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Motivating the Masses Eight simple tips to keep your employees working hard and feeling good about their jobs. Your company is only as strong as the sum of its parts. You’ve no doubt heard that phrase countless times. As overworked as it is, however, it’s also undeniably true. Whether you’re running a 10-person service company or a 500-person manufacturing operation, a team of highly motivated, hard-working employees is essential to your organization’s success. If your people aren’t adequately motivated, productivity will plummet. Unfortunately, there’s no simple solution to this problem—no one way to motivate multiple people. That’s because motivation is internal, not external. Though the proverbial dangling carrot can motivate people for brief bursts, long-term motivation must come from within. More specifically, motivation comes from inspiration, which means that as a business owner or manager, you have tremendous power to influence the extent to which your employees are motivated to do their best work, day in and day out. Here are nine helpful tips to help inspire your employees to perform with passion and pride. 1. Promote a positive environment. Seems obvious, but how many of you oversee working environments in which even a few employees don’t feel welcome or valued? Sure, every business has its own culture. But ask yourself: Does your company’s culture reflect your personal values or business ideals, or has it slowly evolved into something other than what you intended it to be? If your operation falls into the latter scenario, you’re assuming far too much risk. So evaluate the impact of your every move on office morale. Do your best to create a user-friendly physical environment and maintain a true open-door policy that enables all employees to freely interact with you and one another. 2. Share your plans. People do their best work when they understand not only what’s expected of them specifically, but also how their respective roles fit into the larger plan. There’s no better way to promote “another cog in the machine” mentality among your workforce than to keep your employees in the dark about where the company’s headed. If you’re hiring top-caliber employees, they don’t want just a job, they want to contribute to something special. 3. Provide professional development. Most employees are looking to develop new skills and acquire new challenges and responsibilities. Encourage those aspirations. Get to know their personal and professional goals and identify ways to provide them with the training or educational opportunities they need for advancement. Encourage them to attend industry-related workshops and seminars. Consider sending them to classes on the company’s dime. If employees feel that you’re investing in them, they’ll likely provide you with a handsome return on your investment, says Ann Bares, managing partner of Altura Consulting Group LLC, in Medina. “It’s proven to be a successful strategy,” she says. “The more marketable you make your employees, and the more you invest in keeping their skills up to date, the more likely they are to see you as a worthwhile employer and stay with you.” 4. Offer off-the-beaten-path benefits. We’re not talking bonuses here, though a well-designed bonus program can enhance employee performance. Rather, think more creatively. Consider negotiating discounts for your employees at a local fitness club or the coffeehouse down the block. Incentives and small rewards such as gift certificates, extended lunch hours, or other tokens of appreciation often work as motivational tools. Many companies offer free or discounted parking and pitch in for transportation costs. These days, on-site daycare and daycare support also are being adopted more frequently. Bares says that, as Baby Boomers continue to near retirement age, financial planning assistance can be a tremendous employee benefit. “It can be for something as rudimentary as how to balance a check book all the way up to how to plan for retirement and other long-term, strategic things,” she notes, adding that non-traditional benefits can be particularly effective for companies struggling to offer competitively priced healthcare packages. “This is an area in which employers can be more creative. Sometimes you can do less expensive but more meaningful things that fit your business and your demographics.” 5. Pile on the praise. Never underestimate the importance of a simple “thank you” or “job well done.” Make the necessary time to personally recognize the contributions and accomplishments of each employee and you’ll keep morale at lofty levels. Remember, if employees don’t feel appreciated, they’ll start working only for the paycheck. The second another company tries to entice them with heftier sums of money, they’ll have no reason to say, “no thanks.” 6. Arrive early. Lead by example and get to work before or alongside your employees. Who respects a leader who considers himself or herself above the rules? 7. Push positive energy. You have the power to make or break a day with the vibes you convey to your people. Even if your morning commute was a disaster, you’re well advised to enter the building with your head up high and a smile on your face. Chances are, you’ll have a more productive day. 8. Be creative about holiday rewards. With Christmas around the corner, this is a hot topic. Some business leaders consider the “holiday bonus” to be potentially poisonous to employee morale. Here’s why: Though employees will appreciatively accept the first one, they’ll eventually think of it as an entitlement. Then comes a bad year with no bonuses, and your employees are likely to resent you for “withholding” their holiday pay. With that in mind, consider offering alternative holiday rewards that help keep your employees happy and motivated. Offer flexible hours so employees can manage busy holiday schedules. Encourage employees to take a day off to do charitable work. Make charitable donations in your employees’ names. And if you’re determined to give gifts, make sure they’re from the heart and reflect the extent to which you value your employees as individuals. Resources
