Five Tips to Motivate and Retain Great Employees

So you’ve vetted and hired some great talent – congratulations! Now how do you keep them motivated and engaged? How do you keep them employed with your organization for the long term? These are universal questions when it comes to hiring, and ones that are helpful to consider. Here are five tips to motivate and retain your team members.

Stay in touch!

Whether it’s regular meetings, Skype calls or emails – stay in communication with your team. This isn’t about micro-management, it’s about knowing what everyone is working on and making yourself available to help them along the way. It may be effective to use project management software. It may be helpful to have some schedule face time. Whatever form it takes, just make sure it’s regular so that you can check in with each other and know how your team is doing.

Create games and contests.

Setting up contests and games for your team to get involved in can really help create a sense of camaraderie and fun. They can be a fun way to keep your employees motivated and it’s an opportunity to create a lighthearted sense of competition that can drive your team to excel at what they do.

Set goals and bonuses.

It’s vital for your team to feel that they are being compensated for their accomplishments. And setting goals for them and tracking those goals are great ways to keep them motivated and excited about their achievements. When your team members get a bonus for a tangible accomplishment, they have a vested interest in the success of the organization and will continue to give their best to help reach those goals.

Promote opportunities for advancement.

Creating an environment where you are not only looking out for the organization’s best interest, but you’re also looking out for the best interest of your employees is an important step in retention. Team members want to feel like they have opportunities to advance within the company as well as have the flexibility to move laterally within the organization. Good leaders understand that retention is about mutuality. Employees excel when they are doing what they do best, and sometimes that means moving into a different direction within the company. And having upward mobility within an organization really helps to keep people motivated to do their best.

Get to know your team!

Many times hiring managers use a personality assessment in the hiring process, which is great, but it’s also a very valuable tool in getting to know your employees. An assessment like the Myers Briggs or Birkman Method can help you understand what your employees need in order to feel excited and motivated. And it can help you understand how to lead them and reinforce their creativity and drive. How an employee relates to the team and their manager can be revealed through an effective personality assessment, which make understanding them and communicating with them in a productive way much easier.

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