In today’s tough economic conditions, it may not be hard to motivate employees to perform their duties – you may have noticed that there are a lot more people keeping their heads down and burning the midnight oil in the hope they will avoid the chopping block if organizational layoffs are in order. However, the negative motivating tool of threatening an employee’s job will only get them to perform to a certain level. And that level is not high enough if you want your company to truly succeed. Here are a few motivational tips to help employees perform to the best of their abilities:

• Reward employees for a job well done – rewards are great way to motivate employees. Rewards can range from extrinsic, tangible rewards (for example more money) to intrinsic rewards such as helping a hard worker feel better about themselves by praising them for a job well done.
• Let them eat cake – we’ve all seen those cringe worthy episodes of The Office in which Michael Scott (or David Brent if you’re a fan of the British version) host ridiculous company parties. You don’t have to go to that extreme, but by acknowledging an employee’s birthday it will show that the organization cares about their people. An employee who feels looked after by the company is more likely to work to reciprocate that feeling.
• Give employees some down time – we are all paid to show up to the office and do the work we were hired to do. Though the bulk of an employee’s time should be spent on the tasks they are paid to do, many organizations are now providing employees with some time to work on their own projects, even if they are not company related. Google is famous for allowing its employees 20% of their time at work to do whatever it is they want! Implementing such a policy has paid dividends for the company – many of the organization’s most impressive features are a result of employees experimenting with new concepts during the 20% of the week they are not focused on their day job.
• Let them space out – a recent study conducted by the University of Melbourne, Australia shows that employees who log on to Facebook or Twitter at some point during the day are more productive employees. Read the whole article: http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNewsMolt/idUKTRE5313G22009040
  Giving employees an opportunity to divert their attention to things other than work for 10-15 minutes allows them to take a break from the task at hand and an opportunity to refocus their attention.

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