In a previous article, we wrote about the mistakes you should definitely avoid when organizing a corporate partner meeting. If your external corporate communications are patent, you might think you can sit back and wait for the results. But will the results come as written in the play book? You could be wrong.
If you want to be really successful and not run out of business, you need to put at least as much effort into internal communication. For management communication to work, to reach down to the lower levels and to be two-way, you need to get your employees to live their daily lives in the company at a high level of motivation. In short: what you say only gets through to them if they want to hear it!
The watchword is MOTIVATION. A question that comes up from time to time in our meetings before employee events is what is the reason why a relatively high percentage of employees stay away from events within the company, be it a team-building event, a company family day, an employee end-of-year event or even a kick-off event. Almost without exception, company managers blame inadequate organization of employee events as the reason for absenteeism. This is because employees most often cite the following reasons for their absence: the invitation was not received in time, the venue was too far away, the last time the programme was boring, a family member fell ill and needed care. But is the explanation really that simple? Can it only be that whoever organized it failed to deliver a working event? Even if event organization failures can occur, we are sure the picture is much more subtle than that, and you need to dig deeper to uncover the real reasons. The real explanation may be more painful than you think, but you can only eliminate the problem by tackling what is causing it.
The lack of honest answers from your employees, whatever the internal company issue, is not their fault, it’s yours. You are responsible for the motivation system in your company, you have to develop it, operate it and renew it if necessary, and you have to do it on an individual basis, because what works for one person may not work for others.
Being an event agency and an event organizer, it is very unpleasant to experience at a team-building event that the employees of the company that is organizing the event come to us with complaints because they are not appreciated by the company, not only financially but also in human terms, not to mention the working conditions, and that they would have preferred to stay at home and come only because they don’t have to stay inside to work. But at least they dare to tell us their problems, because we listen to them. However well put together an employee team-building event is, can you expect an employee to give honest and positive feedback after the event under these circumstances? Alternatively, can those who do not attend the company event be blamed for being reluctant to attend in a highly under-motivated company environment?
So if you want your employees to be enthusiastic about employee events, you first need to create the right level of motivation within your company. On the other hand, as long as motivation is lacking, every penny you pay for an event will be burned and your employees will feel every employee event as just another compulsory and embarrassing occasion that they can’t wait to end. And you’ve spent millions to make them feel bad. We know this is true, we have worked in such an event agency ourselves.
Let’s briefly discuss below the basic motivational tools you can use to succeed in motivating your employees.
1. Pay your employees an honest wage
There’s a good reason why salary takes the top spot. It’s the foundation of everything, yet it’s where many managers already tend to fail. We often hear from managers who don’t like to pay that money doesn’t motivate employees. We don’t agree with this point of view that wage level doesn’t motivate, but we do agree that above a certain salary level, money loses its motivating power. Other motivational tools than money start to have an effect when employees are paid at least a competitive wage in the sector. So if you want your underpaid employees to be motivated, you must first of all give them a competitive wage. Until this is achieved, other motivational tools are useless..
2. Safe working environment
Invest in ensuring that your employees have a healthy working environment where they feel physically and mentally well. Ensure their long-term financial security by creating a predictable and transparent pay system, and provide them with safe and efficient working tools. Keep them informed about changes in the company, long-term plans and strategic decisions.
3. Relationship at the workplace
Help foster workplace relationships. Ensure an accepting work environment, make the employee feel that they belong to the company. Celebrate name days, birthdays, company anniversaries, company successes, team-building and other employee events together.
As a manager, hold one-to-one, informal meetings with your direct reports at least quarterly, where you listen and reassure them that they can count on your support to achieve their goals. Require quarterly conversations at all levels of the company, giving every employee in your company the opportunity to talk to their line managers. It’s important that commitments to each other are followed up at each subsequent meeting.
4. Awards
Recognise, praise and reward those with positive performance. If individual employees have performed outstandingly, highlight them. If someone is not to your satisfaction, never take them to task in the company of other colleagues. Make your employees feel how valuable they are to your company. When they have made a real difference, let those involved know how it has benefited the company and them.
5. Continuous training
Facilitate the transfer of information within the company, and pass on know-how to new employees so that they can do their job with the highest level of professional knowledge as soon as possible. The more knowledge and skills your employees have, the higher their self-esteem will be, so as a manager, hold regular training sessions, but also bring in external help if necessary. Not only will the competence within your company, in your employees, give you an edge over your competitors, but satisfying your employees’ desire for knowledge will also build loyalty.
6. Aesthetics at all levels
Every employee prefers to work in a nice, clean, well-maintained environment with modern, well-functioning, efficient tools. This is especially true if your company is a service provider, as your customers will be able to see the tools your employees use to get the job done. A customer who sees your company working with old, outdated, beat-up equipment in a run-down, dilapidated environment will find it hard to believe that you will be demanding the service you provide to them, and even put your employees to shame.
7. Custom career goals
At this level, the focus is on the individual, so it is essential that you know your employees. Ensuring that employees feel comfortable in the company environment is important, so that they feel they are developing and growing. To meet this need, and thus to motivate them, you can help them by delegating more serious, difficult tasks, not necessarily just organizing training courses related to the job, or even by promoting them.
Finally, here’s one piece of advice you should take. Before the next employee event, put together a team of 2-3 project managers from among your employees, based on a voluntary application, who will liaise with the chosen event agency. It’s important that you change their identities from event to event, always different, so that they all feel that it’s their turn. They are the ones who will represent the entire workforce and through them the needs of the employees will be passed on to the event management company. If you don’t think this is a good idea, remember that you are not organizing the event for yourself, but for them.
Why is this good for you? On the one hand, you will involve them, so they will feel that their opinion is important, their motivation will be strengthened. On the other hand, an event that they themselves were actively involved in organizing will certainly not be criticized afterwards. You just need to find a good event management company or agency.
Author: Krisztián
