Sales Incentives Blog

Archive for November, 2008

Every business, like it or not wins or loses through employee motivation. Achieving employee motivation is not easy. We are all different and all respond to varying situations in different ways. It is much more than employees doing their work properly. Employee motivation once generated in an organization is positive reinforcement.

Positive reinforcement is what builds our self-esteem. Employee motivation is the level of energy, commitment, and creativity that a company’s workers bring to their jobs.

Whether the economy is growing or shrinking, finding ways to motivate employees is always a management concern in any business. Employee motivation is a natural offshoot of employee empowerment. Higher management has a crucial role to play here.

Job enrichment has been a motivational technique which is receiving increased attention. Secondments, mentoring and standing-in for colleagues on leave are suggested methods of enlarging a job and increasing motivation.

Organizations desiring to improve employee motivation need a system in place that consistently rewards employee achievements. I’m always surprised how few organizations have such a system.

Furthermore, many organizations are finding it quite a challenge to meet the growing needs of employees. Also the nature of employee needs have changed over time.

Though usually self-starters, the best employees typically require more from employers to remain motivated over time. A primary motivator for exceptional talent is having the ability to speak their minds in a free and unrestricted fashion, and develop their own social networks.

Workshops and internal seminars may be seen by some as usurping the management role, or in danger of producing a company run by committee. But, done right this is a great motivator.

Employers often make use of this by presenting challenges to the employees. In making use of this type of employee motivation employers often include competition such as a promotion or cash.

Employee motivation can sometimes be particularly problematic for small businesses, where the owner often has spent so many years building a company that he/she finds it difficult to delegate meaningful responsibilities to others. But entrepreneurs should be mindful of such pitfalls, for the effects of low employee motivation on small businesses can be devastating. Employee Motivation in the Workplace is important, and the job of a manager in the workplace is to get things done through employees. To do this the manager should be able to motivate employees.

Individuals as a general observation, will often have more difficulty understanding and valuing the motivators of others that are very different from their own. Improve staff knowledge of the other parts of your business, through cross division mentoring, improved social networking, and secondment, and individual employees become more successful. The team becomes much more than just the sum of its parts, and profitability will rise as well.

One top company which operates throughout the US recently set up an incentive program. At first those who promoted the idea met skepticism throughout higher management, but were allowed to get the project started. All were delighted when employees were enthusiastic about the incentive program and liked to be able to see how their individual contribution to the company earned awards. Over the course of the year, employee absenteeism was reduced by 75% and employee productivity (measured in call times, number of calls and customer service ratings) was increased by 43%.

Some careers are never going to go away; there will always be a need to fill positions in those industries. Some likely candidates for this are electrical jobs, engineering jobs, and customer service jobs. No matter what company or industry you decide to work in, there will always exist a customer service department tasked with keeping clients happy. It doesn’t matter if a company does business as a supermarket, bank, or engineering firm, there will always be customer service jobs to fill, either in face-to-face positions, in a call center, or on the internet.

Customer services are there to help clients and customers to find the answers to their questions and to deal with any complaints or queries that they may have. Your greatest asset in the customer service field will be your excellent people skills. Being able to relate to people no matter what their age, sex, race or location is a definite advantage. You’ll never know who your clients are until you’re talking to them so it’ll be helpful to be able to communicate with a wide range of people.

Patience is another skill that will come in handy. It may fall to you to deal with highly upset or even abusive customers. It’s essential that you control your temper and keep attempting to help even these customers. This is a skill that not everybody possesses. If you find your blood beginning to boil when faced with a confrontation, a customer service job might not be your best choice of career.

A customer service role could entail the following:

Answering telephone calls
Passing customers and clients on to the right department
Answering queries regarding products or services
Trying to solve problems with purchases that customers have made
Assisting customers and clients with making the best purchases to suit their needs

Every contact you have with a customer will be a little different, and the role is quite varied. The best thing you can do is actually care about helping your customers solve their problems. If you care then that will shine through when you are talking with customers and they will trust you and the company a lot better if they feel that you are on their side.

Typically customer service jobs are demanding, tiring and challenging. Customer service jobs aren’t for everyone, and you will need solid people skills to make it in a customer service role.

Luckily, there aren’t many requirements for a career in customer service. All you need to get started are your willingness to learn and above-average people skills. All companies require customer service employees. So if you do choose to make it in customer services then you can be sure that there will always be a job for you.