Businesses in this modern landscape rely greatly on their employees to gain a competitive edge in their niche. The employees contribute now more to the success of a business than most of the other factors of a business. The personnel are directly responsible for improving the efficiency and the functionality of most of the other businesses. As a result, HR management has become one of the most crucial departments (Hashim, Fallatah, " Syed, 2017). One of the practices used to improve employee performance is the adoption of employee motivation techniques. These techniques are varied in nature. SHRM involves balancing the different employee motivational techniques to obtain the optimum performance from employees. The study investigates how the different employee motivation influences job satisfaction, employee turnover and productivity approaches firms can use.
Employee motivation
Motivation and productivity have an immense interest among academicians and managers in the corporate sector because they seem to have a direct correlation. Productivity in an organisation refers to the best way an organisation can utilise the factors of production to increase the output. Employee motivation can be considered the different techniques that firms use to inspire the employees to align their goals with certain organisational goals (Richard, 2013). This is directly linked to the psychological drive of people to achieve their needs and their wants. This is best explained using Herzberg’s two-factor theory of motivation.
Herzberg’s approach to motivation stated that two broad factors influenced job satisfaction. These were hygiene and motivation factors. The motivation factors influenced job satisfaction while the hygiene factors influenced job dissatisfaction. As per his theory, the opposite of satisfaction was no satisfaction while the opposite of dissatisfaction was no dissatisfaction (Richard, 2013). Essentially, employee motivation should aim to improve the motivation factors while the hygiene factors should be minimised in an organisation. This highlights a relationship between motivation and employee attitudes towards certain factors.
The main aim of management should be to nurture enthusiasm in employees while they perform the tasks that they are assigned. This can be done by creating the need for the employees to achieve the organisational goals or by providing incentives that motivate the employees to achieve these goals. In HR management, motivation can be done in two ways (Richard, 2013). This is either through intrinsic and through extrinsic methods.
Extrinsic motivation refers to motivation approaches where stimuli motivate the employees. This is either by providing rewards or by punishing the individuals. In the past, punishing employees was the most common approach to using extrinsic motivation. However, the increase in the competition for quality talent made this approach ineffective. Instead, most modern organisations provide rewards to employees to increase their performance in the workplace (Lauby, 2015). These extrinsic motivational methods include employee of the month awards, bonuses based on performance, benefit packages to employees as well as holidays and retreats for employees.
The alternative is intrinsic motivation. It can be defined as motivating employees by engaging behaviours that are personally rewarding instead of rewards that are extrinsic. This approach relies heavily on psychological needs to increase motivation. Some of the psychological aspects that are used include acceptance by peers, a sense of belonging, the feeling that an employees work is important to the success of a firm and comradery (Lauby, 2015). This is more deeply rooted in desires, and it provides a more powerful tool that can be used to motivate employees. However, Herzberg suggests that intrinsic factors, which make up the motivational factors, can only be effective if the extrinsic factors, made of hygiene factors, are addressed (Richard, 2013). Essentially, dissatisfaction employees cannot be motivated by intrinsic factors. As a result, how the HR department addresses the issues can influence the satisfaction of the employees.
Factors that impact motivation
As highlighted, employee motivation is influenced by several different factors. As per Herzberg’s theory, they can be subdivided into hygiene and motivation factors. This section specifically investigates how they influence the motivation of employees. The first hygiene factor is the pay. When the pay structure is considered unreasonable, the employees will be unmotivated to work. As a rule of thumb, HR departments need to ensure that the employee pay structure is equal to the work done. It should also be competitive in comparison with other firms in the same industry (Halsey, 2017). This will ensure that the pay does not dissatisfy employees.
The second hygiene factor is the administrative policies of the firm. This refers to the rules and regulations for working in the industry. Firms need to ensure that the policies should not be too rigid. Rigid policies tend to cause dissatisfaction among the employees. The working hours should be favourable, and the dress code should include days when the employees are allowed to wear casual attire. The third factor is fringe benefits (Halsey, 2017). When the fringe benefits are poor, this leads to poor employee motivation. These benefits include medical health plans, education plans and retirement plans. HR departments need to ensure that their plans are competitive. They should be at par with other firms in the industry.
The fourth hygiene factor is the physical working conditions. Employees are poorly motivated when the working conditions are unhygienic. The motivation also suffers when they do not have the right equipment. Firms should ensure that they make the working environment conducive for employees and that they provide modern well-maintained equipment to ensure that employees are not dissatisfied with the working conditions (Halsey, 2017). The fifth hygiene factor is interpersonal relations. This refers to the relationship between an employee and his or her peers. It also refers to the relationship superiors and subordinates. When this relationship is fractured, it can lead to demotivation of the employee. The final hygiene factor is job security. When an employee is always under the threat of being fired, they are unlikely to make any effort in the workplace. This causes low employee motivation as they will not feel like they belong in the firms (Richard, 2013). As highlighted, these are demotivational factors, may not increase the motivation of employees in a firm but when they lack it leads to demotivation of the personnel.
