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Keeping Employees Motivated During a Recession | Dodging Landmines

With widespread layoffs and budget cuts, it's easy for employees to disengage from their jobs. Learn how to keep your team motivated during these uncertain times.

Speaker: Sumi Das

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Tags: Employee, Recession, Team Management, Workforce Management, Management, Human Resources, Sumi Das

 
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    1

    Dom Monkhouse, PEER 1

    07/16/09 | Report as spam

    RE: Keeping Employees Motivated During a Recession | Dodging Landmines

    Good way of keeping staff motivated is creating a 'tribe' with common values - regular, informal, company meetings (Pow Wows) and celebrating mistakes not just success (we give out a bottle of champagne as a reward for the blunder of the month).

    It all improves morale and shows you're happy to learn from any errors.


  •  
    2

    AceNewsService

    07/16/09 | Report as spam

    RE: Keeping Employees Motivated During a Recession | Dodging Landmines

    As a management consultant who provides contracts for
    people in need of a job, when they find themselves with a
    lack of work, l found this video really interesting.

    Most of the time motivating anyone young or old to provide
    best service at an agreed price is the hardest. As so many
    people believe that if the job takes 7 days at an agreed price
    they will drag it out and will try to get more for less. This l
    believe at my age of 54 is today`s culture.

    We are taught to do as much as we need and no more, l was
    brought in the school of hard knocks, to do my absolute best
    at best price for the client. So motivating people that are not
    like minded is extremely hard especially during a recession. G

  •  
    3

    Raj Sinha Roy

    07/16/09 | Report as spam

    RE: Keeping Employees Motivated During a Recession | Dodging Landmines

    I fully agree that people want to be heard and having a listener during times of pressure provides tremendous relief. Disengagement by itself is a sign that the employee is isolated and recognition & appreciation has not come his way in a long time.

    I am not so sure about the rewarding of failures, I believe it has the potential to turn to sabotage to claim the trophy. I would rather have the person voted to have given the best solution to the blunder get the bottle of champagne!

  •  
    4

    mseaburgh

    07/17/09 | Report as spam

    RE: Keeping Employees Motivated During a Recession | Dodging Landmines

    HR1 - Sitting one on one is great but this method can be used when brainstorming as well. Synergy is a key concept in a recession. Makes them feel a part of operation even if they are only responsible for a small part of the whole picture. I always advise my managers to use "open ended questions". Answers are the keyes for solutions!

    I also think rewarding solutions for blunders is better then rewarding the blunder.

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Keeping Employees Motivated During a Recession | Dodging Landmines

With widespread layoffs and budget cuts, it's easy for employees to disengage from their jobs. Learn how to keep your team motivated during these uncertain times.

music

>> With layoffs and budgets tightening we're all being asked to do more with less. I'm seeing people disengaging. So what can I do to keep my team motivated and engaged?

>> It's a great question. It is so challenging when people are asked to do more with far fewer resources. I think the statistics today are something like 2/3 of employees are disengaged. Meaning they're really not giving the best to the organization. The thing to do is to really figure out individually what motivates each member of your team. So asking them various questions that will help draw them out, help you get a sense of what truly is going to engage them.

>> That sounds like it might be easier said than done. What are the questions I need to ask in order to truly understand what motivates a person, what will engage them?

>> Well it's as basic as, as having one on one with each person and saying, so tell me what truly motivates you? What do you wish you were doing more of? What do you really enjoy about your job? What are your professional values? Open ended questions like that. Be a coach. You'd be amazed at what an employee can come up with if they're given the opportunity to talk about what they love doing. So really focusing on that and starting a dialog is key to helping them feel more engaged.

>> So let's say I do that. I ask the questions, I get the answers. But what if my hands are tied and I can't immediately give them what they're seeking?

>> So it's about starting a dialog, you can still manage expectation. You can say, okay well that's great. I hear you. I'm not sure if we'll be able to focus on that now, but I've got my feelers out for you. I understand what you're saying and I'm gonna look for opportunities or projects that you may be able to work on. You don't have to give them an immediate solution, but it's about having the conversation and making them feel heard.

>> In summary?

>> In summary the best thing to do as a manager is to be a coach. Ask your employees open-ended questions. Sit down with each one of them individually. Understand them. That'll go a long way toward making them feel more engaged in their work.

==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====