Visualizing Employee Motivation

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Sometimes, it's easiest to learn a concept through visualization. Take employee motivation for example. There isn't a solid, clear-cut definition of it out there. Often times, it involves trial-and-error practices and personalization in order to be successful. But, to aid in our understanding, IncBlot has created the following infographic. It explains the theory and ideas behind motivation, the motivation equation in the workforce, action steps, questions to consider and useful statistics.

Some notable takeaways:

  • 30% of executives say that motivating their employees is their toughest job
  • "People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily." - Zig Zigler
  • Action Step: Ask a team member what non-monetary rewards they might find motivational.
  • The average American employee wastes 2 hours and 5 minutes of an 8 hour day

As an employer, how do you motivate your employees? As an employee, what motivates you to work? Leave a comment and let us know!

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Anatomy of the Perfect Corporate Gift

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When looking for a way to reward your employees or customers, it's easy to turn to the age-old, traditional gift ideas like pens, t-shirts, stress balls and thumb drives. But, are these effective alone? The minds behind Flowtown thought not. They had the brilliant idea of putting all traditional gift ideas together to form one perfect super-gift.

While I can't say with certainty, I'm fairly sure this is a parody. Given the humorous descriptions of each item, I sense that this super-gift isn't going to be at the top of any employee or customer's wish list. But still, it's worthy of a laugh. Can you think of any other traditional items that may be missing from this? Or, did they capture all of them?

Instead of combining all of the traditional corporate gifts together to create one perfect gift, perhaps the best solution is to let your employees and customers select their own gifts. We specialize in points-based reward systems. We understand all of the important elements to a successful reward program and have all of the resources available to support your needs.

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Gamification: Turning Work Into Play

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Gamification in the workplace is still in the early adoption phase, but we've talked about it before on our blog. As gamificiation in the consumer field is taking off, more people are talking about how it can be incorporated in the workplace.

According to research, only 10% of employees report an understanding of their company's mission statement. Couple that with the increase in the amount of time and money people spend playing online games, and one can begin to question whether or not leaders can apply gaming techniques in the workplace to create more engaged employees.

This chart, which was created by Socialcast and featured on their blog, tries to compare the relationship between disengaged employees and the increase of online games. With the explosive success of the billion dollar online gaming industry, it's no wonder why employers would be interested in incorporating gaming techniques at work.

 

 

One particular takeaway from this chart is the comparison and similarities between the gaming world and the job world. From aiming to higher levels to receiving rewards, the two have similar underlying mechanics.

Do you think gamification in the workplace is a feasible idea? In what ways do you think employers could utilize it? Or, as Socialcast put it, is there something to be learned from this phenomenon that leaders can apply to their organizations to create more engaged employees? Sound off in the comments section. We'd love to hear your opinions.

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Fastest Ways to Lose Customers

It's common knowledge that in order to remain profitable and popular, companies need to put their customers first. The same concept can (and should) be applied toward employees. Companies need to treat their employees as if they're customers. Loyal employees are just as important to the future of the business as loyal customers are.

I found this infographic on Get Satisfaction's blog. In business to build customer communities for companies, they happen to know a thing or two about customer loyalty. Looking at this infographic, a lot of the information can be related to employees. For example, the number one reason why customers leave a company is due to the treatment they received. I believe the same can be said for why employees leave a company.

What do you all think? Should companies treat their employees like customers? What other ways can companies lose employees?

 

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