Motivating employees in startup - Part 1

Are you thinking about starting a startup business or already running a startup? Well, there are a few factors that you need to know about. First and foremost, you need to understand that a startup is different from a small business. A startup is a business that usually has a high growth potential. Unless your product or service has a huge target market / growth potential, you should not focus on startups. Its not a hype or a trend that goes, "let me quit my job and start my own startup".

Another thing that you need to know about is that for startups, you will need the investors to support financially. The thing is that most investors may not be open to making an investment especially if you don’t have a solid idea or revenue potential and a great team. The key requirement to execute tasks and planned items in a reasonable amount of time and achieve milestones and goals is to have a good team / people that are highly motivated. 

Some of  the factors that keep employees feel good and happy are: A good office space, food & transport facilities, trainings, money and more. However, with a huge crunch of financial support in a startup even a good coffee machine can become an investment to think about.

Take note that it is a new business and you will be using more of your profits on expenses than on the growth of the business. You need to therefore keep your employees motivated to achieve their goals. That is the only way that you can achieve success.

There are many different ways that you can use to be able to motivate your employees.

Clearly define your goals

One thing that you need to do clearly define your goals and objectives for the business. What is it that you want to achieve? Providing your employees with the roadmap for your business, it will be easy to achieve their work goals.

Create a good working atmosphere

Launching a startup is challenging. You don’t have to make it hard for your employees to deliver their work objectives. You need to ensure that the environment is pleasant for your employees to work in. Most companies nowadays have an open office setting. This can work great for your business if your employees feel like they can approach you if they have a problem or a concern about the progress of the business.

Communication is key

The success of any startup lies in the dedication of the management and the employees. If they feel connected to the business, they will want to work harder to see the business succeed. One way that you can ensure that you maintain that dedication is by promoting proper communication between you and your employees. You need to make it easy for them to approach you at any time with project ideas.

It is easy as a manager to get distracted by your own objectives. If you make important decision without consulting them, they may not care about the execution of the objectives. Take time to discuss with your employees about the success of the business and the failures that need to be improved. It will boost their morale if you create a listening environment.

Reward

You need to reward hard work. If one of your employees does something outstanding, you need to let them know that they have done great. It is great if you can generally appreciate them. But, it is great if you can pick a specific person and mention their accomplishments. You can post their contribution in the weekly bulletin. Most companies tend to have the best employee award that rewards employees for their hard work. You can borrow the idea and implement it in your startup.

Be flexible

Most of the employees find it hard to balance their work and life. As an employer, you need to create a flexible environment for your employees. Yes, you are trying to promote the startup and that may force you to put in extra hours. But, you need to provide an environment that the employees can still enjoy their lives.

Keep in mind that employees who have challenging times at home are not productive. So, if you want to have great results, you need to ensure that they balance their personal and work life.

Another way that you can boost their morale is by giving them a time off. You may not have the pleasure of taking or giving days off to your employees. But, you can have a system that allows them to leave the office early. Alternatively, you can ensure that you give time off to one employee at a time. This will help them to rest and be productive at work.

Be a part of the team

Nothing is a more powerful to the team's motivation than the owners and co-founders of the company being an integral part of the team. It makes a huge difference to be with them, be a part of them, be it working together late nights or going out for movies together or team activities and lunches and parties. A simple event like a birthday of an employee can be a great opportunity to spend time with employees for decoration, cakes, fun activities to improve bonding and also increasing motivation.

Hire a motivational speaker

At times the sales may drop which may cause the employees morale to decrease. It may seem like an expense for your business. But, getting a motivational speaker can help motivate and inspire your employees. There are specific speakers that focus on business and they will ignite the passion in your employees. This should however not be an everyday thing. You should only do it once in a while.

Have corporate dinners once in a while

Even though this may sound expensive, but it can be a rewarding effort for you and your employees. You can organize corporate dinners and invite your employees and their families. They will feel part of the business family. The bonding between employees and the founding team can really make a difference in employee motivation and can achieve results beyond expectations in times of need or important deliveries.

Give them more responsibilities

Yes, by giving your employees more responsibilities at work will make them feel important and great about their abilities. You need to be careful though because there employees that may not want to you to give them additional responsibilities. It is important for you to take time to know your employees capabilities so that you can give them the right form of responsibilities.

No blame game

When an employee does something wrong, you should not correct them in public. You should also not blame them because no one likes to be criticized. You should talk to them in private and find out why they didn’t perform the way they were supposed to. In fact, blaming the team or an individual on delays or project issues rather than focusing on taking a corrective approach, may be a recipe for disaster, especially in a startup. 

Running a startup is challenging yes, but if your employees are motivated, they will be able to deliver great results.



Other blogs by the author
55 54 53 52 51 50 49 48 47 46 45 44 43 42 41 40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01