How to Motivate Employees When You Can’t Throw Money at the Problem
Picture this. You hand your best technician a bonus check, shake their hand, and walk away feeling great about it. Two weeks later, nothing about the way they show up for your business has changed.
If you’re trying to figure out how to motivate employees in your service business, and the paycheck and the occasional pizza party aren’t getting it done, you’re in good company. It’s a question that keeps coming up among the owners I talk with. They pay fairly, they care about their people, and they still watch good team members slowly pull back. Here’s what I’ve learned about why that happens and what actually helps.
Good people don’t quit with a speech, they get quiet
Most of the time, nobody storms out with a dramatic announcement. They get quiet. They stop adding those little pieces of extra effort, and a person who used to be all in turns into someone who’s just kind of fine.
Money matters, and you do have to pay people fairly. But making someone feel appreciated and valued goes well beyond a paycheck, and a bigger check can’t fix what a check never addressed in the first place.
Check “get it, want it, capacity” before you try to motivate anyone
There’s a book I recommend all the time called Traction by Gino Wickman, and it includes a simple idea called GWC. For each person on your team, ask yourself whether they get it, whether they want it, and whether they have the capacity to do it. Getting it means they understand the job that needs to be done. Wanting it means they really want to be there doing that work. Capacity means they have the time, the skill, and the headspace to do it well.
Here’s why this matters for motivation. If one of those three is missing, no reward on earth will fix it. You can’t bonus somebody into getting it, you can’t pizza party someone into wanting it, and you can’t thank someone into having the capacity. It’s far better to spot a missing piece before you invest in motivating the person.
Make the hiring process show you who wants it
One way to learn this early is to make applying a little harder. Build a few stages so the serious people reveal themselves, like a resume, then a phone call that works like an interview, then a full day in the truck with you.
It’s far cheaper to pay someone fifteen or twenty dollars an hour to ride along for a day than to spend heavily on motivation after the wrong hire.
Then let them do a real piece of the work. In appliance repair, that might mean handing them a model number, asking them to bring their own tools, and rigging a problem to see whether they land on the same diagnosis you would. Passing that kind of test doesn’t make someone a great team member, but it shows whether they have the aptitude. And I’ll say this plainly because a lot of us learned it the hard way: potential doesn’t pay.
Learn how people are wired
We use the DiSC assessment at Cavalry Appliance, and we learned why this matters from past experience. Our first hire was a wonderful person, and we loved her, but she simply couldn’t stand sitting at a desk all day. She came from the restaurant industry, where she was on her feet and moving from place to place, and a desk felt like torture to her. DiSC can show how someone is wired before you put them in a seat that doesn’t fit.
Remember that the right seat changes with your season
Picture someone who was perfect while your business was in chaos. They could fix anything on the fly, and you were so grateful. Then you build systems, and that same person feels trapped because they thrived on the excitement.
That doesn’t make them a bad person. It’s human. When your business changes, whether someone gets it, wants it, and has the capacity can change too. That’s why we don’t stop evaluating after the probationary period. We do team member evaluations at thirty, sixty, and ninety days, then again at six months and at the end of the year for as long as they are on our team. We don’t score them on GWC (maybe we should!), but it’s a helpful lens for seeing whether someone is still the right fit before it’s too late.
Show people a path they can actually see
Picture an org chart on the wall at your business. When business owners build theirs with us, during their onboarding into our Eight Thousander™ Mastermind, one of the big benefits is seeing everything going on in the business and deciding what to keep and what to hand off. But there’s a second benefit that’s easy to miss. When your team can see the chart, they can see where they might grow.
If someone starts in one seat and wants to move to another, show them the pathway. Tell them which skills to develop, what training they’d need, which certifications matter, and which responsibilities they could show interest in learning. You can even make it an interview question. Show candidates your org chart and ask which positions interest them long term. Then ask what they’d love to do and what they’d absolutely hate doing, because you don’t want to place anyone where it’ll bring them down.
Learn how each person wants to be thanked
Now for the part that may surprise you. Early in our relationship, my husband Joe and I were on very different pages. I grew up in a family that hugged constantly, and I wanted to hold his hand while walking together. His family loved each other deeply but didn’t show it that way, so to him holding hands felt forced. Then we found The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman, and it changed how we understood each other. We learned that we tend to show love in the way we like to receive it, and that can drive the other person crazy :)
The same thing happens on your team. Picture two techs. One lights up when you thank them in front of the whole crew for handling a customer well. The other would rather crawl under a chair. Give them the same public thank you, and one goes home feeling ten feet tall while the other goes home embarrassed. You didn’t do anything wrong. You just didn’t know what makes each person feel seen.
Here are the five languages and what they can look like at work.
Words of affirmation
Telling someone they did a great job, writing a card, handing out a certificate, or naming a team member of the month. Some people love this out loud and in front of others.
Quality time
This one might sound odd at work, but for some people your time is the reward. I’m one of them. I loved meetings with my best bosses because I learned something every time. For someone like that, training, mentorship, or lunch with you says more than a gift ever could.
Acts of service
Doing something for them that they’d normally have to do, like helping on a hard job or cleaning the bathroom after a long day. When the boss does it, it speaks volumes, because it shows you’re not too good for the task.
Gifts
They don’t have to be big. A favorite color of sticky notes, or an upgraded keyboard and mouse for a work anniversary, helps someone do their job and feel a little special at the same time.
Physical touch
A fist bump or a high five works for some people. Be careful in the workplace. Use it sparingly and make sure people are comfortable with you in their space.
How to find out someone’s language
You can watch what people give you. The coworker who always brings you a coffee or writes thank you notes is probably telling you what they’d like in return. Or you can simply ask, either in a conversation or with a short set of written questions, and then try a variety of ways to show appreciation and see what sticks.
If you’d like a starting point, I created the Team Appreciation Questionnaire for exactly this. It has eight quick questions your team can answer in about ten minutes, plus a scoring page for you. You’re welcome to change it to fit your business. Download it free here: https://www.outcomeacademy.com/teamsurvey.
People are more complicated than a paycheck, and that’s good news, because it means you have more ways to say thank you than you thought. Go show somebody some love this week.
Resources mentioned
- Traction by Gino Wickman. The source of the get it, want it, capacity to do it idea.
- The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. The book that explains why people receive appreciation differently.
- Team Appreciation Questionnaire. A free download to learn your team’s languages of appreciation.