaging the staff in meaningful dialogue and even workshops with role playing and so on. Knowing ahead of time the "what-if" scenerios is a good method of enlightening & prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Gather input from each individual employee about what motivates them beyond monetary compensation. Look for ways to individualize success plans as much as possible, but then celebrate successes as a team.
Focus on career growth, development, and increased responsibilities for your employees. Have a team approach focused on being student-centered.
By appealing to an individual's sense of community service and being able to achieve personal satisfaction and selffulfilment upon helping one's fellow man, a student. Employees like these type of people will be best suited for recruitment functions of an educational institution.
I completely agree on helping staff feel the strength of team commaradarie. It's an important motivational tool to provide every employee with the idea that they are supported by everyone. They are not alone in anything that occurs and we are all here to work together toward a common goal... student satisfaction.
Great suggestions, Emily!
Good suggestion, Jon, to get feedback from employees about what motivates them. I also like the comment about celebrating successes as a team. I have seen some schools use the team concept across departments to show that multiple departments impact such sucess.
Linda - I couldn't agree more with the comment about prevention being worth a pound of cure!
Great information, Richard.
Managers can motivate employees by several mechanisms. First, it is important for the manager to be a role model. In this capcity the manager can inspire others by portraying ideal qualities. Another motivator is praise. Employees need to hear that they are appreciated and when they are exceeding expectations. A simple act of kindness such as thank you, you are doing a great job, can bring a smile and inspire employees to work towards exceeding expectations. The most important motivator is being a great boss and creating a positive work environment.
Set a good example; focus on employee happiness rather than employee motivation; make sure employees share in the company sucess; create a culture of autonomy
Work with employees to embrace the value of what they do by the product produced. It just can't be effort based solely by the prospect of monetary rewards. It must be effort based upon pride, passion and commitment to our students. I remember a psychiatric facility that received incentives for finding young trouble youth. Thank goodness facts came to light and it was closed down. Same applies. We are here to put training professionals into the workplace.
Diana - Pride, passion and commitment are great traits to find in employees. The organizational culture can also foster and inspire such to motivate employees outside of monetary rewards.
I've heard some say that happy employees equates to happy students. Great points, Jill.
Great comments, Tearee! I appreciate you sharing your insights to good management techniques!
