Lead and motivate your staff

What motivates employees

The way your employees feel about their job and their workplace determines how motivated they are. There is a clear link between job satisfaction and productivity.

Job satisfaction depends partly on tangible rewards - for example, how much a person is paid and what benefits they receive. See our guides on how to set the right pay rates and implement staff incentive schemes.

However, job satisfaction also depends on the culture of an organisation. This means the things that make your business distinctive and make the people who work there proud to do so.

You can motivate people with:

• varied and interesting work - perhaps giving the opportunity to travel
• high-quality training and development - eg encouragement to study for professional qualifications
• an 'open door' culture in which managers are approachable
• authentic management and leadership whose behaviour is consistent and genuine
• respect for a good work-life balance - eg offering the opportunity for flexible working
• fairness at work, including promoting equality and diversity
• proactive and regular communication
• regular appraisal and positive feedback - restating business objectives and recognising your staff's contribution
• requests for feedback, either in person or via staff surveys, on how employees feel about their roles, the support they get, and improvements to the business
• the chance to socialise with colleagues at organised events
• recognition and reward for ideas or competitive intelligence

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• The importance of leading and motivating
• Giving direction to staff
• What motivates employees
• Using leadership to create a motivated workforce
• Team building
• Leading your staff through change
• Here's how leading and motivating staff has helped my business to grow

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