Any manager will say that keeping their employees focused is a constant priority – and a constant challenge. One way that successful managers keep their workers motivated is by utilizing effective goal-setting techniques. When employees are working toward something specific, be it the end of a project or a promotion/raise, they tend to work harder than they do when their output is monotonous. Here are a few tips on how to make small changes to the office setting, and to managerial practices – changes that can keep your employees goal-oriented and focused on the future.
Have bi-monthly meetings
Many companies have meetings with individual employees and managers scheduled every six months. Some even wait to do them once per year, or less often. However, by having these meetings every other month, you can keep your employees from feeling complacent in their work. When you’ve been working at a company for years, it’s easy to settle into a groove and allow your motivation to falter. Yet, if managers use these meetings to stress the importance of current assignments, and how employees may benefit from their success, it may be enough to get the team working harder than ever before. By showing employees what they have to gain from working hard, you’ll influence them to set their own goals, and that will increase their efficiency and productivity on a day-to-day basis.
Keep them focused on their career path
The career track at your company is something you should be transparent about, if possible. By keeping employees informed about opportunities for advancement – like the higher-up job positions available at your firm, the salaries they offer and the responsibilities they confer – you’ll be able to illustrate to your team the benefits that are obtained by those who excel. This will help to show them that success for your business directly breeds success for them personally, and that will help to get them striving toward specific goals. By allowing them to do so, you’ll have your team working with zeal once again.
Reign in focus by eliminating unnecessary tasks
Another way to help your employees stay focused is to eliminate as many time-consuming, redundant and unnecessary tasks as possible. At insurance organizations, many employees often find themselves chasing down integral pieces of information for hours on end, for example. By finding offshore, consultative partners who could help workers streamline and delegate this type of work, managers would be giving their employees a way to better focus on the tasks that more directly require their industry expertise.
An unfocused employee is often a stressed employee, and a stressed employee can never produce at the same level as one who’s feeling confident and focused about their professional future. So whenever managers see an opportunity to give their employees a chance to focus harder on their goals, it becomes necessary to make the most of that chance.
