Free Employee
Motivation Techniques

Lack of clear-cut job descriptions is a major source of de-motivation.

Photo courtesy of Mike Licht

2) GOALS

Another free employee motivation technique that should be mandatory in any work setting is this one:

Individual goals are NOT goals if they are not SMART, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time bound. Each one of the goals you give to each one of your employees must have these five characteristics:

Grab all the goals that each one of your employees currently have, filter each one of them through these SMART criteria, and see if they pass the test. If they do not, correct them until they do.

Unclear goals is a primary cause of de-motivation and low performance.

3) SHARE INFORMATION

This is another free employee motivation technique that is a must. Make sure your employees have both the big picture and performance transparency.

Understanding the big picture means two things: clarity about your organization’s vision and strategy, and clarity about what matters most and why – today, next month, next quarter.

Employees must know that their work does indeed matter – they must understand how their individual contribution impacts the end user, the bottom line, and the vision of the company.

Performance transparency means knowledge about current performance: how to measure it (individual, Departmental, and organizational performance) and how to have an impact on it.

With your supervision, let employees decide how to reach their own goals and let them do the tracking themselves – your direct reports must always know which indicators need to be closely watched, by which people, and which actions need to be taken to improve them.

You build up a greater sense of personal accountability if you help them gauge their own progress and input.

Give your people a complete image of the context in which they work, where they fit in, and what it is they can do to make a difference – and you will have a much more motivated workforce.

It doesn’t matter how menial the work in question might be – this motivational rule applies to every human being.

4) POSITIVE FEEDBACK

Feedback has several uses, one of which is to motivate your people. For feedback to motivate your employees, it must be positive (recognition, appreciation, admiration – let your employees know how their work makes a difference).

Positive feedback is perhaps one of the free employee motivation techniques most underutilized.

Your Positive Feedback must possess these six characteristics:

Make your employees feel respected and important – sincerely. People must feel appreciated genuinely by someone in a position of authority.

Notes:

About Constructive Feedback:

Truly honest recognition is one of the most powerful sources of human motivation – yet it is one of the must underused and misused.

5) YOUR INTEGRITY

Another free employee motivation technique we consider vital to motivation is your integrity as a direct supervisor – whether you are a new manager, a seasoned executive, or the CEO.

All the people that report directly to you must perceive a 100 per cent alignment between your words and your deeds. Period. There is no way around it.

You are their role model – they are always watching for your guidance.

Lack of integrity has several major negative consequences, one of which is cynicism, and as a consequence, de-motivation – you don’t want that.

Integrity is a key building block in the creation of trust, and without trust, it is impossible to have candor – without frankness, it is impossible to build a high performing team.

In other words, without integrity there is no way you are going to have a team of direct reports who behave as high performers.

There is a direct relationship between your integrity as the boss, and your direct reports’ motivation.

6) YOUR ORGANIZATION'S VALUES

A fundamental free employee motivation technique is the adequate use of your company’s values.

Your company’s values provide the framework within which your employees must perform – values are guidelines that let employees know what’s important and what behaviors are most valuable.

You must role model your organization’s values – you must always breathe them, behave according to them, and you must constantly live by them.

And of course, you must enforce them through on-going feedback and formal evaluations (e.g., performance appraisals).

Having a clear playing field within which to perform is a major source of motivation.

7) YOUR ORGANIZATION'S MISSION

And last but not least, the Mission of your organization.

This is another free employee motivation technique that most companies don’t use to its full potential.

Your job is to make your company’s Mission come alive – you must be able to translate your company’s Mission into a noble purpose in the eyes of your employees.

You have to be able to get to the point where your employees visualize your company’s Mission as a dignified purpose that rises above any short-term financial profits – making just a profit in the stockholders’ interest does not motivate any workforce.

When you are able to translate your company’s Mission into passion – when employees stand for their organization’s purpose and when they do believe in what they do – you ignite conviction, commitment, and of course motivation.

Here you have seven free employee motivation techniques that will motivate the people who report directly to you beyond your expectations.

If you would like to see a great example of what it takes to build motivation at the entire organizational level, click here to read our Southwest Airlines Employee Motivation article.

CONCLUSIONS

First: Performance transparency and recognition go hand in hand – you must not do one without the other.

Second: Free employee motivation techniques are more significant than monetary rewards in creating motivation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

There are many books about free employee motivation techniques. Due to their clarity, simplicity, and effectiveness, I particularly like:

If you would like to learn more about my free employee motivation techniques through my speaking and/or consulting services, please click on this link.