Motivating Employees in a Corporate Environment

In today's ever changing corporate world it is getting harder and harder to motivate and energize your staff. In this article I will cover a few creative ways to get your message across and keep the momentum going.

Having been in the travel industry over twenty years I have worked with many large organizations. From airlines to Travel agencies in three different States. Each one had the same dilemma,,, How do we hold their attention long enough to have the message sink in?

I experimented with an idea I had when we were faced with the problem of high payouts due to agent errors. The agents were not calling the airline to get the required waiver prior to ticketing when exchanging a non-refundable to a refundable ticket. A simple request yet it was costing us a fortune.

We had tried reminder messages in the reservations but agents could easily override these. We needed a way to get through to them.

I decided to do a six week experiment. I would get their attention through

creative emails and then check my results. I had the idea to call it "Waivers for favors and Favors for Waivers", based on the writing style of Dr. Seuss.

The program was a great Success. I did not let on about my experiment in advance. At first the agents Did not know what to think, but it got them talking and reading and that was my plan. After a week they were looking forward to to more emails and Some even requested that their names be written into some of the poems and stories.

Our debit memos decreased and management was happy. Payouts decreased and our bottom line went up. It was a win-win situation. The program was so successful that I was asked to do similar projects for other training issues and situations.

Motivating employees is a problem most companies face at one time or another. Many times it is as simple as stepping up your employee satisfaction techniques. When the employee is happy then production increases. When production increases, the client is happy. When the client is happy then the company is happy. It is a win-win situation.

One way is to get employees involved in the solution. Find the complainers and get them to own at least part of the solution. Work together for the common goal. Organize an employee satisfaction committee and show them that management is committed to their happiness.

Our committee organized several sub-committees who worked on various projects throughout the year. Each sub-committee can take on one month for the year. Have them research any holidays or important dates for the company that might fall in their assigned month. Let's look at May for example. In May we have Cinquo De Mayo so we ran a Salsa Contest - The food and not the dance! We had a Mexican fiesta day and leadership served the employees a full Mexican meal from nachos to tacos. In conjunction, we ran the Salsa contest. We had about 12 entries from 130 employees. They were instructed to make a small batch for the judges and a bigger batch for the staff to sample during their Mexican fiesta lunch. It was a huge success! Recipes were emailed out afterwards and prizes awarded.

Each month we also do trivia contests based on important dates. During December we ran a few contests. December 6^th we did a St. Nicholas day trivia contest. Then we did Christmas, Hanukah and Kwanza. It was a huge hit in the office and people learned a lot by participating. Word searches were also a big hit.

I will cover each month with samples of things you can do within your organization.

January

In January we have New Year's Day, Martin Luther King day and Japanese new Year. Why not have an event around everyone's New Year resolutions?

February

Valentine's Day, Groundhog's Day, and Black History month. Ask everyone to write about someone that played an important part in Black History. Display them around the office for all to read. On Valentine's Day you can sell candy valentine's and send the profit to the American Heart Association.

March

Carnivale, Lent, Daylight Savings Time begins, St Patrick's Day, Deaf History Month, and Women's History Month. Have your own Carnival event complete with games of chance and dressing up. For St. Patrick's Day have an Irish Soda Bread competition. For Woman's History you can follow the same way you did Black History month.

April

April Fool's Day, Palm Sunday, Passover, Earth Day, Arbor Day, and National Autism Awareness Month. For Arbor day you can hand out little tiny tree saplings to all the employees.

May

Cinco de Mayo, National Day of Prayer, Mother's Day, Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day, Jewish American Heritage Month, and National Mental health month. For Cinco De Mayo we sold a Spanish style lunch to the employees (very inexpensive) and gave the proceeds to a local charity. We also did a Salsa contest (the food - not the dance).

June

World Environment Day, Father's Day, Shavuot, D Day, and Gay and lesbian Pride Month. Hand out packets of seed for World Environment Day.

July

Canada Day, July 4^th, Parent's Day, and Pioneer Day. Plan a celebration around Independence Day. Red, White, and Blue.

August

India Independence Day, Pakistan Independence Day. We usually did a Summer theme in August - hold an indoor picnic complete with blankets on the floor and picnic baskets.

September

Labor Day, Grandparent's Day, Deaf Awareness Week, Rosh Hashanah, and Healthy aging month. We would honor our employees with a personalized handwritten note to each employee.

October

Yom Kippur, Columbus Day, Simchat Torah, Mother in Law Day, Halloween, and National Breast Cancer Awareness month. In October we always went way out for Halloween complete with a costume contest, decorate your desk contest, and Halloween treats!

November

All Saint's Day, All Soul's Day, Thanksgiving, Veteran's Day, National Aids Awareness Month, and American Diabetes Month. In November we would remember Veteran's Day asking our employees to write about a Veteran in their life. For Thanksgiving we would sponsor a feast at work for everyone.

December

St. Nick's Day, Pearl Harbor Day, Hanukkah, Christmas, Boxing Day, Kwaanza, New Year's Eve, and Universal Human Rights month. December is chock full of holidays. We honored each one and would have trivia contests, word search, gift exchanges, grab bags, and a visit from a jolly fellow in a red suit on the weekend so that employees could bring the children in their life to work for a special treat!

The key is to keep your employees a part of the festivities and activities. Let them be on the Committee at work and let them decide what they want to do. I would suggest having a member of management involved just to keep the committee on track and to watch the time. Let them know what their monthly budget is, if any, too. We used to hold fundraisers at work to fund our committee because there was no money in the budget to spend on activities and functions.

Remember that a happy employee is a productive employee. Have fun!

Taking the time to thank people often is neglected. People tend to remember the bad and forget the good. H how often do you take the time to call to give a compliment? People only take the time to complain.

Set up a thank you system in your organization. One copy goes in the employee file and one to their supervisor. Celebrate these each month by posting them on a bulletin board or in your company newsletter. People love to read about themselves.

Why not pick an associate of the month? This could be by nomination by their peers or leadership. Spotlight them in the newsletter with pictures and comments by the client and other employees. Possibly give some type of prize to go along with this honor. How about a gift card? Or clothing with the company logo.

Take the time to recognize their contributions no matter how small. Make them feel important. By doing this it makes them want to do more. It is only natural.

One company I worked for would give out stickers for different things. If they met a goal, if they were nominated by a peer, if they volunteered to help a leader, etc. Once the page was filled it entitled the employee to one hour

Off with pay. Time is important to our employees. We spend more waking hours at work then with our families, so any extra time is appreciated.

Other drivers of employee satisfaction

Have a suggestion box installed and address all the issues that need to be addressed. Do not make it a complaint box but a place where employees can leave a problem and offer their solutions. Make sure you address the issues in a timely manner.

Get people involved. Delegate work out and praise them for taking it on. Suggest they delegate part of it, if it is too much for them. Get them involved in some decisions. Ask for their opinions and suggestions, then

If you incorporate any part of it, remember to mention them as you

Incorporate their idea.

Integrity - here is a big driver of employee satisfaction. If they tell you something in confidence do not repeat it. Do not discuss subordinates with other employees not involved directly with them, especially not with another subordinate.

Office picnic, holiday party, team building activities

My office has a committee that just works on parties for the office. They plan and organize all of our office parties, both onsite and offsite. They also handle all off site events in conjunction with the activities committee, such as our annual office picnic.

If your company allows for team building events then consider helping out in your local community. The United Way offers great volunteer opportunities. We once volunteered and helped to build an outside classroom at a local school. We also helped out with Habitat for Humanity. You might want to consider having a Volunteer Committee to organize these for you. It's a great way to give back to the community while bonding with your co-workers.