INSIGHTs & INTUITION

What is something your company does that helps motivate employees to do their best work?

Joni Smith Human Resource Manager Moore Engineering, Inc. West Fargo, N.D.

Being employee-owned, being transparent, recognizing our employees, providing work-life balance, and listening to our employees — this is what we do to help motivate our employees to do their best work.

We are an employee-owned company. The ownership culture helps instill the importance of doing the best job you can because you know you are making a difference and you are directly impacting the bottom line. Our company is also as transparent as we can be regarding the financial performance of the company and what are our strategic goals. This not only helps motivate our team members but it also builds trust and increases morale. Recognizing our employees who go above and beyond in their job performance and with our clients is important. We give “kudos” to these employees at our quarterly company meetings.

In addition, we recognize the importance of work/life balance and have policies to promote this balance including flexible working hours and working remote. And finally, although employee engagement surveys are a new tool for our company, we use them to listen to what our employees would like to see improved, which increases motivation to do their best work.

Liberty Business Systems believes in nurturing our team members as a whole human being. Work-life balance is an outdated methodology. We believe in a blend. Specific items include Daily Goal Writing, Communication Training, Paid Volunteer Time and flexibility to live life on your terms, as long as we are being successful. We also have Minions all over our office to remind us to be HAPPY, which is a core value!

Shawn Peterson Chief Executive Officer Liberty Business Systems, Inc. Fargo, N.D.

One of the many ways NewKota motivates team members to do their best, is what we call our Safety First, Service Always incentives. The first of these two incentive-based programs are the monthly SFSA awards. NewKota has allocated $12,000 a year to each branch, to be given as cash rewards. Each month management picks a topic of focus such as dedication to safety, inventory management, onsite paperwork completion and organization, etc. An individual or whole crew who demonstrates excellence in that month’s topic, receives the cash award.

The second of these two incentive programs is the SFSA catalog, which is an incentive program that rewards employees for their daily dedication to safety. For each day worked on location with no incidents, accidents, or equipment damage they earn 1 point. Points accumulate until they have enough to purchase what they desire out of our NewKota approved catalog. Points get reset to zero if an incident occurs.

With these quality and safety-based incentive programs, our team members have shown great motivation to perform each task right the first time, every time.

Quinlan Axtman US Safety Manager NewKota Minot, N.D.

Concordia College faculty and staff are exemplary in their dedication and work ethic. We believe there are two major motivators that keep our employees at their best: mission and students. Concordia has a guiding mission and an aligned strategic plan that set the tone. Seeing this road map of where an organization intends to place time, resources, and effort is important in all industries; however, in higher education, it is a must to bring all areas of the college together.

In addition, nothing unites us like our students. Every college employee knows our mission is driven by preparing, mentoring, and sending out educated students who are ready to learn, work, and lead for the betterment of all. Keeping students at the center of all we do brings about this shared sense of purpose for every employee. Concordia employees know our true north is mission and people – and that is when our best work shines.