News, notes, and information from all over. What are the hot IT trends for 2006? Stamford, Conn.-based IT research firm Gartner Inc. recently unveiled six IT trends it says that will make an impact in 2006 and beyond. They are:
You can check out the full report at www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?ref=g_search&id=487286. One of Minnesota’s oldest companies, Bemis Co. Inc., a manufacturer of flexible packaging and pressure-sensitive materials for the food and consumer products industries, is moving its headquarters from Minneapolis to Neenah, Wis. The company, which was founded 1858, said that the move will only affect several top executives, and that the former Minneapolis headquarters will continue to house its finance, accounting, tax and IT departments. Ten Minnesota-based companies made the Deloitte & Touche 2005 Technology Fast 500, which ranks the fastest-growing technology companies in North America based on percentage revenue growth between 2000 and 2004. The companies are: #17 Multiband Corp., New Hope Thanks to a new state grant, hundreds of Boston Scientific employees in Maple Grove are getting an education in automated manufacturing processes. The Minnesota Job Skills Partnership has awarded Anoka-Ramsey Community College a $399,982 grant to provide advanced automation-related training for more than 400 of Boston Scientific’s production, maintenance, professional, engineering, managerial, and sales staff. Boston Scientific will contribute more than $554,000 to fund the three-year project. Minnesota entrepreneur Todd Holcomb is launching a new company, OneVoice, to provide wireless services to businesses, schools, and end-users in Jamaica. OneVoice plans on leveraging ARCOS (Americas Region Caribbean Ring System), which is an 8,600 KM submarine broadband fiber optic cable system that connects the Americas and the Caribbean region. Minneapolis-based MR Instruments Inc. has received CE Mark certification for its Cheetah Coils brand of magnetic resonance imaging coils. The CE Mark certification stands for “ Conformite Européenne;” and notes that a product conforms to the essential health, safety, and product liability standards of the European Union. The U.S. Senate recently approved $71.1 million for Minnesota defense-related projects and programs as part of the $440 billion FY 2006 defense spending bill. The Senate approved funds for the following Minnesota projects:
The City of Rochester, Minnesota has awarded Accela Automation of Dublin, Calif., a 10-year contract for a new enterprise e-government solution . The application will provide a centralized database for tracking and managing the city’s building, planning, and licensing activities. City staffers will use the new application to automate permitting, inspections, workflow, rental housing licenses, zoning, development plan review, and other functions. The City also will implement an Accela wireless program that will allow inspectors to remotely input their results from inspection sites using a mobile device. St. Paul-based medical device firm Minnetronix is in the midst of an expansion project. The company will add more than 24,000 square feet of space to its St. Paul facility. Construction will begin in December and should be done by July. Looking to get in on tech transfer action? Minnesota companies will have an opportunity to see what’s available as well as meet the people who award contracts and fund projects when the Federal Laboratory Consortium’s National Meeting comes to the Minneapolis Marriott May 1-4, 2006. For more information, go to www.federallabs.org. Several Minnesota companies are continuing to invest in renewable energy projects:
The Minnesota Council For Quality has awarded Anoka-based punch press tooling manufacturer Mate Precision Tooling with its 2005 Minnesota Quality Award. Mate designs, manufacturers and markets multiple lines of tooling products for CNC punch presses, and has facilities in Sweden, Germany, Malaysia, and China. Since 1991, only 70 organizations have received Minnesota Quality Award recognition. New Hope-based Viper Motorcycle Co. is shifting gears, and will manufacture and assemble its motorcycles and motorcycle engines at its Minnesota headquarters. The company had previously announced an agreement to outsource production with Performance Assembly Solutions in Livonia, Mich. Production is expected to start during the second quarter of 2006. Minnesota Technology magazine, which is also published by Minnesota Technology, Inc., won four awards at the 2005 Minnesota Magazine and Publications Association’s Editorial Excellence Awards. The magazine won in the following categories:
In other MTI-related news, the organization recently announced that its federal contract with NIST/MEP has been renewed for FY ‘06. t. Paul-based St. Jude Medical Inc. has been named a Medical Device Manufacturer of the Year by Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry magazine. The magazine noted that St. Jude “embodies multiple strengths: good product development, support for innovation, straightforward sales and marketing tactics, and solid relationships with suppliers. At its core, though, St. Jude Medical’s strength seems to come from a desire to both help and protect patients.”
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