MARYAM AZARBOO

M00339919

HRM1110
The one best way to increase work motivation for an organisation is through employee reward schemes .discuss.

21 -11 2010
WORDS 1,708

2010 2011 SUSAN SOLIMAN

2010-2011, PAGE2

The role of incentives is not to overload the employees with excess work but to realize their accomplishments and make them feel an important part of the business. Incentives allow the employees to take on responsibilities and in turn increase their job satisfaction. However, along with incentives, appreciation, positive feedback and praises are also important to motivate employees. Most organizations give incentives to employees annually or on a target basis. It is important to give incentives on a timely basis so that employees can see the immediate benefit of accomplishing their goal. One must understand that each employee has his own characteristics and each employee has different motivational needs. Your business can actually be taken to a new level if you develop a sense of understanding about how you should motivate your employees. Incentives, by far, motivate most types of employees to a certain extent. Incentives also play an important role to retain employees. A proper reward system should be enforced for people who have been in the organization for long years. While rewarding employees, some of the key elements that are taken into account are day to day performance, enthusiasm, punctuality, willingness to accomplish a task, ability to innovate and ideate and overall fulfillment of goals.

It is said that people tend to develop certain leadership styles from the environment that they live in and the culture that they are brought up in. These styles which are derived from certain motivational drives affect humans in their thinking pattern, actions and behavior. There are three drives that dominate leadership styles. These drives are Achievement motivation, affiliation motivation and power motivation. Different leaders have different motivational drives. In the first style, achievement, goal setting and success is very important to these leaders. If they are given a project, they work not just for the rewards that are associated with it but for the challenge that the project poses. Leaders who are high on achievement motive want to receive personal credits for their efforts. Such leaders find it difficult to delegate work to their team members because they often feel that they will not be able to complete the task the way they will complete it. Such leaders strive for excellence and performance. As leaders, these people expect their employees to also be achievement driven. Affiliation motivation is a drive to relate to people on a social basis. When you compare people with high achievement motivation in relation to people with high affiliation motivation it is seen that the two patterns of behavior diverge significantly. Leaders who are high on affiliation motivation work harder when they are complemented for their friendly attitude and co-operation with their team. These set of people value relationship

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2010-2011, PAGE3 and tend to be sensitive. These leaders want job freedom to develop the relationships at work place. These leaders are great while handling a team and getting work done from each employee. Power motivation is a drive that urges people to influence other people, take control and take charge and change situations. People who are high on power motivation are in born leaders. These people are willing to take risks to achieve certain changes. Positional power in these leaders is used within the context of an organization to influence and motivate other employees for the overall progress of the company. Out of the three, people with positional power motivation that they use for legitimate purpose are most likely to rise to the top through consistent and successful performance.

In any organization, human resource is one of the biggest resources that an organization has which contributed to its overall growth and profitability. To maximize employee productivity, organizations need to focus on two areas i.e. personal employee motivation and the work environment. Motivation is one of the key factors that lead to employee productivity. Challenging goals, incentives, rewards and recognition, appreciation and accolades, salary, bonus, increments are all types of employee motivation that have known to increase employee productivity at work place. If team leaders and managers are able to motivate the employees through their goals, projects and interesting work, one can sure see an increase in the enthusiasm of employees to accomplish that work. Along with this, it is also important to recognize each and every employee who is involved in accomplishing a project. Rewards and verbal appreciation have known to boost the morale of an employee and in turn increase their productivity. In an organization, the work environment must also encourage employees. A motivating work environment is one where no employee is treated in an unfair manner. All employees must be treated respectfully. It is essential for a manager to give each employee a feeling of playing an important role in the organization. One important tool for increasing productivity is praising your employees for the good work done. Praises have known to be very effective in raising employee productivity. Even simple words like well done, good job, and perfectly executed can go a long way in motivating your employees and increasing their productivity. Praises are something that many managers tend to ignore but if used wisely can benefit a lot. Along with praises, clear goals are also important for employees to be motivated to work harder. Set realistic objectives and challenging but achievable targets for employees to be motivated enough to accomplish the target. Communication is important to increase the overall productivity of the employees. Not only does clear communication helps the employees to know their job well, but it also motivates them to maximize productivity. HRM1110 , M00339919

2010-2011, PAGE4 Along with good working conditions and feasible work environment, employee productivity depends a lot upon motivation. Hence, managers must make sure to put in every effort to motivate their employees and in turn increase employee productivity.

The economic downturn faced by world economy is extremely vicious. Many people lost their jobs, unemployment rate was into double figure, many companies had to shut their doors and the resources became hard to come by. The period of 2008-09 took a heavy toll on finances. Customers started to cut back on their expenses, demand for products and services hit an all time low and the fall in stocks prices led to depleted bank balance. It was an extremely tough period for employees because many of them got laid off and the rest had to adjust with reduced salaries. Retaining a job became more important than earning high salaries. Management had a hard time convincing employees that situation is under control. These types of situations lead to increased anxiety levels in the company. How could employee productivity be maintained to its optimum when they dont have the job security? Motivating employees during recession is a tough task but definitely not impossible. Recession tests the real ability of organization to stay afloat and keep the flock together. More often not, management thinks of downsizing the organization and that takes place only by terminating certain number of employees. The second option favored by companies is of restructuring the business to a small size. Company is hard pressed to take tough decisions but for the survival of the business, these decisions become mandatory. Management needs to be honest with the workforce. It should explain why things are happening, what are the consequences and how can we overcome the troubled times ahead. Because of recession, priorities of the organization changes and these changes must be conveyed to the team. Hiding the real facts wont help the cause. To maintain the workplace motivation, management need to state things as it is and should also present its expectations. Employees are lot more co-operative than you might give them credit for. Management should never display panic or make gloomy forecasts. It is important to let the employees know that you are in control of the situation. Management should lead by example. Employee motivation during recession is very much a handiwork of able leaders. The leaders can create a positive environment even during downturn and keep employees motivated. Other significant steps to motivate employees during recession are, creating suitable strategies, keeping lines of communication open, focusing on the future and finally, nipping gossips in the bud.

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2010-2011, PAGE5 One of the most important assets of any organization is its employees. Keeping employees motivated is one of the key roles of any organization as it leads to increase in overall productivity and profitability of that company. It is mainly the department of Human Resource that takes care of employee motivation. Salary, incentives, good working atmosphere, appreciation, healthy environment are some of the common aspects that motivate an employee at work. Every individual needs motivation to work- be it intrinsic motivation or extrinsic motivation. Nonetheless, motivation is a huge push in an organization especially for employees. It is the job of the main manager in an organization to get the work done through the employees working under him. Hence it is important for a manager to motivate his/her employees to perform. However, motivation is a concept that is not tangible and so it is not as easy to measure the same! During team days, a personal feedback is also given to the employees and they get a chance to discuss their problems and factors that de-motivate them, if any. Sometimes, the structure of the organization is such that it does not allow employees to bond and live and work like a family. If team day is a reality check for the company and its employees, it is also a celebration of what the employees have achieved so far for the company and it is time that they receive their due appreciation. There are many organizational behavior experts who have written and formulated many theories on motivation. Enormous research is done in this field and a typical organization keeps coming up with new ideas and programs that motivate the employees of that organization. What is important is to understand that motivation is not something that a manager can achieve in a day or two. It is more of an ongoing habit and only after years of practicing it, an organization would be capable of motivating its employees effectively. Surprisingly, a simple smile can also be a great motivator for many employees to feel better and perform even better! Through effective leadership and management, employee motivation can be achieved.

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