Keeping Employees Motivated thru Learning

Keep Them Motivated

Building A Winning Business — Section: Managing

After a reasonable period of adjustment, don’t be afraid to push employees beyond their professional comfort zone. Motivated employees want to build their skills by working with high-profile companies on challenging assignments.

Build a specific learning goal into every employee’s performance plan at the beginning of each year. At Intertech, everyone has three to five goals that tie in with the company’s overall goal; one of those goals explicitly relates to learning.
At Intertech we also encourage less-experienced employees to sign up for special projects that can help them develop skills while creating something we can use internally. In addition to building their skill set, they earn a financial bonus for doing these projects. Most important, our employees become more skilled—but not at the expense of our clients.

Tom’s Takeaway: “Everyone needs to learn new skills to stay motivated. Find ways for all your team members to develop professionally and give them incentives, such as performance goals and even financial bonuses, to embrace these opportunities.”