7 Easy Ways of Motivating Your Welders

It won’t be that difficult to motivate your welding workforce if you leverage those effective ways.

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You are too much of a frustrated employer? You have put lots of time, money and efforts in manpower recruitment, but what have you gained at the end of the day? Your welders have got bored at work? They are not hard working enough to skill up and improve productivity? They have no intention to better their welds? Instead, they just want to finish the minimum required jobs and make no more progress? Whatever, as an eagle-eyed employer, you should detect such signs and define ways to motivate them. Here suggest some effective ways that you could utilize for more engaging worker participation.

How do welders look and feel with unfair pay?

1. Pay. If a shop doesn’t make good pay, it won’t attract and retain good welders. Even if they work to learn rather than working to earn. To say nothing about the fact that today's welding workers have been in hot demand, which come with their higher marketability. Also, if you want good welds, then pay more money. Workers often consider pay their work motivation. It isn't dramatic but 99% of them won't work for you as long if you give them unfair wage. Money is not the most important though, it helps with their life handling and their family mouth feeding. It comes with no surprise that many employers put too much pressure on welders without fair rewarding. That being so, how can they expect their welders are loyal to them? Most of workers weld for money. Then treating them that way will just earn employers consequent losses of talents. The more pressure you place on welders, better come with more money. Overall, it will be the best if you offer a fair pay, performance based bonus and wage rise aside from health benefits. Prioritize your workforce and they will then give you all what you want, whether productivity or loyalty!

Safety for your welding workforce!

2. Safety. It is a must that shops are safe to work in. Weekly safety meetings are required to better employees’ safety knowledge and avoid any work accident whether it is really small or not. Note that those meetings are not kinda boring lecture with a sleepy group. Welders must be engaged in the discussion.

Create a clean, uplifting work environment

3. Clean work environment. Employees can feel low when working in a dark and dull, dirty and untidy environment with stuff lying around. It will be more depressing without good lighting. A well lighted and clean environment will be more uplifting than a dirty, dispiriting work area.

Just like doing exercise, job training would feed the brain, cleanse the mind of bad vibes

4. Continuing education or job training. Just like exercise, job training will feed the brain and clean the mind of bad vibes. Your workers can let go of their boredom, continue their work with motivation and innovative ideas. If the welder training isn’t available at a nearby college, then training should take place elsewhere, whether it is from welding equipment makers or at a training institute. Most employers see the value of training though, it is said that its value might be actually under-appreciated. As per a Harward Business Review publication, the employer-offered training can make an unimaginable impact on job satisfaction, just about the same as 18% pay rise. This finding was from a study on around 5,000 workers by the University of Madeira. Evidently, training isn’t free, but its cost is much lower than giving employees an 18% wage increase. One way to maximize the training benefits is ‘Training the Trainer’. That means, certain employees trained by the professionals (also, external training) will become the trainer for other workers. It is an old story that employers have struggled with the ‘brain drain’ that happens when veteran workers retire or quit without passing on their knowledge to others. This way can fill that communication gap. Not all, Training the Trainer is highly scalable when adding new trainers to the company.

Tell less, talk more!

5. Employer accessibility. This is one of killer ways to foster labor relation. The stronger labor relation is, the more satisfied welders are. Satisfied workers will be more dedicated to the company and by its side to weather whatever storm. Then as an employer, you should have more hearty talks with employees, not only about work but also how they are and how their family are doing. Be an attentive listener and let their voice heard. Everything from heart will touch heart.

What are your welders expecting for?

6. Expectations. If the company pays well, gives good benefits and develops a good environment, then its employers shouldn’t be afraid to let the workers know about their satisfactory production expectation. Welders happy with the company will quickly correct themselves when it comes to being late at work or slacking off.

He is your loyal welder. But he also has a family to dedicate to and life events to attend and interests to be explored!

7. Work-life balance. Welding workers are not machines. They are human beings. They will get sick, their family will get sick, they will want to attend life events, they will want to explore their own interests. If employers do demand overtime hours, holidays, then they are better prepared for a fair compensation. Those are heartfelt words of a welder that others share the same with. Not just hearing the voice of other management or the like, employers also need listen to opinions and demands of welders themselves and/ or team leaders who are familiar and understand well their welding members. Otherwise, they will just leave their employees with frustration. Just like this case. Boss threw on a Saturday work day after voluntary overtime working of 10 hours already that week. The welder worked Saturday without any complaints until he came home and got a fever that lasted until Tuesday. That meant he missed Monday. The boss, instead of asking for his health improvement, made a rude comment about him making up missed time on Tuesday. It's more frustrating that it was his first missed day in four months.