How do big enterprises keep their employees motivated?

Ways used by business leaders to increase motivation in the work environment.

Well-motivated employees are the key to a growing business. Not only are they more effective, but they are also more likely to share innovative ideas that, over time, may greatly benefit the organization. Leaders of some of the largest and fastest growing companies in their respective sectors are fully aware of this. Facebook, Coca-Cola, and Google can all afford to offer a wide range of activities that help to keep employees engaged and happy at work.

Motivating employees is often understood as offering them any kind of incentive for a job well done. These are often financial bonuses or various additional benefits. Indeed, these kinds of rewards are needed, but they mainly affect employees who exhibit above-average commitment and performance, while they have little effect on employees who cannot motivate themselves to improve their performance. Richard Branson, the billionaire and owner of the Virgin brand, is well aware of this. He often emphasizes that, as a leader, it is crucial to spend time with employees and to show them that you care about them. And he does so, but in a very peculiar way.

Branson believes that a good leader can encourage communication and trust in his employees, so his company allows people to work when they feel like it, which builds trust between them and the organization. He also allows paid leave for an indefinite number of days. In such situations, the employee does not have to worry about losing his job due to an emergency that forced him to take a longer break from work. Interestingly, after implementing these changes, Branson’s company has seen an increase in productivity among its employees. Another good practice at Virgin is sharing the company’s successes with employees. When Virgin Atlantic Airlines won a defamation case, the resulting compensation of nearly $1 million was distributed among employees as a Christmas bonus.

Like Virgin, Google is also driven by the philosophy of creating the happiest and most productive workplace possible. One of the ingeniously simple processes they have implemented in their company is to hold a meeting every Friday where employees share any ideas that come to their minds. These meetings are about ideas for the company and are designed to build a bond of trust between the employer and the employees and to show them that they can have a real impact on the functioning of the organization. Employees who sense they can influence how their job is done tend to be more engaged and motivated.

In today’s business world, it is critical to have the ability to motivate your personnel. It is obvious that small and medium-sized companies may find it more difficult to implement the methods used by the world’s business leaders; however, in order to improve the overall level of satisfaction in the company, it is worthwhile to follow the lead of the prominent companies and appropriately convert these ideas into opportunities that we have.