Top Tips for Unlocking the Full Potential of Employees
Talented employees can take an organisation to the next level, but sometimes, learning how best to harness these talents can be a challenge in itself. It is all very well recruiting the best people that you can find, but if you are unable to get them firing on all cylinders when working with you, it can all seem quite frustrating and a little futile.
It is easy to blame the employee for not living up to their full potential at your company, but actually, you should be looking closer to home. It is up to management to inspire talented employees to attain ever greater heights, and with these tips, you should be well-placed to do this.
Leadership from the Front
In order to get the best out of people, it is necessary to give them the space to do their jobs and show them that you have confidence that they are able to do them to a high specification. Avoid micromanaging your teams, as it is something that employees absolutely hate. It makes it seem like you have no confidence in their abilities if you do this, and it can be a real confidence sapper as a result.
Ensure that anyone tasked with a management role at the company is up to the task and has skills that are apparent to the other employees rather than just being someone whose face fits. If you expect employees to work hard, it is crucial that they see the same level of commitment demonstrated by people who are more senior in the company than them as well.
There is often the temptation not to work as hard if bosses look like they are sitting back while others work a lot harder than them. It breeds resentment, so avoid giving this impression at all costs.
Take Time to Understand their Motivations
When it comes to motivation, take the time to listen to staff members before coming to conclusions. Everyone is different and has their own motivating factors, and not all motivating factors are money. Sure, money is always helpful as an incentive, and it pays the bills, but being able to do work that they are proud of is a motivation for some people. Being able to help others or to be offered greater flexibility over working hours can motivate as well.
If you can find out what motivates your team, it will make it easier to get the best out of them. Some people like incentives, targets and perks. Some people enjoy team-building activities and away days playing paintball or trying to figure out how to exit an escape room.
Don’t go in with a fixed view of what they are going to say, and perhaps allow for an anonymous suggestion box so that people who are a bit more reticent in person feel better about sharing their ideas. You may find that some of the motivations are quite radically different from your first assumptions.
Provide Training Opportunities
Being offered the chance to participate in training activities as part of their employment sends the message to employees that you value them because you are prepared to invest in their future success. Helping them to upskill in this way is very supportive, and most employees will be happy and grateful for the opportunity to improve their abilities and future prospects.
Offering training is not just good for morale, it also means that your employees can develop their competencies and use their new-found skills in the workplace. Increasing training and support for employees will help the whole company to thrive, not just the employees who receive the training.
Putting a learning and development system in place can be a big commitment, but you will reap the rewards from it in terms of increased productivity and commitment from your employees. If this is your aim, then it is something that is well worth considering.
Incentivise Good Performance
If there are particular goals that you would like to see your employees hit, an excellent way to help them to do this is to offer incentives. The rewards don’t even have to be huge, the simple act of gamifying the work can lead to better outcomes across the board.
Many of today’s workforce will have grown up playing video games, and if you can turn work performance into a game where they compete with their fellow employees, they will often respond well to it. This is especially true of Millennials and Generation Z, who will likely have the most video game experience.
Offering incentives and rewards for those who top the scoreboard at the end of the week or the month can motivate the whole team to do better and is an effective way to promote hard work within the company.
When someone consistently displays good performance, be sure to acknowledge this, as there is nothing worse and more demoralising than having hard work ignored or overlooked by management.
Show Them the Bigger Picture
When you are a small cog in a giant machine, it can be difficult to conceptualise what difference your efforts are making to the whole. Help your employees understand what the bigger picture looks like and explain their actions' impact on the whole. Let them know that the speed with which they are packaging up the orders and sending them out is gaining the company an excellent reputation with your customers.
Explain to them the effect this is having on the company’s wider reputation and how you now have many more suppliers keen to work with you, which means costs are decreasing. Let them know that their hard work is making their jobs more secure, as thanks to the decrease in costs resulting from their efforts, you can now consolidate.
Understanding how their actions make a difference is a whole new level of employee buy-in, and they will be more invested in doing well for themselves and their colleagues if they are given access to this kind of information.
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