Herzberg’s theory then shifts to motivators or factors that increase employee motivation. One of these factors is recognition. This involves superiors recognising the input that the employees make. This can be done by giving employee of the month awards or by providing verbal and written recognition of the input the employee does in the firm. This can motivate the employee. The second is a sense of achievement. Humans have that need to achieve something during their endeavour (Richard, 2013). The HR management needs to ensure that the employees feel that they are achieving something when they go about their daily activities in the firm.
The third factor that influences motivation is the opportunity for growth and promotions. Psychologically, employees want to have a sense that they are progressing. It is one of the needs in Maslow’s hierarchy. This translates to the need for continual growth in the firm. HR managers need to ensure that employees get adequate opportunities to grow (Shields, et al., 2015). This can be done professionally by providing training to improve competency. Additionally, they should provide promotion opportunities for employees to keep them motivated.
The fourth factor that increases motivation is the increase in responsibility. This refers to the giving employees the sense that they have ownership of the work done. HR managers can achieve this by minimising control over the employees but retaining accountability. This will create the sense of responsibility in the employees (Shields, et al., 2015). The final motivating factor is the meaningfulness of the work done by employees. This refers to ensuring that the work employees do meaningful, challenging and interesting. When this happens, the employee is motivated to do their best.
The importance of employee motivation
Employee motivation is associated with positive results to the institution both in the short and long run. Motivation breeds a stable environment for conducting business and offering services even within the organisation itself. A motivated workforce will be readily available to take part in all the duties that are set up by the senior team members at all times. The employees will always be cheerful and full of positive energy that will translate to high performance for the organisation. Attitude and spirit are two significant forces at workplace will are a result of motivation on the path of employees. Job satisfaction is considerably brought about by a motivated workforce (Cascio, 2018). All the employees who are motivated will feel that the job they are doing is worth them and are proud of it. Loyalty to one’s work is a function of being able to get the feeling that they belong in whatever one is doing. Motivation is an element that can stir up a lot of positive things in an organisation.
A motivated work for the employee is always readily available to carry out the stipulated duties by the management. Employees will be free will to take up their responsibilities at a personal accord level and not as a direction from the administration. Functions that need to be done will always be done on time without failure or need for a constant reminder. Such a motivated workforce will observe arrival time and make good use of breaks and report back to duty stations on time. A workforce that is not motivated will always look for excuses to avoid work or delay it (Yu, 2017). Management will have to employ a lot of managerial tools such as supervisors or monitoring gadgets such as closed-circuit cameras to ensure that employees are not sleeping on duty. A motivated on the other side will be will to engage in the available tasks without supervision.
Every organisation experiences difficulties at one time, and it takes motivated employees to rescue the company from incurring losses or failing to deliver on its mandate. Unforeseen market forces may push a company to a problematic corner where it finds itself struggling to meet its expectations. In such circumstances, a motivated workforce is the only remedy to salvage the company (Noe, Wilk, Mullen, " Wanek, 2014). The performance limits are expected to be exceeded to turn around such trends, and only a motivated team of workers are ready to engage in such extra exercise to hold the firm up despite the unfriendly environment.
Cheer and energy in working place is a product of a motivated workforce. Employees who are motivated find it easy to interact with themselves since each has a defined scope of duty and role to play. The junior knows how to relate to their superiors, and the management understands how to be respectable to their subordinates (Shields, et al., 2015). The atmosphere in such a company will be one full of cheer as people go about their daily routine. Cheerful people will translate the excellent mood into energy which will enable them to work diligently and without strain or despair. A workplace where happiness is unheard of will always have struggles in carrying out its duties. A low spirit will still drain out energy from the muscle of its workers and people will not be focusing on completing their task effectively and efficiently but the lapse of time so that they can get out of work.
Motivation leads to cheering and positive energy which consequently makes excellent breeding grounds for teamwork. Team spirit is a function of high productivity and high corporate efficiency and profitability. A company is established of different departments that need to work together for overall good. When all appreciate the essence of collective pulling and pushing, the big wheel of profitability is easily made easier to work on with each person doing his or her part. Some duties are done at the same time while others wait for some to be completed (Noe, Wilk, Mullen, " Wanek, 2014). A team that works in harmony will have it, members aware of the time to chip in ensuring a continuous and productive run of productivity.
