How to Motivate Employees?

Motivation is considered as the core of management. Managers plays a big role in motivating its subordinates to  achieve the goals of the organization. Every person has a different motivating factor. Hence, it should be studied thoroughly on how to motivate the employees before they run away. Motivators do not include only financial compensation but all the factors, implicit and explicit, which affect an employee to care about.

Motivation is needed to awaken the employees’ enthusiasm, commitment and passion. A manager should empower them to perform above expectations.  A good leader will enable its subordinates to perform discretionary effort. Discretionary effort is the extra effort an employee is willing to give above the minimum effort to complete a job. When the discretionary effort is unlocked in an employee, it would be easy to achieve the goals of an organization or a business. One can find the employees doing their respective jobs joyfully and willingly.  With these, the output will be A+ performance.

But how to unlock the discretionary effort of an employee?  An article I have read talked about  a research done to discover what really makes a difference on job performances and it was found out that frequent , informal meaningful feedbacks has more impact than any other leadership techniques.

I agree with the results with my experience in my house helpers.  On my past helpers, I used to always look at their mistakes failing to praise for their jobs well done. As a result, they commit the same mistakes and which later resulted to poor performance.  Lately, with my current house helper  , I employ the word  “ appreciation.” For a job done, I would try to give positive feedbacks  before saying any comments for improvements. Frequently, I try give positive feedbacks on her good accomplishments.  With these practice, I found her more willing to do beyond what I expected. She is very willing to learn new skills and her performance is improving. She is willing to go an extra mile on her jobs like staying late at night to finish her household chores. Thus, frequent, informal meaningful feedbacks would really work well to motivate employees.  Praise…This is what every person needs and likes to have. It makes them feel that they matter and their contribution in an organization is valued. This will lead an employee to make an extra effort without resistance. Aside from positive organizational climate and strong employee satisfaction, this technique would yield a positive result and I believe it would unlock the discretionary effort of an employee.

Changing Organizational Models

What is an organization? It is defined as a social unit of people, systematically structured and managed to meet a need or to pursue collective goals on a continuing basis. All organizations have a management structure that determines relationships between functions and position, and subdivides and delegates roles, responsibilities, and authority to carry out defined tasks.

Typically , the framework  is hierarchial. Most organizations are designed using this vertical management also called top down management  in which management pass information and orders from the top of the organizational pyramid down toward the bottom. Little communication or feedback flows from the bottom up  or  from side to side. This creates a high control, low autonomy environment. The people at the bottom have very low decision rights and the flow of information at the bottom is limited.

However, at times organizational change is a must to achieve certain goals. This change is organization-wide. This includes changing organizational models.  As an example, our class in Organizational Analysis facilitated by a very good leader changed the way our class discuss over different topics or learning competencies. A class as an organization is traditionally hierarchial where a teacher is the manager of the class and talks and conveys everything in a lesson while the students listen or opt not to.

Our professor in the class, a remarkable leader changed the usual vertical management in class to a flat organization.  A flat organization is where most middle-management levels and their functions have been eliminated, thus bringing the top management  in direct  contact  with the frontline sales people, shop  floor  employees, and customers. Despite their breadth , flat  organizations  can avail  of most of the advantages enjoyed by small firms , such as faster response time  to changing conditions  and customer preferences.

In the class everybody is considered a sharer. There is open discussion within the class. The ways of learning is transformed from having it discussed only by the lecturer, anybody can add relevant ideas to the matter being tackled. Everybody can share their learning and related experiences. In such a way, there is a free flow of information and learning is achieved readily from each one of us. The learning was not limited within the classroom but were further enhanced and  it became boundless through the different sharing of experiences each has from their different organizations where they belong.

Another major change that was implemented was the address the students used to call their teacher or professor.  From calling them by “SIR” that was being changed to calling him by his first name “Randy”. In such a way, there is friendlier environment rather than seeing the professor in class as a manager.

Imposing this kind of organizational structure enabled me to learn many things from the different sharing of our classmates.  And those classmates in the academe, I think it’s time for us to adopt this kind of class structure.

ORGANIZING FOR EMPOWERMENT

An excerpt from the poem I wrote which I have mentioned on my first blog goes like this:

Shine, excel and fly high...

Until appreciation due will be granted.

If such merit is not given

Be thankful anyway,

For deep inside your inner self

You could proudly say

I’m satisfied, I have done my part

To the best I believe I can.

