Keeping Staff Motivated Without Breaking the Bank
By Melissa Lourenco | June 29, 2009
BNET Australia Contributors
Aussie Rules
Biography
BNET Australia Contributors
Brian Haverty is editorial director for CBS Interactive Australia and is responsible for the company's BNET and ZDNet Australia sites.
Robert Gerrish is a coach, author and professional speaker and the founder of Flying Solo, an Australian online community for solo business owners.
Melissa Lourenco is the HR manager for CBS Interactive in Australia.
Chris Golis is the author of The Humm Handbook: Lifting Your Level of Emotional Intelligence. He runs seminars and workshops on EQ.
Suzi Dafnis is Community Director of the Australian Businesswomen's Network.
Yvonne Adele helps organisations build a culture of ideas by teaching people at all levels to access their untapped creative thinking skills.
Apologies for this way-overused opening but: as we trudge along the current path of economic uncertainty, we’ve all heard the admonitions to “tighten the purse strings” to “brace ourselves”…
All this forces HR professionals to think creatively — how can we keep our staff motivated amidst all the cutbacks?
I recently attended a seminar on this topic and I thought I’d pass on some of the “low-cost” ways they recommended to keep staff happy and productive:
- Thank staff for a job well done (and mean it)
- Offer plans that allow employees to better balance their work and personal lives [see previous post]
- Allow flexible starting, finishing times, and time off in lieu
- Involve staff, whenever possible, in decisions that affect their jobs and the overall direction of the business or department
- Offer top performing staff profit-sharing opportunities with the company
- Make the workplace a comfortable/fun to work by setting up a chill-out room, hooking up a Nintendo Wii or introducing a ping pong table
- Ensure employees all the resources required to do their job efficiently (eg, increase speed of computers with more RAM?)
- Recognise staff birthdays with cake, team emails and a card
- Provide onsite yoga or meditation classes or a masseuse before or after work
- Publicly acknowledge staff who contribute good ideas or who have worked over and above their normal responsibilities
How are you keeping staff motivated at low cost? Do you have any ideas to add?
