Americans spend as much as 8.8 hours every day at the workplace, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is more than the 7.7 hours spent in bed. Unfortunately, the majority of people end up spending more time with the employees they work with than with their families. This means that coworkers can impact the mood of everyone around them daily. Thus, having productive employees is a must in any workplace.

Having motivated employees can help foster a positive environment throughout the workplace. Whereas, having an unmotivated employee can be demoralizing.

Here are some of the best ways to effectively motivate an employee and improve employee productivity. 

  1. Family-Like Atmosphere

One of the best ways to improve productivity throughout your workforce is by creating and fostering a family-like atmosphere. This doesn’t mean treating coworkers like family members. It means creating and fostering an environment where everyone is treated with respect. Also, an environment where everyone is safe.

You want every employee to have one another’s backs. Let them know that you care about them and that you will be there for them. Strive to make every employee working at the office feel safe and respected. They will be willing to go above and beyond for the company if they do. 

  1. Know Their Background

If you are going to be hiring employees and you want them to be as motivated as possible, you need to know their background. The key is knowing what motivates them. Someone that is in college and that works in the daytime and goes to school at night will have a very different motivation for their job than a single mother needing to feed her children. 

You need to figure out what motivates all of your employees. This can help you figure out the best incentive to further motivate them. 

  1. Train Your Employees

You need to train your employees as well as possible. A trained employee is going to be much more productive than one that is untrained. You want to have set expectations for every employee you hire. Keep a track of their progress and tarining opportunities with Tracktime24. It’s also important to keep in mind that training isn’t a one-time thing. An employee is likely to require retraining at some point. Try to retain employees as they need it.

  1. Use Incentives

Try to find ways to incentivize employees to maintain their motivation. While a $15 gift card may seem insignificant, it can provide significant motivation to an employee. Not necessarily because of the money they are getting, but the recognition they get with it. Employees want to know they are being valued for their work. Even gifting a small reward can deliver good motivation. 

  1. Listen To Them

You need to listen to your employees. Try to encourage employees to speak up. You want to know what they think. Ask for their opinions. This will showcase that you care about them and they will be much more willing to go above and beyond for you because of it. Valuing their opinions is one of the best ways to show their voice matters.

By Eddy

Eddy is the editorial columnist in Business Fundas, and oversees partner relationships. He posts articles of partners on various topics related to strategy, marketing, supply chain, technology management, social media, e-business, finance, economics and operations management. The articles posted are copyrighted under a Creative Commons unported license 4.0. To contact him, please direct your emails to [email protected].