Motivation in the Credit Crunch

Motivating your staff is one of the most difficult and important challenges of the credit crunch. Insight Lab has put together a guide which gives specific tips to managers who want to get better at motivating their staff. The correlation between increased motivation and increased profit has been known for a long time but there are few guaranteed ways of maximising motivation.

American company ISR, International Survey Research has presented the answers from 650 000 emplyees in 50 global corporations and analysed the relationship between comittment and profit.

They identified four factors that affect employee comittment and company profit. One of which is career opportunities which gives nine per cent better profit than average.

A social environment that promotes collaboration and team spirit gives eight per cent better profit, while good communications give four per cent better profits and good management gives two per cent better profits.

Get tuned in to your employees' goals

In the autumn of 2008, Insight Lab asked Swedish managers to share their best tips for motivating staff. Amongst the tips, which have been collected and presented in a report, is the advice to be as personal when addressing a group as you are with an individual. Avoid talking in the third person when addressing a group. A good question to ask an employee is "How do you percieve your task?" or "What do you need to achieve?". These questions give managers insight into how well the employee understands their role and give the right support and coaching.

Benefit from the effects of group psychology

Another tip from Insight Lab is to have the goal of giving praise to someone in your team every day. Saying something positive about what a person has delivered or individual performance shows a genuine involvement from you. Start the day with a positive message and end the day by giving praise, even if it's only for a small detail.

Another tip is to give praise openly, for example in a meeting, to an employee who deservs it. Benefit from the effects of group psychology by giving negative news in small groups where everyone can ask questions and talk about their worries. Good news, on the other hand, should be presented to all employees. This way, the good vibes will be infectuous and affect as many as possible which on turn increases cohesion in the group.

By taking notes about what your staff tells you you make sure that nothing is left dangling. Thi also shows your staff that you care and that both big and small issues will be addressed. Use the internal communication channels to inform and not to influence opinion or for tilting the facts.

If you have to downsize, explain the background facts and verify that the company is doing the best they can for their staff considering the circumstances. When you have to save, don't try to push reduced benefits as if it was an improvement. Emphasise everyday encouragement and give each employee "5 seconds in the spotlight".

These are some of the tips that Swedish managers have shared for increased employee motivation.

(article by Annelen Geretschläger originally published in Swedish in Dagens Ledarskap 2009-08-20...original article here)

Time to kick start the new year!

Ok, so the start of the new year (in this part of the world) is technically the 1st of January. But I would argue that the end of the summer holidays/start of the new school year feels much more like the sart of something new. Most people have their "main" vacation in the summer and come back to work in August/September with new energy and purpose. The summer holiday is like winter in nature, a time to rest and gather energy for the new growth period.

At Projectplace we will launch a whole new packaging of the product soon, for more information go here.

So happy new year! Relish in the sense of a fresh beginning and make sure you jot down the ideas that will inevitably spring up from the creativity and energy of a new season.