In the world today, the COVID-19 pandemic is spreading fast. Businesses are hurting everywhere due to the world economies slowing down. There are lockdown measures in place to reduce the spread of the disease. However, these moves make business undoable. In any case, work must go on. Especially essential services like food, medicine, and deliveries. Although, there is an extra cost now as business processes change with the times.
As a result, there is a shift in mindset to stay in the trade. Notably, are companies coming together to share expenses and reduce wages through layoffs. Hence, the need to motivate employees is vital. To point out, work away from the office, half-pay, or worse unpaid leave is adding to mental, emotional, and economic stress.
As such, it is hard to expect distressed employees to perform. With this in mind, there is a need to improve their morale. So, the economic output does not suffer. Here are five ways that guarantee a good result.
1. Provide opportunities
Employers need to know what drives each employee to work every day. Firstly, some want to advance their education. Offer to refund part of the school fees if they pass their exams. Besides, it will motivate employees to study hard. Secondly, others may want a chance to advance their career by taking up more roles. Offer them opportunities to fine-tune their skills, grow their knowledge level, and attend training. For instance, you can send them to present in a meeting or attend training. Thirdly, nurture those behind to reach the level of others. In this case, celebrate their willingness to learn, cheer them on, celebrate their small milestone, and progress.
2. Cultivate a culture of teamwork and group unity
Find other interests the group has that is not part of work, for example, sports, travel, or outings. Then, come up with a calendar of events. Not only encourage everybody to participate but also give creative ideas as well. Let the team have fun while doing it. List everything down and let the team choose what they want. Conclude by sharing the calendar. Finalize by adding terms of how to enjoy them. For example, if the employees achieve quarter one targets, they can go camping, or on attaining annual goals, there is overseas travel.
On the other hard respect your staff. Watch your tone of voice even though angry, do not shout. Maintain composure at all times and keep private information a secret. Further, delegate empowering tasks. Praise the team effort to meet goals and talk about them. Expressly, reward performance, uphold high standards and clearly state your expectations. Besides, promoting good practices motivate employees to perform well. Lastly, job security and satisfaction eliminates anxiety and mental ill-health.
3. Establish a well-stipulated reward system
Appreciate employee’s efforts to meet the set goals, for example, group lunches, birthdays, shopping vouchers, and an employee of the month display. Explicitly, share rewards, promotion, and incentive procedures. In short, list them down, and share them for everyone to read. State the standards everyone must meet and strictly stick by them. In short, eliminate unfairness and shortcuts to rewarding, and you will motivate employees to be achievers.
4. Uphold responsible behavior in your employees
Create platforms for group communication such as; staff meetings, WhatsApp groups, and group emails. Thus, employees can air their views, ideas, and concerns responsibly. When unsure, they can ask for clarity. Besides, it helps in a way to stop Office gossips that passes the wrong information. Informal communication misleads and kills attempts to motivate employees.
Start to be active and present to attend to queries. Your presence helps clear any doubts and offer direction. Also, always work to be close to your employees and learn each one strengths and weaknesses .share duties that bring out the best in an employee as well as helping them to learn new things.
Then, arrange the employees in a way that they complement each other. Not only does it create strong bonds among employees but also trust, security, and dependence. As a result, they protect your business in case of solving problems and defending its reputation. Also, in the case of absenteeism, the present member can comfortably do the other employee work correctly and timely.
5. Build a strong relationship at the workplace
Create a workspace where employees keep it professional, respect, and obey set rules. Strive for close contact and ties with your employees. In a way, learn their characters and personalities. In like manner, learn to encourage open-door office policy. Employees can pop in and have a chart on personal and professional challenges. Offer an honest view, guidance, and advice .why is this important? Because being free and approachable can save the business. In reality, service setbacks and low output are people’s problems. Besides, Building free-spirited and happy employees is a sure bet to motivate employees.
Conclusion
Despite the Covid-19 pandemic effects on employees, there are few positives. For instance, flexible working time, work at home, more family time, and priorities on mental wellbeing. The above ways to motivate employees when done well have great results. Employers who neglect their employees need to review and work things out before it is too late.
After the introduction of an offsite workspace, many employers are finding it hard to convince employees to come back to the office. Do you know why? The reason is simple. Now employees love the peace in the new workplace. However, to avoid such situations, businesses need to reorganize the workspace. Make it more enticing. Also, offer incentives, home to work safe transport, free face masks, allowances, and medical insurance.