(The following information comes from melding numerous HR articles and websites that discuss employee morale and motivation. I have also added parts dealing with my own management experience. I in no way am attempting to portray this blog as original content from myself.)
We as leaders of our practice have a responsibility to bring about employee productivity. One key driver of high productivity is deliberate attention to employee morale. High morale can bring out the best in our employees and the best in us as leaders. High morale creates patient loyalty, decreases employee absenteeism, decreases employee turnover, and as a result increases practice profits.
Labor studies have estimated that 75-85% of employees are not working to their potential, nor are they enthusiastic about the work that they do. Do the math on that at your workplace and realize what could be gained from tapping that potential and giving employees value to the job that they perform.
One of the biggest problems about motivation/morale is that we as leaders can only foster motivation and morale. Morale is often a personal choice and motivation comes from within and employee. As much as we would like, we can't force another person to have a good attitude or good morale. We can however, set up the right set of workplace circumstances to get employees to respond and be motivated.
Looking further into motivation, it is unique to each person and can change over time. Some of the factors affecting motivation are age, social status and personal values. As these factors change in an employee, so can/will their motivation in the workplace. Motivation will work in the workplace when employees respond positively to the environment because they choose to respond positively.
Workplace motivation is directly related to a person's perception of their value to the workplace. The more integral they perceive their job function, the more motivated and better they will feel of their position. Most employees are motivated for their first few days, weeks, and months on a new job, but the new can wear off and the employee can lose their motivation. Each person has to recognize value to their position and we as leaders need to give feedback and input to employees to instill their position's value.
Specific motivational tools can help recapture the newness of a job and motivate our employees and ourselves. I have identified nine motivational tools (in no certain order) to assist with employee motivation:
Communication
Defining Expectations
Setting Goals
Treating Employees with Respect
Recognizing Performance
Celebrating Success
Offering Opportunities for Professional Development
Creating Community
Having Fun
I will expound on the first four tools this week and complete the list with next week's blog.
Communication - Employees want to be informed. Informed employees are comfortable employees who can more readily understand change and their position in the organization. Ways of communicating effectively to your employees can be done through periodic, regular staff meetings, a practice newsletter, a dry erase board in a central place, memos and internal email. One of the largest benefits to effective communication is an informed employee spends less time and energy gossiping, complaining, wondering what's going on and breeding negativity. Employees may not always like what is communicated to them, but at least they will be informed with factual information.
Defining Expectations - Try to constantly and consistently let employees know what is expected of them. If their duties are changing or if tasks are being added to their workload, discuss upcoming changes and their responsibilities and opportunities with the change. Written job descriptions are a great tool for defining the expectations of an employee. Goethe stated, "Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them become what they are capable of becoming." Let employees know that you have full faith in their abilities to perform above and beyond what they think they are capable of performing.
Set Goals - Meeting goals gives employees a sense of accomplishment. Leaders should work with employees to set up goals. In the goal setting, set up a system to evaluate progress in the employee achieving the goal. When setting the goals, be specific, make sure the evaluation system allows accurate measurement of progress, set attainable and realistic goals and always make sure the goal is time-framed.
Treating Employees with Respect - We as leaders and the owners of our practices have to be the driving force of employee respect. To earn respect and loyalty, we have to treat everyone as valuable. A paraphrase from Mary Kay - Imagine a sign around everyone's neck that says "make me feel important." Everyone has value and we need to respect this fact. Respect employee's needs by giving them proper training, tools, equipment and technology that they need to properly perform their job. Respect their ideas by incorporating them into work policies and procedures. Ask for their input - after all, they are the experts at performing their job, not us. Show personal respect to your employees by being flexible where you can to allow them to attend their family events.
Next week - Exploring more motivational tools: Recognizing Performance, Celebrating Success, Offering Professional Development, Creating Community, and Having Fun.