Employee Motivation

If businessespeople - staff, employees, labor, and human resources - are effectively led, they can make the difference between merely being competitive and being a true industry leader. Forging a strong link between human resource activities and business objectives is one of the most important commitments a company can make to ensure its success.

Everyone in business has heard, "people are our greatest asset." As work becomes ever more complex, and as costs come under pressure, continuous improvement of individual and collective performance becomes a necessity. Companies need to unlock the potential of all levels of its workforce. A satisfied workforce means satisfied customers, increased profitability, and higher reputation.

You have personnel problems if:

• You dread when an employee says, "I'd like to speak with you privately."
• You are too busy to take key people to lunch or dinner occasionally.
• You dont have off-site meetings with key staff members.
• You havent implemented an employee's idea lately and given them credit (and a reward) for it.
• You have employees you wish you didn't.
• Every day, you spend time handling personnel conflicts.
• You havent hired anyone lately.
• You havent fired anyone lately.
• Your employees are not going to school or seeking to better themselves.
• You dont have anyone outside your company that you can turn to for help with employee problems.

The most effective way to build trust in the workplace is to work together. There are no magic gimmicks or other simple solutions. Trust cannot be created by excessive wages, great company picnics or wonderful working conditions; it can only be generated through teamwork, honesty and fairness. Although trust and productivity are complex issues and represent only part of the total fabric of interpersonal relationships in small businesses, three attributes appear to have a positive effect on trust in successful small businesses:

• The owner-manager of the small business is open and honest about the day-to-day business operations.
• The owner-manager of the small business is consistent and fair about personnel policies.
• The owner-manager spends a great deal of his or her time concentrating on good communications with those working in the firm.

Secrecy breeds suspicion. Whenever information is kept on close hold, the context becomes open to misinterpretation. Total quality improvement is based workers caring as much about the success of the small business as the owners do. Studies of small businesses indicate that employees tend to overestimate profits by substantial amounts. These same studies indicate that when true financial information is shared with employees, substantial cost controls are voluntarily initiated by all members of the work force.

Whenever in doubt concerning the amount of information to share with employees, experience indicates that too much is better than not enough. Never lie to workers about human relations issues. Institutional memory is long; any deceit will be remembered for many years. Note that employees talk with each other and inconsistencies will be quickly detected and brought to the surface, frequently to your embarrassment. The following are suggestions on how to avoid a dilemma:

• Take time to talk with your workers.
• Find out what they're thinking.
• Find out what they'd like to know and tell them whenever possible.
• Don't tell only good things.
• Allow employees an opportunity to provide you, the owner, with information, questions and suggestions. In this way, communications are two-way.