Employee motivation: Engaging current staff is better than employing high flyers

Date: 11/06/2012

A new investigation undertaken by Colin Coulson-Thomas has suggested that businesses should be engaging and helping the staff they already have ahead of trying to attract high fliers.

Putting incentives and recognition in place for employees as a way to motivate them and help them develop is far more beneficial.

The investigator from the University of Greenwich said that better corporate performance could be achieved by creating good all-rounders through training.

He said: "We need to shift the emphasis from recruiting and developing high fliers for an unknown future to helping people to excel at activities that are crucial today and to handle challenges as, when and wherever they arise."

Mr Coulson-Thomas also pointed out that top talent can be a costly acquisition for firms and comes with the added difficulty of retaining them.

He said: "It may be cheaper to work with the people one has and put the right support environment in place to enable them to succeed."

A person who is fully engaged and a highly motivated employee can be of more use to a company than a high flyer who specialises in one area.

There are plenty of ways to motivate employees and increase their productivity through flexibility and being creative.

Mr Coulson-Thomas said: "We also need an affordable approach which can achieve improved results by taking people as they are, rather than as we would like them to be."

Learning to work as a team is an important way of making the most of employees and playing to each person's strengths.

Team building events can help facilitate this process and break down barriers between colleagues and departments.

When they return to the office or place of work it is often found that this new way of working is transferred with them.

It helps staff to feel part of the bigger picture and that what they have to offer is valued and to be more engaged in their work.

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