Improving employee motivation is more than planning fun lunches (though those activities certainly have a place when it comes to team bonding). Start by looking at the core of your team and find out what motivates them.
Communicating directly with your team can not only help them reach their full potential for an unstoppable dental practice, but it will also help you when you put processes into place. Improving employee motivation begins with knowing how your team best receives affection and ends with smart goal setting.
Know Employees’ Love Languages
Love languages are for more than romantic relationships. Understanding your employees love languages can provide valuable insight into how they’re motivated, and how each prefers to be rewarded.
We’re focusing on the four love languages most applicable to a company:
- Words of affirmation
- Quality time
- Receiving gifts
- Acts of service
Employees who favor words of affirmation will respond best to compliments and verbal acknowledgments when they reach a milestone. While employees who favor quality time could be motivated by a group lunch.
Those who enjoy receiving gifts could be motivated by activities or physical items upon reaching a goal or finishing a large project for the practice. Those who enjoy acts of service could be motivated by opportunities for a paid volunteer day with a local organization, or by planning a low-income dental day for your community.
Discovering each other’s love languages can be a helpful part of a team meeting. Have your team take 15 minutes to complete the love language test online. Once you know each team members’ love language, you can better help your office grow.
Communication is Key
Communication is key when it comes to a successful dental practice. Instead of making e-mail your main form of communication with the team, schedule face-to-face meetings with them. Get to know your team, and what’s going on within the office.
By interacting with the team face-to-face, you are showing that you care about their well being, and appreciate their hard work. When an employee feels valued, they are more likely to be motivated to reach your goals.
Keep Goals Visible
Now that your team feels valued, it’s time to share your goals with them. Have these goals visible to the entire team; a goal isn’t a worthwhile goal if you don’t keep it front and center. It could be new patient growth, patient recall improvement, continuing education, charitable donations, or another practice-related goal.
Give updates on progress, hang charts in the break room, and offer the tools and resources your team needs to track and achieve them.
Once the team reaches your goal, don’t forget to celebrate! Ensure you follow through on the reward to keep your team motivated for the next goal.
Finding the best way to maximize employee motivation is the key to unstoppable practice growth. Get back to the basics of how your team members prefer to operate and customize goal setting and rewards for how they’re motivated. Care for your team, and they’ll help you reach your goals and serve your patients to the best of your abilities.
For a list of ways to grow your practice this summer, head here.