Below are some creative tips and ideas to help you keep your employees motivated. Keep in mind, this is just a small list as to what you can do - you are only limited by your own imagination!
- Insert some "fun" into your company - Whether it's big or small, doing something fun for your employees on a weekly or monthly basis will help keep the energy up in the office. Depending on your company, you can incorporate theme days where people get to dress up like it's Halloween. Eric Ryan, the founder of Method, doesn't hesitate to surprise his workers with flash mob dances and dressing up like a gorilla to keep things fresh.
- Make your employees feel like they're valued - Individualizing and acknowledge each employee is one of the most crucial practices to help ensure their motivation at work. Be sure to let your employees know when they are doing something awesome: a hand written thank you, addressing their accomplishments in an office meeting, or throwing a mini group birthday party for each month will help your workers feel like you care and that the company cares about them too.
- Create some work-life balance within the work place - Some work places allot 15-30 minute nap times in the afternoon to let their workers rest so they have energy to be productive the rest of the day. Google is famous for its casual, playful environment where employees can take breaks in game rooms to help spark their creativity. Again, depending on your company, something as small as making sure your workers have an hour lunch every day and allowing them to come into work later if they stayed late the night before goes a long way.
- Establish positive relationships and working environments - One of the responsibilities as a manager is to cultivate positive relationships between your workers. So incorporate something like a monthly get together for your team(s) to go out and get to know each other better. Allen & Gerritsen (a brand strategy agency) even implemented a mentor program where every one is paired up with someone of another specialty to work and learn from each other.
