Motivating Your Employees on a Budget

	YOUR CLINIC Motivating Your Employees on a Budget By Karen Stowe, MBA

Retaining Your Employees Effective Motivators Don’t Cost Money Retaining Your Employees To hold on to your employees, it is imperative that you keep them challenged and motivated. Yet doing this on a tight budget seems almost impossible. Here are 15 no cost ways to revitalize your employees: Employees quit high-paying jobs because they don’t feel appreciated, challenged, or satisfied with their work environment. Talk to your employees and ask each one “What’s important to you about your job?” The answers you get will help you understand what you can do to motivate your staff. People are motivated by individual values and goals. By understanding an employee’s individual needs, you can assign projects to satisfy those needs. Greet employees by name when you pass them in the hall or pass by their desks. Call employees into your office just to thank them. Focus on the employee and don’t discuss any other issues. Post a thank-you note on the employee’s office door. Better yet, give positive feedback to employees when they are surrounded by their peers. Have your organization’s president or your manager’s manager call your employee to thank them for a job well done. Install a team suggestion box so employees can share their thoughts on how to increase productivity or lower cost. Have them explain their suggestions during a staff meeting. Respond to their ideas and/or implement them. Remember that employees will become frustrated if they submit suggestions but receive no feedback. Ask employees their opinions on a specific work issue. Then listen to their answers without interrupting. Create small teams to tackle specific issues and have them report their suggestions back to the entire team. Involve everyone in the financial operation, sharing relevant financial reports on a weekly or monthly basis. Provide an explanation of the reports and answer all questions. Start your staff meetings with “positive moments” observed by your team members. A little praise goes a long way. In each meeting, reserve time to talk about future goals. Don’t get mired in the present. Hold a contest where the winner gets to have you, the Manager, do their least-desirable work task for a day. Create a competition where you must wash the winner’s car in the parking lot during lunch. Give an employee an extra hour for lunch and cover their duties while they are gone. Effective Motivators Don’t Cost Money It has been proven in study after study that the most effective motivators are things that don’t cost money. Yet, rarely do managers make a consistent effort to simply thank their employees for a job well done—let alone do something more innovative to recognize accomplishments. Money is important, but what tends to motivate employees is thoughtful, personal recognition that signals genuine appreciation for their hard work. Even the most independent and self-reliant employee needs recognition from others to feel valued and respected. And one last suggestion: the behavior that you reward should be the behavior that you want repeated. [top] [Return to Winter 2002-2003 main page]

About the author: KAREN STOWE has over 20 years of healthcare experience in developing and implementing occupational health provider networks and service line strategies along with creating sales and marketing efforts. Her specialty is in employer strategies, strategic planning, sales, and benchmarking. You may reach Ms. Stowe at 614.818.0715 or on-line at www.WingspanConsulting.com.