OPINION: The importance of staff motivation

Firstly we have been very ineffective with our staff reviews, so I am experimenting with a different approach. Using businessballs.com I created a document that I hoped would be a way of generating discussion with staff members, so that we could then define business objectives and set out financial incentives for staff members.

The shock I received was on the final section of the questionnaire. On a scale of 1 to 10 staff members scored themselves very poorly across 18 skill categories including time management, delegation, IT, commercial judgement, creativity and steadiness under pressure.

While we can’t all score a 10 every time, my staff rated themselves poorly in areas where I know they perform strongly. This lead me to thinking either I never praise them enough, or they are lacking in self-confidence, which surprises me as they are highly capable.

Either way the exercise shows me I still have a long way to go in giving feedback to staff so they know they are doing a good job.  The target I’m taking for myself from the review is to ensure staff rate themselves more highly in future.