You are a young manager and the times are tough, you need to keep your staff motivated during these rough patches, but you also don’t have a lot of money to offer big bonuses on anything to reward them. Fortunately, there are a lot of things you can do that will help to motivate your employees without also making your finance department cringe.
Here are some ideas I like.
- A personal thank you. You might not think it would mean that much, but stopping by your employee’s desk to deliver personal motivation or to say thank you in person, shows you care about them, and it sticks with them much more than just an email would.
- Display extraordinarily good manners. Saying please and being nice may seem like a small thing, but manners matter a whole lot.
- Let them telecommute one day a week. It is amazing how much money some businesses have been able to save by letting employees telecommute. It also lets your employees be productive in the comfort of their own home, and it shows that you trust your employee to get the job done, even without you being there.
- Take them out to lunch. You might not be able to go to the fanciest restaurants, but you can go out for a cup of coffee and a sandwich. It gives you time to learn about what they have on their mind, and what ideas they have. You are free from work distractions so you can really focus on what they have to say, and just like that personal thank you, it can go a long way towards making them feel appreciated and cared for.
- Public appreciation. Another way to praise your staff and have everyone know what a great job they are doing is to take some time at the all-staff meetings for kudos. It doesn’t even have to be for work above and beyond – sometimes getting a major report done on time that keeps the right stakeholders informed is cause for celebration. If you have a public Twitter or Facebook account, give some praise for your team that the whole world can see.
- Empower your employees to overcome daily challenges. When faced with tough times, it can be easy as managers to try to lead the way out, but sometimes the people who are dealing with the day to day operations have the best solutions. Grant your employees the opportunity to drop ideas into a box that you and your fellow managers review and see if the solution isn’t in there. Then be sure to give credit where credit is due.
- Have some fun activities. Giving your team the chance to play a game or participating in a competition or solve a puzzle together makes for a nice break in the mundane that can so often happen at work.
- Be honest with your staff. This might be the most important idea of all. Your staff knows these are tough times, and while you might not be able to share certain things with them, let them know they can trust you. Answer questions as best you can, and don’t make up answers when you don’t know for sure.
Motivation and empowering teams and staff is more science than a cost.