I came to write this when I was employed on that company where most of the employees were  not paid accordingly to their position and that includes me.  Being promoted to a higher position but no adjustments on compensation. Aside from being uncompensated with their corresponding jobs and positions, the organization offer no incentives or the least an appreciation for the jobs well done of their workers.  By then, I was trying to encourage myself to keep on doing the best that I can though I was underpaid. I was empowering myself because I love what I'm doing. Promises on the salary raise was never realized. Until such time I decided to resign from the job.  Later I learned that they were finding it hard to fill up the position I vacated.  And from then on, the salary for that position was augmented.

People  are the most important asset of a company or firm. As an adage says “ One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of an extraordinary man.” Indeed, people are indispensable element of the organization. Not only having them but  also exerting some ways to help them become the  best they can  for the benefit of the organization. They should be empowered to become highly motivated keeping them aligned with the company’s vision, mission and objectives.  And  above all, in order to keep these assets the company should embrace them to stay and remain loyal  to the company by rewarding them justly and providing them the right and most approriate motivation.

MANAGERS AND LEADERS

I believe that the best managers possess a remarkable leadership.  Aside from the responsibilities he bears as a manager over his people and resources on getting goals achieved efficiently, he should be at times be flexible and inspiring to let the employees follow the direction that has been set.

He should also be open-minded to changes and willing to venture new strategies and possibilities. Most important, he should be able to communicate effectively with his people empowering them to get the things done with zest and optimism.  Keeping each employee motivated to accomplish certain targets. Thus, leading them to follow willingly, letting them make decisions responsibly and enabling them to involve in the organization’s undertakings actively.

The Importance of Strategic Planning

As I tried to look for some important documents in my closet, I found a piece of paper containing a draft of a poem dated May 5, 2005. I recalled back then, I was working in a Japanese company where management was not so good per se.  We faced a lot of temporary shutdowns.  We experienced working two days a week from a six-day regular working days.  Worst of all, licensed engineers were working as line operators doing some dirty jobs and they were underpaid. 

 

I was one of the pioneers of the company then.  Most of us who were hired first were engineers and were expecting that it could be a pasture for great opportunities.  Some of us resigned from their present jobs and jumped to this new company.  We thought then that was a very promising company believing it is owned by a Japanese. However at the start of operation, most of us were assigned as line workers doing mostly the jobs of the laborers. Most of the persons who were assigned as team leaders were even inexperienced in manufacturing.  They were placed on their position because of the “whom you know” basis. Most of us were disappointed. Some of those engineers who were hired resigned in less than 3 months time. Some of them were those who left their regular jobs just to have this one. (They too planned to fail.)

At first , we worked on a 2 shift basis then eventually there were 3 shifts.  There was mass hiring. The production was high. Up to ten container vans were exported to Japan weekly.  However, after around 6 months of operation, the management announced a dramatic drop of orders. Subsequently, they need to lay off some workers due to low demand. The production needed to be cut in half.  Many of the workers were hired just for weeks or few months but were forced to resign.

Apparently, there was no strategic planning done at the start. If there was any, the planners were not expert enough. As my instructor said in this subject matter, “Project failed because you planned to fail.”

As the company continued, there were series of shutdowns.  Indeed, the company failed on its first years of operation. 

At times, there were mass hiring resulting to overproduction. Followed by mass lay off of workers and even offering incentives for those regular employees who would resign. The cycle continued. High production,mass hiring followed by very low production, mass layoff. Until such time, regular employees got to work for only 2 days a week.

The production planning was not good emanating from a poor strategic planning. As well as the human resource department failed to perceive the need of additional employees. Consequently, action plans in each department of the organization were inappropriate. The organization was reactive then, not proactive. The job descriptions for each position were vague. It follows that the organization was not properly structured. Some positions were filled with incompetent people.

Decisions of  the management were affected politically within the organization.  As I observed, there was rivalry on who will get the  favor of the President, the owner itself. Most of the times, a general manager would serve for a couple of months and then leave the company to the next interested one.  Another manager would sit and bombarded with another set of issues and then left.  Obviously, crab mentality creep in the organization.

Until the quest for getting an ISO 9002 certification came. By then, the mission, vision and objectives of the company were defined. Action plans for each department was slowly aligned. The messy organization was properly structured little by little. Job descriptions were clearly defined. 

Now  l learned from this course that it was strategic planning that was not conducted at the start of this company or if there is any, planners were not good enough. The company was not properly directed to its goals.  And the process on how to achieve its goals were not clear. The organization was not designed well. A business plan may have been done but not the strategic plan which focuses more on the entire organization.

 Indeed, the company failed because the organization  planned to fail.