In the previous article we raised the important issue of motivation and its key role in your employer brand. Most employers think that to maintain high motivation among employees working for the company is quite complicated and even impossible task. It turns out that to motivate a team is far from such a challenge. If you want to motivate employees long-term you only need to help them come to the office enthusiastic and willing to work, to give them reasons to feel happy. Now you are wondering how this would happen. Here are some practical ideas that will help you in this task.
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Creating a pleasant working atmosphere
In fact we spend large part of our life in the office and who would like his second home to be grim and uncomfortable? We come to your first task: make the office accessible and attractive, create a friendly and comfortable atmosphere full of trust and teamwork so that your employees are eager to come to work. Here are some easy tips on how to make it happen:
Don’t overcrowd the office.
It is important that everyone has a place privacy. The feeling that you are trapped, has never been among the most pleasant psychological sensations. Make an office place where your employees are able to walk, breathe and feel free. The more of this, the higher the index of happiness and motivation will be.
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Make sure that the temperature in the office is not too high or too low.
Your employees will not be as motivated if you freeze them to death or make them not able to focus while boiling them alive.
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Create a pleasant atmosphere through lighting.
Make sure that during the day there is sufficient natural light. It is not that hard to achieve you just got to work with the windows and the office arrangement.
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Regular inflow of fresh air.
Have you ever fought sleep while sitting on your desk? Well, we have! One of the main reasons we are sleepy in the office is the lack of oxygen. Make sure you let enough fresh air enter in the office. Frequent windows opening refresh not only the air but also the mind. If you have central air system, check if it works properly and delivers enough air.
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Provide comfortable chairs.
Employees spend an average of seven hours sitting. If you sit in an uncomfortable chair, it will inevitably affect the long-term motivation, and not only that but most probably your health as well. As a result, this will affect their productivity, which is directly proportional to the business results of the company.
Be creative and use the walls in your office properly.
Your employees will spend a lot of time staring at the walls around them, so it’s a great tool to attract their attention and motivate them. Here are a few elements that you can position on your walls:
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Photo board.
Not only that will allow them to express themselves, but photos of team building, birthdays and other shared moments will help build a stronger bond between people. Looking at these moments, they will go back in time and even having a hard day, it would help them to smile and be more focused.
Use food as a motivation.
Love comes from the belly, remember this and you will no longer look at food as a small thing. It is positioned as a basic need in Maslow’s pyramid. People will feel much more excited to come to work if they know that at the office some food if waiting for them. Here are some dietary tricks that you can motivate your employees:
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Supports kitchen stocked with tea and coffee.
Everyone has felt the decline of energy around 14 o’clock. Here’s a great occasion your employees notice that you care about them. Spending more time in the kitchen, they will have the opportunity to know each other and build the team you need them to be. In addition, if you do not offer these conditions, they will certainly seek them out, and that will eat from their actual working hours. And if you do not invest those 10 minutes to go down to the coffee machine, sleepiness will continue to torture them and here’s the trigger to more errors.
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Create a delicious tradition.
A day for pizza, fruit or vegetables … There are so many ways with little effort and money to create tradition with which to motivate employees. Simple: once a week or monthly organize such a day that will show them that you think about what they need.
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Bring cake or muffins for birthdays.
Organize small surprises. You create a tradition, then they themselves will continue following it.
Recognized and rewarded your employees.
If they have done something really good, then you should take the time to congratulate them. Instead of generalization that everyone is doing well, take the time to praise a particular person in your office. Write him an email or message and let him know your positive feedback. This is one of the cheapest yet best techniques to develop your positive employer brand.
- If your company has a weekly / monthly newsletter, post something about an employee’s work or send an email with which to show him that his efforts are noticed and appreciated.
- If the person has done something extraordinary like winning a new strategic customer this may even be an official announcement, supported with applause for their achievement.
- Acknowledge individual efforts of your employees, but be sure that nobody feels left out. This would happen if your criteria for evaluating the performance is the same. Having the same criteria, you will avoid the situation where some of your employees may feel isolated and unappreciated.
To build and develop an employer brand is not only a matter of big budgets and costly campaigns. The good employer is the atmosphere you create in the office, the small gestures and empathetic moments you share with employees.