10 Steps to Better Management

Need help motivating staff or keeping your workforce on track? Our 10 steps to better management provide helpful strategies and benefits that keep employees on your side.

1. As the old saying goes: familiarity breeds contempt. Rotate staff duties so workers aren't stuck doing the same tasks, day in day out.
2. Communicate with employees to learn their long-term career or personal goals, find out how you can help them achieve their objectives.
3. Allow staff to make suggestions on improving the agency. Provide awards or incentives for the best suggestion of the month or week.
4. Hold weekly or monthly staff parties, just because.
5. Limit the number of staff hours spent doing stressful tasks. Make sure that other, less-taxing jobs, such as filing, photocopying, or answering phones, are available if staffers need a break.
6. Provide incentives for hard workers. Reward strong staff with movie passes or gift vouchers.
7. We all have tough days. Gently send an employee home early if he/she is having a rough time.
8. It's well known that employees occasionally use sick days as mental health days. Make lying unnecessary by adding 'well' days to staff benefits.
9. Hold informal meetings with employees to discuss their job concerns and professional goals.
10. Give employees, and yourself, permission to daydream occasionally. A few minutes of peaceful relaxation can clear the mind and help remove the stress from difficult days.