Motivating Employees (Copy)

Motivation

Motivation is the reason for employees wanting to work hard and effectively.

• The reasons can include money that enable employees to obtain goods and services
• Job security
• Social needs such as feeling part of an organization
• Esteem needs (self importance) such as feeling worthy
• Job satisfaction of the feeling of having done something good

There are many theories of what motivates workers and how

• F.W. Taylor

  • The more the payment, the higher the motivation
  • He did this by division of labor and them checking output by increasing payment
  • Employees like machines, hard work, more productivity and this labor cost per output lowers as any extra payment to workers will increase production by more than such payment
  • Problems
    • Very simplistic
    • Money is not the only factor
    • Difficult to measure if out can not be measured for each employee individually.

• Abraham Maslow

  • Hierarchy of needs – lowest level having most people, top having fewer
  • Can move to the next level only after one level has been fulfilled
    • First level – physiological needs or wages high enough to pay for food, rent and recreation. Also allows for rest of body
    • Safety or security needs
      • Protection from danger at work, poverty and ill treatment. Job security can fulfill this need
    • Social needs
      • A need for friendship and team belonging – can be done by work colleagues that are supportive
    • Esteem needs
      • Having status, recognition, sense of achievement and independence. Can be gone by giving recognition for a good work
    • Self – actualization – last stage (few people reach here, at the top of the hierarchy)
      • Reaching full potential and feeling you are doing what exatly you envisioned for the best of your life to be. This can be done by promotion and more responsibility.
  • If employees can not move to higher hierarchy levels, they can never be motivated
  • For some people some levels do not exist for example money can help in both physiological needs and esteem needs
  • Identifying the level on the hierarchy each person is on can be difficult

• Frederick Herzberg

  • Divided human needs in 2 groups – motivators and hygiene factors.
    • Motivators are what grows a person psychologically
      • Achievement
      • Recognition
      • Personal growth/development
      • advancement/ promotion
      • Work itself
    • Hygiene (or maintenance) factors
      • Status
      • Security
      • Work conditions
      • Company policies and administration
      • Relationship with supervisor
      • Relationship with subordinates
      • Salary
  • If hygiene factors are not available, workers shall get demotivated. Hygiene factors prevent demotivation, and then motivators allow for motivation
  • Money is not always the main motivator

Motivating Factors

• Financial Rewards

  • Pay is one of the main reasons for working
  • Wages is usually a weekly payment in cash or in the bank.
    • Regular payment so workers do not have to wait long
    • Overtime payment at higher rate if extra hours worked
    • However, calculation has to be made every week requiring time and money and clerks may have to be employed for this
  • Wages are mainly collected in 2 main methods
    • Time rate
      • According to the number of hours worked
        • Benefit is that it is easy to calculate
        • Issues are that time sheet has to be filled that takes time
          • Workers with less efficiency and more are paid the same if hours same
          • Workers can compromise on quality of work because they are bing paid for the time so supervisors required which can be costly
          • Clocking-in system required for the calculations
      • Used where it is difficult to calculate the output of the workers
    • Piece rate
      • According to the output
      • There is a basic rate that shall be paid and then an additional amount for each output
      • Workers get encouraged to work faster and produce more so output increases.
      • However
        • Focusing on producing more quantity can reduce the quality
        • Those who work carefully will earn less due to less output
        • If machine is out of order worker will lose earning because they can now produce less
          • Basic rate is made to compensate this as a guaranteed minimum payment.
  • Salaries
    • Paid monthly, calculated annually
    • Paid directly in bank
    • White collar workers usually paid this way
    • Easy to calculate
    • Extra work not usually paid for
    • Employer has cash available for longer time as payment made monthly not weekly
    • Payment calculated once a month compared to at least 4 times with wages.
    • Other rewards can be added with salary
      • Commission on the basis of percentage of sales
      • Profit sharing with workers getting part of profit so they work harder as profit benefits them too
      • Bonus as a lump sum paid for good work usually at end of year or at intervals
      • Performance related pay – system of appraisal where senior appraises the work and performance of the worker and then pay is given. Training can be given if performance seems lacking
      • Share ownership with employees given some shares thus they get dividends if profit made and feel as owners of the business too so work harder for its success.
• Non Financial Rewards
  • Also called fringe benefits
  • Can include company car, healthcare, trips abroad, expense account – like instead of money being given directly anything else being given.

Job satisfaction refers to the enjoyment from the work and the feeling of having done something good.

Different things can provide employee satisfaction for different employees

• Pay
• Working conditions
• Colleagues
• Environment
• Recognition etc.

Job rotation means making workers carry out simple but different dasks. This allows for boredom to be removed and workers learn multiple skills so can cover for one if he/she is absent.

Job enlargement is where extra tasks of similar level are added to the worker’s job description. This increases variety, but does not increase overall total work or total extra responsibility.

Job enrichment is when more skillful tasks or responsibility is added so that the work seems more fulfilling, increasing productivity.

Autonomous work groups or team working is where a group is responsible for a particular process, product or development. This allows for more decision making power to the workers. Also results in job rotation and enrichment. Moreover, workers can decide on how to organize themselves. This increases their motivation and satisfaction from the work.