The Secret To Keeping Your Employees Happy

This is an interesting consideration and it can often be a little too tempting to blame individuals. It's often relevant, however, to take a look at your own approach. If you are surrounded by unhappy team members, then it's likely that your own actions are having an impact.

This doesn't mean that you are intentionally seeking to cause problems, or that you are even aware of such concerns. Don't fool yourself, however, by thinking that you can't be the cause of a problem, if you are only having issues with a few individuals. If you take responsibility for really driving the business, then you also need to spend time thinking about improvements that can be made.

You have that responsibility to lead by example, but you also need to consider the individual requirements of others. This may mean, on the odd occasion, showing a little bit of extra flexibility. It would be wrong to imagine that all people act the same way in particular circumstances. By the same token, you need to realise that we are each motivated in quite specific ways.

This may come as something of a shock, particularly if you are used to thinking that most people react to financial inducements. You may always have relied on the fact that offering a bonus payment here and there is the best way to get better results. In fact, plenty of studies have been conducted that show that such simple tools may not always be particularly effective.

People choose to work within a particular environment for a range of reasons. In some cases, it may well be that they stick with a job because they understand that they are earning plenty of money and that they may find it difficult to do the same elsewhere. But you should not ignore the range of other factors that are involved.

For some, the choice of a workplace may reflect the specific location, enabling them to get to work with a nice, easy commute. There may be an awareness that it would make more sense, financially, to be employed elsewhere. But the short commute means that they are able to spend more time at home, enjoying seeing family members.

These are the factors that you need to consider and to understand. If you want to keep things on track, then it's absolutely vital that you should be able to identify the motivational factors that drive individuals. Once you have done this, you are in a much better position to understand the changes that you need to make, in order to keep employees happy and to maintain productivity levels.