9 Things That Motivate Employees More Than Money

Here are nine things :

1. Be generous with praise. Everyone wants it and it’s one of the easiest things to give. Plus, praise from the CEO goes a lot farther than you might think. Praise every improvement that you see your team members make. Once you’re comfortable delivering praise one-on-one to an employee, try praising them in front of others.  
2. Get rid of the managers. Projects without project managers? That doesn’t seem right! Try it. Removing the project lead or supervisor and empowering your staff to work together as a team rather then everyone reporting to one individual can do wonders. Think about it. What’s worse than letting your supervisor down? Letting your team down! Allowing people to work together as a team, on an equal level with their co-workers, will often produce better projects faster. People will come in early, stay late, and devote more of their energy to solving problems.  
3. Make your ideas theirs. People hate being told what to do. Instead of telling people what you want done; ask them in a way that will make them feel like they came up with the idea. “I’d like you to do it this way” turns into “Do you think it’s a good idea if we do it this way?”  
4. Never criticize or correct. No one, and I mean no one, wants to hear that they did something wrong. If you’re looking for a de-motivator, this is it. Try an indirect approach to get people to improve, learn from their mistakes, and fix them. Ask, “Was that the best way to approach the problem? Why not? Have any ideas on what you could have done differently?” Then you’re having a conversation and talking through solutions, not pointing a finger.  
5. Make everyone a leader. Highlight your top performers’ strengths and let them know that because of their excellence, you want them to be the example for others. You’ll set the bar high and they’ll be motivated to live up to their reputation as a leader.  
6. Take an employee to lunch once a week. Surprise them. Don’t make an announcement that you’re establishing a new policy. Literally walk up to one of your employees, and invite them to lunch with you. It’s an easy way to remind them that you notice and appreciate their work.  
7. Give recognition and small rewards. These two things come in many forms: Give a shout out to someone in a company meeting for what she has accomplished. Run contests or internal games and keep track of the results on a whiteboard that everyone can see. Tangible awards that don’t break the bank can work too. Try things like dinner, trophies, spa services, and plaques. 
8. Throw company parties. Doing things as a group can go a long way. Have a company picnic. Organize birthday parties. Hold a happy hour. Don’t just wait until the holidays to do a company activity; organize events throughout the year to remind your staff that you’re all in it together. 
9. Share the rewards—and the pain. When your company does well, celebrate. This is the best time to let everyone know that you’re thankful for their hard work. Go out of your way to show how far you will go when people help your company succeed. If there are disappointments, share those too. If you expect high performance, your team deserves to know where the company stands. Be honest and transparent.

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Top 10 Bad HR Practices

Every body talks about the best HR practices, it is good, but merely bringing in the best cannot give the desired results if some Bad HR practices co-exist in the organization. So what are those Top Ten Bad HR practices which caution & alert an organization.



1. Employee has no access to personal data (over-confidentiality): Can’t view, can’t update personal information; has no access to his/ her Leave records, salary data, attendance record, training & promotion details. Not sure if the management’s decisions are based on correct information. This breeds suspicion since there is a perceived lack of transparency.. Impact is on employee-employer relationships.

2. Lack of clarity on Deliverables: Absence of a well-defined job-description leads to lack of accountability. Nether the employee nor his/ her immediate superior (boss) are able to define the job-deliverables. Result is the loss of focus & interest.

3. Absence of Goal-based performance: Employee is unaware of the goals to be achieved during the year. There are no quarterly targets and no process to track their completion. The organization carries out merely an end of the year postmortem of an employee’s performance. The unaccomplished tasks go unnoticed. Difficult to build a performance culture in such organizations.

4. Employee development without his/ her involvement: No opportunity is given to an employee to project his /her development needs. Training manager nominates employees on various development programs. Even the Line Manager is bye-passed. There is no formal process to collect training needs and do gap analysis of skills & competencies. All this leads to unplanned employee development, a wasteful effort, both in time & the dollars spent on training.

5. Rusting of Talent: Long tenures in the same position with no avenues for job rotations make people rust & relax. In the first 2-3 years in a job position an employee experiences new challenges, innovates & contributes. Thereafter the routine takes over. Even a change of location, if not the job, can provide the requisite challenge to an employee . This is enough to remove the rust and make the talent bloom again.

6. Non-performers lobby: Each non-performer remains glued to his/ her chair. The worst happens when a non-performing manager has to appraise subordinates who are professionally competent, high-energy youngsters. Some of them leave the organization per-maturely and add to the attrition rate. The end result is the building of a non-performers lobby which impedes the progress of the organization. It is a vicious cycle which can be stopped only by filtering out the non-performers.

7. Absence of schemes to retain performers: Getting rid of the non-performers is important, but to be able to identify, develop & retain high performers is equally vital. If your best talent is being lured by other companies, your schemes to reward performance are simply inadequate.

8. Shyness to obtain Feedback: Employees have individual opinions about the quality of leadership in the company. They know their engagement levels at the workplace. They understand what hinders their performance & satisfaction. Unless the management is prepared to receive and analyse their objective feed back, no worth while initiatives can be launched to apply timely corrections. The end-result could be lower productivity and increasing disharmony.

9. Line Manager not a People-Manager: If a Line Manager only performs his/ her operational/ technical role and has not been groomed to become a people - manager, who is to blame? H R has probably faltered by not institutionalizing a system which ensures that before appointing an employee as a Line Manager, he is given training on how to manage people. Competencies are needed for understanding your workforce, deploying HR processes, motivating people & uniting them as a team. A good engineer at the work place has to be transformed into a good manager for organizational growth.

10. Technology Phobia: Many old timers, even in some big organizations, refuse to acknowledge that introduction of technology can empower HR staff to provide timely, accurate & quality information for employee oriented decisions. They sometimes feel that IT staff will need to be hired to manage computer based systems. They probably need an exposure to S-a-a-S technology which neither requires elaborate hardware platforms nor software expertise within your premises. The Vendor must do everything for you to implement & maintain your systems as long as you like. Shed your phobia at least.

If you can introspect and shed the prevailing bad HR practices, you are sure to transform and be one amongst those companies who build talent and drive performance.

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