Motivating human service staff: Supervisory strategies for maximizing work effort and work enjoyment

This book presents practical strategies for motivating human service staff. Staff motivation is presented as a two-fold process for supervisors: (1) ensuring staff work proficiently and diligently and, (2) ensuring staff enjoy their work. Based on the authors' combined 65 years of supervisory experience and three decades of applied research on working with staff in human service agencies, tried and tested means of motivating staff are presented. Specific topics covered include efficient an enjoyable ways of training work skills to staff, making the overall work environment enjoyable for staff, how to monitor staff performance in ways that staff actually look forward to, pleasant and effetive strategies for supporting desirable work performance, quick and acceptable ways to improve inadequate staff performance, and self-motivational techniques for supervisors to maintain their own work efforts and enjoyment. A special feature of the book is a summary of what over 1,000 working supervisors have reported to be the best ways to motivate staff (and what supervisory practices impede staff work diligence and enjoyment). Selected background readings are also provided to support the content of each chapter.