Employee Motivation
In the last few decades employee motivation has become one of the key tools in increasing the productivity of many business firms, companies and enterprises. There are many different things that can motivate employees at their workplaces. These include financial rewards, status, public recognition, praise, acknowledgement, competition, safety and security, results, power, and many others. Companies have struggled in determining the best way to motivate employees for better performance, but it turns out that there is no universal strategy suitable for every company and every situation. That’s why so many different strategies have been invented and used by so many companies throughout the world.
I was once hired for a job at a financial services college, which helped financial advisors develop and accelerate their careers through obtaining designations. The college offered unique opportunities to many students because designations included Certified Financial Planner (CFP), Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC), Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU), Chartered Leadership Fellow (CLF), Registered Health Underwriter (RHU), Registered Employee Benefits Consultant (REBC) and others. The college also offered distant learning by means of computerized examination, which was another advantage. The company had a very well established system of power delegation at the time of my employment. Delegation of power was considered an essential part of the company structure and functioning, a good tool for increasing company’s productivity. Delegation of work was a good way of organizing the work process. It allowed department managers, to whom the work was delegated, to have more time to finish the projects and fulfill tasks, and to develop new skills.
There was however a pitfall in the system of power delegating in the college. Not all members of the working teams could freely participate in the process of power delegation, which caused low morale and decreases in company’s productivity.
One of the popular strategies to motivate employees for better performance is to clarify the company’s overall goals and mission to the employees at work. This helps employees to feel that they do not merely perform tasks, but participate in a big load of work, and every step taken moves the company towards achieving its goals and the overall organizational mission.
At my former workplace managers organized special meetings at which statistical data and charts presented the performance of the company in terms of company’s mission and goals. Every employee was asked questions about the effectiveness of the company in reaching the goals set on previous meetings, and in fulfilling the organizational mission. In general, these meetings motivated employees for good performance very effectively. Productivity levels were high, and most workers felt they participated in the organizational success. However, there was a pitfall in the field of customer service. Support staff in charge of customer service did not perform as well as the company required for good operations. The company should have developed a special strategy for motivating employees involved in customer service directly, the support staff.
My suggestion to the company of my former employment would be to implement effective employee empowerment strategies at the workplace. I believe this would significantly increase performance of most workers. A good strategy would be to target the support staff directly, which was a pitfall in the performance of the company. Employee empowerment, when properly used in a company, may lead to better motivation and performance (Adams). The company, however, needs to bear in mind that “empowerment does not mean that management no longer has the responsibility to lead the organization and is not responsible for performance” (Adams). The college should keep the present level of controlling and supervising, only include employee empowerment in regular meetings of the staff. Since employee empowerment “relaxes” workers, there needs to be created a strategy to balance the situation in terms of review and supervision, such as performance appraisal.
Performance appraisal is another strategy which could improve the productivity of the college. Performance appraisal is “the process of reviewing employee performance, setting new performance objectives, documenting the review, and delivering the review verbally in a face-to-face meeting” (Wikipedia). This strategy allows the company to involve employees in setting objectives and analyzing the way these objectives have or have not been reached. A good strategy for the college would be to implement annual performance reviews for the purpose of giving feedback on the performance of managers, employees, and the company as a whole, to set new objectives for future performance, and to discuss decisions connected with personnel (Wikipedia). Performance appraisal and employee empowerment are good strategies to be used together in order to create balance at workplace.
Bibliography
Adams, A. (2005) Employee Empowerment. Retrieved May 2006 from Adams Six Sigma. Web site: http://www.adamssixsigma.com/Newsletters/ employee_empowerment.htm
Wikipedia. (April 2006) Performance Appraisal. Retrieved May 2006 from The Free Encyclopedia. Web site:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Performance_appraisal