5 free ways to motivate employees

The employee wants to be understood and advanced in the area where he can realize himself. It is important to remember that your vision of the vector of development may differ from the interests of the employee and the concept of implementation is different for everyone. But the general rule applies to everyone.
Any employee wants to be assured that if they have to leave their comfort zone, it will result in understandable and measurable benefits. Otherwise, this is not motivation for him, but stress and chaos.

For top management, a perfectly working type of motivation is getting a deferred option. This gives the manager the right to buy a stake in the company at a predetermined price. Usually, an option has an exercise (closing) period, but in order for this type of staff stimulation to work and the owner can keep everything under control, options with a delayed opening date are practiced. For example, an option is granted to an employee upon hiring or after a probationary period, and it must be exercised no later than five years, but no earlier than three years.

Also, a common mechanism for using an option as a motivation is vesting, which allows employees to earn their share for a certain period, usually 4 years. If an employee leaves the company during the first year, he does not receive anything, and in the next three years - only a percentage of his share.

Important: this type of motivation is not suitable for everyone, it is difficult to implement and you need to think through all the risks in advance. But if everything is settled, then you can hire super-professionals under this type of stimulation, whom you would never have been able to buy for a salary.

Now let's take a closer look at the possible types of motivation without a budget.

1. Give the opportunity to make decisions and influence the result

This point can be called differently: give your employees more freedom within the framework of their work function. Nobody likes to do "monkey work", everyone would like to see meaning in their actions. Let your employees be useful, encourage initiative. Let's lead the design work. When people understand the value of their work, then additional types of motivation, such as free cookies, can be omitted.

2. Express appreciation from management

Host breakfast / lunch / dinner with management or other interesting people you can attract. You can do without treats at all, the main thing is to show that you are sincerely interested in the success of your employee, you are ready to listen to his wishes, suggestions and even doubts.

At the same time, when introducing this type of motivation, it is important not to make it tied to the calendar (weekly, monthly), but to emphasize sincerity and invite to joint leisure the very employees who really benefited the company.

3. Offer partial deletion

A day or two of working from home motivates metropolitan residents very well. A couple of hours that you can spend not in traffic jams, but at home is a great incentive. This type of motivation also works great with young parents. It is only important to stipulate that even at home, an employee must work in the allotted time, and not watch TV series.

4. Consider a learning opportunity

You can arrange barter or deferred payments with your training provider. Or even cheaper: create a mentoring system within the company. It can be implemented not only within the framework of official duties, but also in the transfer of knowledge about hobbies or other interesting aspects of life. It is important that your subordinates feel that you are ready to invest in their development, which means that they are valuable to you.

5. Practice appropriate attitude towards employees

This is usually referred to as types of non-material motivation, but we believe that this is the norm of a healthy corporate culture. So, they work well in companies that:

Effort, much less merit, is rewarding. Praise is pleasant to everyone, so try to celebrate people for achievements or just good work. By the way, it is possible to do this in front of colleagues, and sometimes it is even necessary.
Do not devalue labor. Praising is not as easy as it might seem. Recognize exactly those actions that the employee has made significant efforts to achieve. It will then seem to him that you understand how much effort and effort it took for him to achieve the result.
Do not criticize misconduct and mistakes in front of other colleagues. Nobody likes to be poked at mistakes. Make it a rule: praise is in front of everyone, criticism is one-on-one. At the same time, try to criticize not head-on, suggest thinking, but how you could have done differently in order to achieve a different result.
Share with people the joys and pains of the company. If things are going well, this is a reason to throw a party, if not really, then it is not shameful to explain everything to the team, and sometimes ask colleagues for advice.
They talk about plans and goals. Only an employee who clearly understands what goals the company has and where they can lead specifically to him can be truly motivated and involved.

Honda founder Soichiro Honda said: "People work harder and more innovative if they are not forced." Therefore, when thinking over the motivation system, take into account the characteristics of those employees from whom you want to achieve the greatest results. It is important to strike a balance and not turn your company into a branch of the pioneer camp. Motivation shouldn't be forced either.