Motivated employees are much more willing to go the extra mile for your agency and your clients. When it’s all said and done, this creates a much better bottom line for your insurance agency and helps you to grow your business. But if motivating your employees to bend over backward for your agency and its clients is a bit elusive, these tips will help you stay on top of your game.
1) Run Contests and Competition
Nothing stirs up motivation quite the way that a good old-fashioned contest or competition does. The bigger the prize, the harder people will work to win it. However, you should not discount smaller prizes for motivation, particularly if prizes are awarded for milestones in addition to or in lieu of an overall “grand prize.” The important thing is to make the contest or competition challenging, but winnable. In substitution of monetary prices or other prizes that cost money, consider offering time off as an award too. Many employees find that highly motivating.
2) Recognize, Reward, Reinvigorate
These three “Rs” help to show your staff how much you appreciate their efforts to make your business a success. One of the most important requirements for employees to be engaged in the work they do and the client they work for is that they feel appreciated. This makes that happen.
3) Offer Flexible Work Schedules
Flexible scheduling works in many ways. You can allow your employees the opportunity to work four 10-hour days or you could allow them to adjust their start and end times each day up to two hours earlier or later regularly, or only when needed to work appointments into the schedule. You can even allow them to miss two hours in the middle of the day and make them up by coming in an hour early and staying an hour late. These are the types of things your agency can do to provide a better work-life balance to employees, which in turn motivates them to work harder for your agency and, ultimately, for your clients.
4) Empower Employees
The other way to engage your employees is to empower them with increasing responsibilities within your insurance agency. By placing more responsibility in their hands, you’re showing your faith in your employees. Also solicit suggestions from your team and listen to what they have to say. It makes them feel more important to the success of the agency, and, perhaps more importantly, that you care about their ideas.
5) Encourage Creativity
Break up the mundane workweek routine with the occasional fun task. This will help boost creativity, encourage out of the box thinking, and add a spark of laughter into the middle of your work week. Think “school spirit week” for the office. Let everyone wear wacky costumes to work. Host desk decorating events (within certain safety parameters, of course) for holidays like Halloween and Independence Day.
Keep Motivation High and More
Membership in American Agents Alliance really does have its privileges. Become a member today for even more great tips on motivating your staff, growing your agency, and much, much more.
