Getting the best out of your employees is easy if you are doing your job as a manager. If you are just sitting in an office, you are not doing your job right. You have to be there for your employees to encourage and motivate them.

Schedule Regular Meetings

Regular meetings with your employees give them a chance to talk to you. They can talk about their ideas and concerns that they may have. You can then give them feedback that they can use for the future.

For example, say your employee tells you that he is having trouble with a customer. Your employee wants to make your customer happy while also following company policy. Here is a great chance to engage with your employee.

You can take this meeting time to explain how the employee can satisfy the customer while also satisfying company policy. Explain ways in which the employee can compromise with the customer to resolve the situation to the satisfaction of all parties.

Offer Incentives To Your Employees

If you want your employees to work harder, you should offer incentives to do so. A simple certificate recognizing their accomplishment could work. Time off or a bonus in their next paycheck also works well.

Create a challenging environment for all of your employees. When you encourage them to do their best, you can get more out of each person. The good news is that you can create a program for each employee that is tailored to what motivates that individual person.

You will most likely find that employees will naturally start to work harder as time goes by. There may be no need for an incentive program once an employee shows that he or she can do the job well. This is because the next incentive will be a promotion. 

Offer Help And Guidance

You want to have a great relationship with all of your employees. This means that you should be on the floor, in the office or wherever your employees happen to be. Take some time each day to talk to each employee.

This doesn’t have to take up a lot of time. Even a minute or two to have a quick chat will suffice. Showing that you care about each employee will encourage that person to work harder. Employees just want to know that you are there for them.

Don’t be afraid to be hands-on with things. Employees will listen to you and respect you more if they know that you know the job. It is always comforting to an employee to know that he or she is being lead by someone competent. 

There are a number of reward consultantancy companies out there that specialise in total rewards and employee benefits such as AON Hewitt

Document The Progress Of Each Employee

Have a chart that documents the progress of each employee in key performance areas. Perhaps you have an employee that is late on a regular basis. For the next six months, monitor when the employee comes in.

If the employee comes in on time, that employee gets a reward. If not, the employee gets disciplined. What you are doing is empowering the employee to make a decision that benefits both himself and the company.

As a manager, you are taking the time to develop your employee. If things don’t work out, you are doing your job by punishing the employee for poor performance. Either way, you are doing your job without hurting anyone.

Employees are not always that hard to manage. All you need to do is be there, listen and care about them. If you are willing to do that, you will find that your employees respect you and want to work hard for you.