Communication is an essential element in any form of set up whether formal or informal. The channels of conveying information should be well stipulated and known to all members of a firm. Communication ensures that all the departments and workers are timely and adequately informed of every decision and instructions that are made. A company that has a well-configured means of communication that reach every employee is sure to improve the will and drive of its workers (Wojtaszek, 2016).
Job satisfaction is an internal feeling of completeness and fulfilment that emanates from a positive review of what one has done. A motivated workforce will always feel that it is in the right institution doing a job that suits him or her well. Motivation leads to good performance which will translate into positive appraisal and thus inspiring job satisfaction in an employee. Good performance always inspires pride and confidence in an employee. Every time on a performance well dome they would want to go back to work with renewed energy and execute it to better standards as compared to the previous times. Companies that have invested in motivating their employees will ripe such benefits as having their teams competing within themselves to boost more impressive results (Hashim, Fallatah, " Syed, 2017). The strategy creates an internal and sustainable source of energy in the group that will always provide a challenge to each person tasked to work.
Motivation in employees creates a bond between them and the organisation. Members of staff who feel satisfied with how the company treats them and of the relationship that exists horizontally and vertically between colleagues will always want to stick with the company. An environment where one can work with high inspiration and freedom to exercise one's training and abilities will make a worker want to stick by longer. The more time employees stay around, the more experience they develop, and this will be beneficial in attaining effectiveness in the business. Raw skill and talent are not comparable to one that has been polished and refined over time (Noe, Wilk, Mullen, " Wanek, 2014). Having employees who grow up the ranks within the organisation helps to train new junior staff and educate them on the culture of the institution.
Employee turnover can be very costly to any organisation. Employees can leave due to many factors and among them is lack of motivation. Companies use a lot of funds and resources to advertise, invite applicants for interview and conduct the whole process till though training and absorption of new employees into the system. Also, recruits take time to familiarise themselves with the responsibilities with the job descriptions and identification with the norms of the company, and as such, the efficiency of production and service delivery is significantly hampered. New employees may be a source of new thinking and new abilities, but an event where an organisation is experiencing a high turnover will see be a negative aspect. A high employee turnover is detrimental to the success of a business. Essentially, it means employees are leaving the firm more frequently. The detriment of this is that the firm incurs a high cost of onboarding and talent acquisition. Proper motivation can increase the likelihood of employees remaining in the firm leading to a better employee retention.
Motivation in employees leads to a good spirit and attitude in the workplace. Attitude is a preformed perception on how things will be. An employee with a positive attitude will always anticipate unfolding of positive things. When an employee is in a right view, he will feel that the work environment is going to be good. The worker will think that the job he is doing is right for him and he deserves it. An employee who is not motivated will always feel demoralised and not ready to carry out his duties. They think that the more they stick in their present place of work they are failing themselves and not living according to their expectations (Cascio, 2018). With time, such employees will begin to seek alternative areas of employment. An employee who is partly in and partly out looking for another job will fail to deliver.
Employee motivation and performance is directly related. Performance is a function of high motivation in an institution. On the other hand, motivation encompasses aspects such as the willingness, flexibility, and agility of the employees to perform their duties with a vision of producing if not exceeding their expectations. Motivation is an internal drive that is borne by an employee in his or her place of work (Lazaroiu, 2015). A motivated worker loves what he or she is engaged in and does not need to be continuously reminded or pushed to take on responsibilities assigned to them.
The main role that HR managers need to adhere to is preventing dissonance between the employee motivation and the performance. The most effective approach would be ensuring that the hygiene factors are at industry standard while the intrinsic motivational tools are optimized to improve the job satisfaction, employee performance and reduce the employee turnover.
Motivation among employees of any given institution is a fundamental aspect that must be well addressed of by the management. Motivation is responsible for the type of culture and institutional atmosphere that exists in the organisation. A highly motivated team will make up a happy and energetic workforce that will ensure that the company is running efficiently and efficiently at all the times. Motivation is a vital input that must be handled well to ensure that all the employees are in a state that will enable them to showcase their full potential and abilities for their good as well as that of the firm. Motivation is a result of factors such as right working conditions, recognition and rewarding, training, communication and exciting working environment. An organisation will reap a lot of benefits if it takes a keen interest in managing employee motivation at all times. A team of workers that are motivated derive energy intrinsically and exercise self-discipline and caution at all times. Duties are done and completed well and on time. Profitability and motivation are intertwined together. Finding a company performing well yet the employees is not satisfied with their working conditions is rare. The workforce will have low output levels and commitments to the organisation's objectives.
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