Moving from Boston to New York can be a stressful process, especially if you plan on doing it yourself. Usually, the best idea is to just hire a moving company and avoid a lot of stress associated with it. However, if you plan on doing it alone, with some hired help, there are things you can do to keep employees motivated during relocation. You might think that since you are already paying them that you should not do anything else. While that is generally true, with some good management everyone can end up happy. We are going to provide you with some advice on how to accomplish that.
Keep Employees Motivated During Relocation – The Basics
The first thing that you need to remember is that employees are people. They all have their needs, wants, and quirks. In order for the whole process to go smoothly, you should pay attention to these things. However, the first thing to do is make a good first impression. When your employees arrive at your home, make them feel welcome. Smile and shake their hands, maybe crack a joke or two. This will help establish a friendly working atmosphere. Make sure to explain to them, in clear terms, what do you expect from them. Most problems occur when there is ambiguity in the work description. Furthermore, point out some difficult tasks that they may need to do. Start them off with something easy, however.
Always offer a refreshing beverage to your workers. One of the critical things to keep your employees motivated during relocation is that they are well hydrated and well fed. Make sure to prepare some snacks, as well. You may need to offer them food and drink several times, as some will not accept it due to shyness. You want your workers to be in optimal working condition at all times. Let them rest a bit after a particularly difficult task and, if you can, entertain them a bit during the rest. If you are a friendly person, they will like you more and be willing to put in some extra effort.
Effective Ways to Motivate Your Employees
When it comes to motivating others, there are many ways to do so. We will provide you with some of the most effective ones in an easy to digest list:
- Recognize a well-done job
- Give them some autonomy
- Figure out what makes them “tick”
Recognize a well-done job
As we’ve said before, you might consider commercial movers Boston to be doing a job and that’s it. However, if you go an extra mile to make sure that they know that the job is being done well, and show your appreciation, your workers will definitely be happy. You see, it is in human nature to like compliments, that is why they are so effective. When you get a compliment, you feel a sense of pride and achievement, no matter how small the compliment might be.
That is not to say that you should be complimenting them on every small thing, though. Over usage of compliments can actually have a negative effect. In order to keep employees motivated during relocation, you need to strike a balance of compliments. That will ensure that they hear your words as truth, instead of lies to make them feel better.
Give them some autonomy
While giving autonomy to employees might seem like a really scary thing to do, it is actually quite good in motivating them. Of course, you do not need to let them make all of the decisions. Just give them some room to use their heads instead of telling them how to do their job, all of the time. Now, this is unfortunately not applicable to every single person. Some will work better if you tell them what to do, all of the time. It is just how humans are, we are all different. One person may be in its prime when it is deciding for herself and another might need someone to show her the way.
What you need to do is assess your workers and see what kind of approach is for the best. Even so, some degree of autonomy is always good. You do not really want drones that you need to spoon feed information in order to do simple tasks.
The best thing to do is to consider everyone capable. Let them have some autonomy, ideally in some non-critical task, to gauge how they are doing.
Figure out what makes them “tick”
This part is kind of difficult for some and easy for others. You see, not all of us possess an equal degree of empathy. Some people are capable of evaluating people in the first minute of the conversation. Some can spend a lifetime around a person and not know her. It is just the way it is. If you want to keep employees motivated during relocation, you will need to acquire at least a little bit of skill in this.
However, what you can do, even without any empathy or knowledge, is just to talk to your employees. If you really want to keep employees motivated during relocation, you need to put in some effort. Talk with them a bit, ask them questions about themselves. Try to look genuinely interested, if that is possible. Some questions that are good to ask are:
- What makes you get out of bed in the morning?
- What is the most important lesson your parents taught you?
- Who was the hero you admired the most as a child?
And so on. The thing is, answers to your questions will show you the type of person you are dealing with. It will also promote communication and ease in the tension in the workplace.
While motivating others is a skill that needs to be cultivated, even trying and following these steps will make a big impact. If you do everything that we presented here, you are sure to keep employees motivated during relocation.
