Here are some great insights I got from a recent podcast by Jill Geisler of the Poynter Institute on motivating employees. 

One, while the lack of adequate pay is a de-motivator, once an employee hits their personal level of ‘felt need’ for compensation, higher salary is not a motivator for most people.

Bonuses are a little different because they identify and target specific objectives.  We’ll talk about that in another blog.

Intrinsic Versus Extrinsic Motivation

At the point your staff member becomes satisfied with his or her compensation package, intrinsic motivation becomes more important than external motivation such as money.

Three components of intrinsic motivation are:

Competence -- Is the employee doing a set of tasks they are good at? People enjoy doing work they have a talent or skill for. On the other hand, your staff will get frustrated with jobs they haven’t mastered.

Autonomy -- This is a biggie! Employees want to know that you trust them enough to be totally responsible for a certain job such as, placing all the contact lens orders at the end of the day.

Some level of continued oversight is important, even after they have proved themselves. But, the more independently you allow your staff to operate, the more they’ll like it. And, the better job they will do.

Meaningful work -- This is the key for developing outstanding staff members and creating great teams. Your job as the boss is to help each employee connect with that sense of service to your patients. 

If a staff member doesn’t find meaning in the work they do in your practice, they will never be a great employee, no matter how smart or talented they are.

You can listen to other podcasts from the Poynter Institute on What Great Bosses Know at http://poynter.podomatic.com.