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Expert Answers to Biz Questions Listen in! Pick up some expert advice to a reader's question that we selected from CyberSchmooz. The Biz Question How Well Do Your Know Your Staff? Ways To Uncover This Answer from our Guest Expert Rick Murphy In today's economy, the question whether your employees are motivated and engaged is more important than ever. Unfortunately, not all employers know the answer to this question. A recent survey by workplace psychology consultancy OOP showed that a lot of public sector managers are not aware of their employees' motivations and skills. While 98% of managers claim they "know their people well", only 28% of employees agree with this statement. Why bother? Employee satisfaction pays dividends. Engaged employees have higher productivity and are more result-oriented, not to mention that they don't change their jobs as often as unsatisfied workers do. Doing your best to keep employees motivated brings great return on investment, experts state. Besides, you don't have to spend much to find out about their expertise and ambitions. According to Kevin Kruse, Forbes contributor, "people will feel engaged with their boss and their company if there's a feeling of growth, appreciation, and trust". Recognition isn't just about money; a public praise can also do the trick. Run a survey The easiest way to find out how much you know about your employees is to run a survey. With cutting-edge web tools, online surveys are easy to create from scratch or customise using available templates. A simple online guide will take you step by step through the process of survey creation, without the necessity to hire web designers. You just pick the right type of questions, select the appropriate place on your corporate website and drop a survey there. Remember to encourage employees to participate using email. React to the feedback The most important part of running a survey is taking action after you receive the results. Negative feedback shows which aspects of your company operation need to be improved. Communicate to employees about the current situation and the upcoming changes and make sure new policies are followed by staff. Reward Find ways to reward your employees even if you can't afford large cash bonuses. Provide small personalised items like pens, T-shirts, mugs and memory sticks; practise public achievement recognitions; organise corporate events and the Best Employee of the Month award. Follow the lead Google's human relations department known as "People Operations" monitors employees' emotional states to make sure they are happy, which leads to quite impressive results. Google relies on a "sophisticated employee-data tracking program, an effort to gain empirical certainty about every aspect of Google's workers' lives - not just the right level of pay and benefits but also such trivial-sounding details as the optimal size and shape of the cafeteria tables and the length of the lunch lines". This policy helped significantly reduce "Google's attrition rate". No matter how prosperous your company is, employee satisfaction can make it only stronger. There are plenty of non-financial ways to know and motivate your staff better. About our Guest Expert: Rick Murphy Rick Murphy is a writer associated with debtconsolidationcare[dot]com. He holds his expertise in the debt industry and has made significant contributions to the field through his various articles. To get more debt related help visit: http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/debt-settlement.html Have a biz question of your own? 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