五大妙招保持員工激情

1、賦予員工發言權

????加利福尼亞酒店連鎖企業Joie de Vivre處于失敗邊緣的危急時刻，公司創始人奇普.康利舉辦了一系列反思活動，詢問公司上上下下包括經理人和酒店服務員在內的員工，他們將如何行動以扭轉公司頹勢。員工們感覺到自己對公司的參與度更高了，于是更加努力地拉生意?？道f：“越是賦予員工表達聲音的機會，他們就會越努力?！惫咀罱K度過了危機，年度銷售額也增長至2.5億美元。

2、清理打壓員工積極性的路障

????正如吉姆.科林斯所言，如果你的問題是：“我應該如何激勵員工？”那說明你已經走上了歧途。正確的問題應該是：“我應該如何停止那些會打消員工積極性的行為？”現在就可以問問員工，哪些愚蠢的流程和障礙正在拖累他們的工作效率，是冗長的會議、無休無盡的文書工作，抑或是能力欠缺的同事。然后為員工掃清障礙吧。我預測他們的生產力將會翻番。

3、培養更好的管理層

????員工走人并不是要炒公司的魷魚，而是要逃離糟糕的上司。最近一項調查顯示，相比漲薪而言，65%的工作者寧愿能有一位更好的老板。如果你的團隊業績不佳，一定要仔細觀察一下公司經理們是如何管理直接下屬的。他們是否懂得如何引導員工追求卓越，還是讓周圍的員工覺得自己愚不可及、備受冷落？如果是后者，要盡快讓這些經理參加管理層培訓。

4、緊張工作之余的度假

????Inspira行銷集團（Inspira Marketing Group）采用的方法是：如果公司達到了銷售目標，公司的27名員工就能夠享受一年一度的旅行，赴牙買加或者圣克羅伊島這樣的海島度假三天。結果是：這家位于康涅狄格州諾瓦克、剛剛成立四年的企業2012年的銷售額預計將達到350萬美元。一項外部調查結果顯示，這家公司89%的團隊成員每天上班都情緒高昂。公司副總裁金.羅頓表示，度假“是我們公司文化中很重要的組成部分”。

5、幫助員工實現夢想

????2008年末，約翰﹒拉特利夫發現，在自己創立的位于德拉華州威明頓市的呼叫中心蘋果樹答復服務公司（Appletree Answers），小時工年度流動率高達110%。于是他啟動了一項叫做“持續夢想”的舉措，旨在幫助每位員工實現一個愿望。這個舉措備受員工歡迎。讓他感到意外的是，員工們提出的要求都很適度，比如付房租押金等等，因此這個項目至今僅僅花費了大約25萬美元。與此同時，自發性質的流動率卻降低到了25%。

????——維爾納-哈尼什是高層管理者培訓企業Gazelles的首席執行官。

????譯者：李柰/汪皓

1. Give them a voice

????Joie de Vivre Hotels was on the verge of failing when founder Chip Conley held a series of retreats to ask employees, from managers to bellhops, how they would turn things around for the California chain. Feeling more invested afterward, workers went into overdrive to attract business. "The more you give people a voice, the more they step up," he says. The company survived -- and Conley grew it to $250 million in sales.

2. Clear the roadblocks

????As Jim Collins has pointed out, if you're asking, "How do I motivate employees?" you're going down the wrong path. The right question to ask is, "How do I stop demotivating them?" Ask staffers today what stupid processes and obstacles are slowing their work -- whether it's long meetings, endless paperwork, or incompetent colleagues -- and then free them from those hassles. My prediction: Their productivity will double.

3. Grow better bosses

????People don't quit companies; they escape lousy managers. One recent survey showed that 65% of workers would prefer a new boss over a raise. If your team is underperforming, take a close look at how your lieutenants manage their direct reports. Do they know how to coach your employees so that they can excel -- or make the people around them feel alienated and stupid? If it's the latter, get them into management training ASAP.

4. Take a break from austerity

????Inspira Marketing Group invests in taking its 27 employees on an annual three-day trip to an island like Jamaica or St. Croix if the company hits its sales goals. Result: The four-year-old firm, based in Norwalk, Conn., expects $3.5 million in sales for 2012 -- and an outside survey found that 89% of its team is excited to come to work each day. The trip, says VP Kim Lawton, "is a huge part of our culture."

5. Make their dreams real

????In late 2008, John Ratliff faced 110% annual turnover among hourly workers at his Wilmington, Del., call-center firm, Appletree Answers. Then he started a wildly popular initiative called Dream On, where the company fulfills one wish for each employee. To his surprise workers tend to request modest items, like the deposit for an apartment, so the program has cost only about $250,000 so far. Meanwhile, voluntary turnover has fallen to 25%.

????--Verne Harnish is the CEO of Gazelles Inc., an executive education firm.