It is important to motivate and engage employees in order to achieve success within your business. It encourages them to go the extra mile, contribute more ideas and work harder to achieve your business objectives. The ability to motivate a team is one of the greatest skills an entrepreneur can possess.

When the subject of motivation comes up it is usually linked to money- pay, bonus and rewards. However, these are not the only ways to motivate employees and sometimes, thinking outside of the box can have a more positive effect. If someone dislikes their job they are still going to feel the same whether they earn £25,000 or £27,000, it won’t make much difference.

There are many other successful ways to motivate your team; it is about focusing on the human personality traits and personalising rewards and benefits. Here are some ideas of ways to motivate and reward your staff.

Benefits

Give your staff benefits of working for you like birthdays off or in-office celebrations of cake. These small benefits will help retain your staff as they know they are treated well. They won’t cost you much as a business but they will be a huge incentive to your staff.

As a small business, you have the opportunity to create a company that your staff love working for, over a large corporate chain that makes those working in them feel like just a head in a crowd of people. Personalised benefits that make staff feel appreciated will help to ensure the best possible productivity.

Flexible working

Reward staff with flexible working hours. It could be finishing an hour earlier or having a longer lunch break. You could also consider allowing your staff to work from home as a reward. After all, who doesn’t want to work in their PJ’s and furry slippers? Many people say they would prefer this over a pay rise.

Studies also show that employees that are allowed to work from home occasionally are more productive and less likely to call in sick. This helps save money for you as the employer and increases your employee retention rate.

Organise activities

Employees will never turn down a day out of the office doing something fun, and if you really think outside the box, the activity can actually benefit their productivity. Anything that involves teamwork or communication will help staff to bond and grow stronger as a team.

There are lots of company team building activities that can benefit your business and even things like go karting or paintballing can help. They require your employees to talk to each other and relationships are built to improve the mood back in the office.

Public commendation

Schemes that allow public commendation are a great way to motivate employees. You could set up an employee of the month scheme in which the top performing employee receives an award in front of all other members of staff. This shows that you notice their hard work and encourages them to continue working hard.

Get creative with the reward you provide your staff with, don’t insult your staff with token gifts that have no personal significance. Get to know who they are as people and then shape their reward to fit their personality. This will really make them feel appreciated.

Hold events

Hold events for your staff to attend to say a thank you to all of them for their hard work. It could be a dinner party or an evening ball, anything you host will give your employees a chance to let their hair down and bond as a team. Make it a memorable event and throw in some special touches to ensure it is the topic of conversation in the office for weeks after.