A lot has been said about how a businessman should try and operate his enterprise in the early goings. The advice can cover everything from how to manage finances to how to plan for the long-term when avoiding IRS audits. There are even those who feel free to offer their wisdom on how to determine if the time is right for expanding operations and breaking into a new market. One of the most crucial long-term investments a businessman can make, however, is his employees. Unfortunately, a lot of the conventional wisdom for dealing with them is very much “traditionalist” in mold, a partial holdover from the days when children manned the coal mines and the march of progress took precedent over basic human decency.
These days, motivating people – and keeping them motivated – can be a brutally hard balancing act.
Before, all that was needed to keep people working was the prospect of pay. These days, a paycheck and benefits are still good ways to motivate employees, but they’re not enough anymore. In the tasks that require manual labor or are hazardous by nature, it can even go beyond hazard pay. The more dangerous a job is or the higher the risk of death, the more money people will expect to take home at the end of the day. This is apart from the ones savvy enough to ask for life insurance policies set up to take care of their loved ones in the event the job does kill them.
As the Internet becomes a bigger and more prevalent part of people’s lives, employees in offices are starting to expect more “creature comforts.” While they don’t necessarily ask for free and open access to social networking sites, they certainly would feel better if they could use web chat to keep in contact with each other and their friends on the outside. There’s the likelihood that they’d find a way to play music on their office computers, even if the employer does his best to block them. Even in a working environment, it is pretty much unreasonable to expect people to work non-stop all hours of the shift.
Incentives are among the most tried and tested of ways to motivate people. Give them a carrot on a stick to chase that they’re interested in. The most basic is more money and some recognition, but others also throw in minor perks as part of the package. Sometimes, the “carrot” in question might even be additional vacation time, which is a surprisingly potent motivator.
