Motivation without Money, It Can be Done

Productivity may be down, employees may not be happy, and morale may be low due to the economic problems. Based on the blog last month (College Marketing Plans for 2009) about a third of you mentioned you would be laying off staff in the beginning of the year. And you will have to motivate the remaining staff to do more. So how do you as the brand manager keep the ball rolling? Hint, money is not the only motivator.

Again, we look to the small business owners. They constantly have to keep the small group of employees motivated to do more and more and they always have more to give. These ideas are inspired by Inc. and Entrepreneur magazine.

• Fun stuff. Everyone likes to blow of steam. Take your staff out of the office for awhile. It doesn’t have to be expensive either. Take a walk around campus with your team, have a potluck lunch at a nearby park, or take advantage of campus offerings like a high ropes course, a game of basketball, a game a kickball.
• Feed the soul. Do a departmental retreat to a charity. A local shelter, house building project, or environmental group. Offer your marketing teams services to a local nonprofit for an afternoon. It helps to build teamwork, gets the employees out of the office, and does something for the community.
• No two employees are alike. They each live there own lives with there own interests. Note each of their interests and tailor some of your offerings. You may motivate one who you know likes to shop with more spending money, while another you may motivate with time off to spend with their kids.
• Re-visit the vision and set goals. Many nowadays are looking for meaningful work, so re-visit the idea and let them know that what they are doing is done for purpose. Set individual and team goals so employees have something to work toward and feel they are growing personally and working toward as a team to accomplish something. Focus on a couple key goals so they are not overwhelmed.
• Be ethical and honest. Don’t try to sugar coat issues or do something people frown on. Some believe that we are in this economic recession due to unethical and dishonest practices. They don’t need to feel as if you or others in your team are part of the problem.
• Quickly tell of the positives. When a positive is seen or a goal is met, tell the employees right away. Each positive is in move in the right direction. This can also be done on a personal level, by noticing a certain employee’s improvement or great job on a certain project and following it with an appropriate response. Everyone likes getting noticed for a job well done.
  
• New tasks. Cross train employees or give employees new tasks. It is a breath of fresh air and the employee learns something new and they feel they can be trusted to do new responsibilities and expand on their capabilities. You can also make their job bigger. Give employees who are doing well new tasks and responsibilities within their current job. Also enrich them, train them, give them more meaningful responsibilities, etc.
• Start to finish. Let your employees work or manage a project from start to finish. Having them start, but not finish makes an employee feel they can’t be trusted or unappreciated. Let them do a project independently, micromanaging makes the employee feel not need and also unappreciated.

Doing more with less is always hard. But it can be done. More ideas can be found at Inc. and Entrepreneur magazine.