How do you get the best from your staff? You pay their salary so you want them to do their very best for you all the time they are at work right?

We’re constantly amazed by the number of employers who don’t give that much thought as to how to get the best from their staff until they run into problems.  Well as the old saying goes “prevention is better than cure” so we recommend giving this some thought right from the start.

There’s a lot of talk out there about motivation and “employee engagement” and no doubt there are a lot of very clever models and theories that you could implement in your business – but being fans of keeping things simple we suggest you start with addressing the basics.

One of the greatest myths in employment is that money is the greatest motivator – whilst this may be true for some people – for many employees once income reaches a level that enables them to live the lifestyle they desire, more money does not necessarily equate to greater motivation.

So how do you know what motivates your staff? One simple way to find out is to ask them. Have conversations so that you know what people want from you and the business, then work out how you can use that to motivate and inspire your staff.

In terms of engaging with the business, employees want really quite simple things from you – to know what is expected of them, to know that what they do is important and how it fits into the bigger picture, to have the right resources to do their job, being invested in and having opportunities to develop, having the opportunity to do their best, and to receive recognition for what they contribute.

Quite simply put, to get the best from your staff it pretty much boils down to treating people with respect, trusting that they want to do a good job for you and then providing the environment and resources that enables them to do exactly that.

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