Last week, you wrote about the measurement system and general rules for motivating people without spending much money. Could you list specific examples? — Lone Ranger.

The context of last week’s article was generally about the quality of one-on-one relationships with managers and their direct reports. It means the amount of trust, respect, and deep consideration they share on a daily basis. After all, it’s all about knowing and implementing the “soft” side of management.

This means how people are treated, inspired, and challenged in a work environment where everyone, including the minimum wage earner, is positively challenged to do their best work so they can make an exceptional performance. For example, something as simple as actively soliciting their ideas or even complaints can make a lot of difference.

Many of the following examples appear obvious to many, but unless you try to implement them consistently to all workers, you’ll never realize the possibilities:

SPECIFIC EXAMPLES
​One, build and improve individual morale. But first, you need to measure the baseline. This can be done by conducting an annual morale and satisfaction covering at least 60% of the employee population. Focus on identifying specific departments where absenteeism, tardiness, and attrition rates are high.

​Immediate solution: Line leaders, supervisors, and managers must conduct a weekly one-on-one engagement dialogue. The objective is to let employees feel free to speak up and connect with management.

​Two, require all line executives to connect with people. This is related to number one above. Make a one-on-one engagement dialogue a part of every manager’s key performance tool to connect with their workers every week. Provided further, they do it casually to avoid the stiffness of the process.

​Immediate solution: Discontinue the conduct of obsolete exit interviews which give too little, too-late information on why people resign. That’s assuming they’re telling the truth. In many cases, they would only ride the process to fast-track the issuance of their clearance.

Three, empower people to solve problems. Allow people to find all recurring issues related to inefficiency and high operational costs. Coach them on how to make an independent judgment on the issues and allow them to exercise limited authority in identifying possible solutions as long as the return on investment is guaranteed.

​Immediate solution: Establish a formal employee suggestion program. Junk the stationary suggestion box which is a breeding ground for poison pen letters. Instead, require all direct reports to report to you their top five costly and recurring issues. Challenge the workers to solve them using low-cost, practical solutions.

​Four, encourage creativity and innovation. Motivated workers are creative workers. It may sound trite, but that’s exactly the way it should be. The best practices in dynamic organizations are often peppered with examples of how management finds many ways to give their employees the time, resources, and tools to make things happen.

​Immediate solution: Allow workers to spend 10 hours per month to be creative. Give them time to work outside of the rigid constraints of their job. Monitor their progress. If the results are promising, give them reasonable time to complete a project for management approval. Then, repeat the cycle.

​Five, invest in employee training and development. This doesn’t mean limiting them to classroom training. There are many options available, like cross-posting them to other departments for a limited period, say for one year. Another option is their completion of free online courses or reporting on the success formula of competition.

​Immediate solution: Require them to create a one-year road map towards their career goal. Part of this may include employees sharing what they learned from an online seminar with other employees.

​Six, assign people to interesting work of their choice. You need to accept it. Many people are stuck doing work they don’t like. Management psychologist and theorist Frederick Herzberg (1923-2000) said: “If you want someone to do a good job, give them a good job to do.”

​Immediate solution: Ask the workers the following questions: How are you doing? Are you experiencing any challenges at work? What kind of support do you want from me? How can I help you? Would you like to be assigned to another job?

​Seven, reward and recognize those who deserve it. Giving people proper recognition is not limited to giving them cash rewards. You only have to discover what’s important and give it to them. Some employers realize that their workers need more than their monthly pay. They need ownership — literally and figuratively.

Immediate solution: Consider a stock option plan. If that’s not possible, treat all employees like business partners, and they will act like business partners.

In conclusion, what and how you communicate with employees is as important as what you pay them. In general, it requires the active involvement of employees in making decisions and being treated as human beings.

 

Consult your people management issues with Rey Elbo on Facebook, LinkedIn, or X or e-mail elbonomics@gmail.com or via https://reyelbo.com. Anonymity is guaranteed.