Hi,

I am currently just starting out in the hosting business so it is a one-man-show. However, I would like to know how other hosting businesses motivate their employees?


Regards

Sooooo....... you're trying to motivate yourself?

MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

Maslow has set up a hierarchy of five levels of basic needs. Beyond these needs, higher levels of needs exist. These include needs for understanding, esthetic appreciation and purely spiritual needs. In the levels of the five basic needs, the person does not feel the second need until the demands of the first have been satisfied, nor the third until the second has been satisfied, and so on. Maslow's basic needs are as follows:

[B]Physiological Needs[\B]
These are biological needs. They consist of needs for oxygen, food, water, and a relatively constant body temperature. They are the strongest needs because if a person were deprived of all needs, the physiological ones would come first in the person's search for satisfaction.

[B]Safety Needs[\B]
When all physiological needs are satisfied and are no longer controlling thoughts and behaviors, the needs for security can become active. Adults have little awareness of their security needs except in times of emergency or periods of disorganization in the social structure (such as widespread rioting). Children often display the signs of insecurity and the need to be safe.

[B]Needs of Love, Affection and Belongingness[\B]
When the needs for safety and for physiological well-being are satisfied, the next class of needs for love, affection and belongingness can emerge. Maslow states that people seek to overcome feelings of loneliness and alienation. This involves both giving and receiving love, affection and the sense of belonging.

[B]Needs for Esteem[\B]
When the first three classes of needs are satisfied, the needs for esteem can become dominant. These involve needs for both self-esteem and for the esteem a person gets from others. Humans have a need for a stable, firmly based, high level of self-respect, and respect from others. When these needs are satisfied, the person feels self-confident and valuable as a person in the world. When these needs are frustrated, the person feels inferior, weak, helpless and worthless.

[B]Needs for Self-Actualization[\B]
When all of the foregoing needs are satisfied, then and only then are the needs for self-actualization activated. Maslow describes self-actualization as a person's need to be and do that which the person was "born to do." "A musician must make music, an artist must paint, and a poet must write." These needs make themselves felt in signs of restlessness. The person feels on edge, tense, lacking something, in short, restless. If a person is hungry, unsafe, not loved or accepted, or lacking self-esteem, it is very easy to know what the person is restless about. It is not always clear what a person wants when there is a need for self-actualization.

The hierarchic theory is often represented as a pyramid, with the larger, lower levels representing the lower needs, and the upper point representing the need for self-actualization. Maslow believes that the only reason that people would not move well in direction of self-actualization is because of hindrances placed in their way by society. He states that education is one of these hindrances. He recommends ways education can switch from its usual person-stunting tactics to person-growing approaches. Maslow states that educators should respond to the potential an individual has for growing into a self-actualizing person of his/her own kind. Ten points that educators should address are listed:


http://www.pateo.com/article6.html

I bribe them with food and big games of unreal tournament.

-Brendan

Originally posted by HRBrendan
I bribe them with food and big games of unreal tournament.

So much for Maslow. :D

Employees don't want to feel like employees, that's all you need to know.

I almost forgot foosball!

-Brendan

Hey Brendan-

Who are you trying to kid, your motivation is keeping us chained to our desks!! ;)

Just treat your employees like people...and remember what it was like to work for someone else. Everything you ever hated about your past jobs...make sure you don't inflict that on your employees.

That works really well for me, anyway.

--Tina

alot of people overlook for forget this, but its always nice when you are in a small company that is doing well (like many hosting companies) to share in the profits with everyone.

Anyone see that new Etrade commercial that was during the super bowl. It started out showing a coffee room attendent, that basically would make coffee and restock the toliet paper and stuff like that. Then, she walks out of the offices that she works at and asks a guy about the company stock. She proceeds to walk out the door of the building and get into her Lamborghini. :D


Just goes to show anyone can be successful:D



Jim

How about some old SNL tapes of Chris Farley?:D

Originally posted by jimb
Anyone see that new Etrade commercial that was during the super bowl.
[...]
Just goes to show anyone can be successful:D
Sure, but her company did nothing to motivate her or to help to make her successful. It's an E-trade advertisement, so you'd assume it wasn't the case that the company was sharing profits directly, but rather that she was investing on her own, using that service. By implication, because she asked and received good news about the company's stock, she was investing in the company she worked for. The only way the company contributed to her having that car was by being successful itself.

So if that commercial is the guide, motivate your employees by encouraging them to invest their money in your company's own stock. Apparently it works; seems like there were a lot of highly motivated Enron employees at one time.

Tina from AffordableHost sums it up (as she does so well quite often ;) IMHO... Just treat your employees like people...and remember what it was like to work for someone else. Everything you ever hated about your past jobs...make sure you don't inflict that on your employees. Though I admit, during the rough times it can be easy to forget. Thankfully most of the team knows they can just "kick me" if I become too "corporate" on them.

Never let the team think they can't talk straight-up to you.

We tend to have an open-book policy with our team... If we're hurting -- they know about it. If we're doing well -- they know about it. We try to keep the "guessing games and assumptions" out of the way. Don't forget about their families either... your employee is concerned about his/her family and therefore you'll want to do your best at the same.

Originally posted by JayC
Sure, but her company did nothing to motivate her or to help to make her successful. It's an E-trade advertisement, so you'd assume it wasn't the case that the company was sharing profits directly, but rather that she was investing on her own, using that service. By implication, because she asked and received good news about the company's stock, she was investing in the company she worked for. The only way the company contributed to her having that car was by being successful itself.

So if that commercial is the guide, motivate your employees by encouraging them to invest their money in your company's own stock. Apparently it works; seems like there were a lot of highly motivated Enron employees at one time.


The message that I was trying to show, and that the commercial was trying to show, was that if you allow profit sharing, then everyone will work hard to turn a bigger profit. Now, many companies offer this as a part of the job, which motivates employees to maximize profits so that they will pocket more money.

As far as Eron goes, the stock was the way they tried to motivate people. Now, I doubt that many smaller companies have stock to give out to employees, so profit sharing is the next best thing.


Jim

Well, I can speak from an employee's point of view... I guess it's explained best with a little story.

One day I was feeling very frustrated. There was a lot going on and we were pretty busy with different things. I tried to explain this to certain higher-ups (and I think we all know who that is :D ) but I just felt like it was going in one ear and out the other. So I said forget it, i'm looking for a different job, sat down at my desk and hopped on monster. Well, my boss walked over and actually started helping me with the search. . Needless to say, I wasn't really serious, especially since I was at work at the time :) We looked at different hosting companies sites to see what they were all about and there were a few that had pictures of their offices. One site happened to have plants in their office, and I said...listen, all i want is some plants and I'll be happy. The next day I walked in and this place looked like a jungle :D

I guess sometimes it's the little things. We have a very open policy here at work and it's great. I'm asked for my input on things a lot and I feel like I genuinely play a big role in this company which in my personal opinion is all employees want sometimes... is to feel that they actually matter and aren't just taken for granted.

-Melissa

Move along. This is not the post you are looking for.