Techniques for Motivating Employees

Techniques for Motivating Employees

Introduction

It may be important to ask why it is imperative for managers to motivate their employees, the answer borders on extending their stay in the place of work. Workers are the backbone of the organization and in the event that they do not commit to it, then there will be no incentive to do best at their jobs (Arruda 2016). Some research done in 1988 indicated that 86% of companies found it hard to attract new employees and 58% of these companies had challenges with retaining the ones they already have (Studer and Knecht 2016). Much as this data may be old, it is still the reality even today. Apart from the financial loss that comes with losing employees, there is also the aspect of losing knowledge and experience that the employees may have and this is the most valued asset that employees have Belloc, H. (1967). This major cost may be avoided by motivating workers so that they may continue to be committed to working for a given organization. This paper highlights some of the major techniques available for motivating employees at the workplace.

Background on Motivation

A motive is a desire or some need which causes an individual to act. Therefore, motivation is the process of offering a motive which causes an individual to take some given form of action. In majority of cases, motivation is derived from some need that causes behavior and which ultimately results in some form of reward in the event that such a need has been fulfilled (Petri and Govern 2013). In a work set-up there is need to understand what inspires employees so that they may offer excellent service and to market the products of a given company in an effective manner or for them to realize the goals of a given company. It is important for managers to answer this kind of question for them to have a full understanding and management of the behavior of their peers and supervisors.

Theories of motivation

There exist many types of theories that offer to explain the concept of motivation. Many researchers have studied the subject of motivation for more than a century and they have met significant progress while explaining it and this may be interpreted at the place of work. Below are some of the techniques in terms of theories that may be employed in motivating employees in an organization (Belloc 1967). They include Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, two-factor theory proposed by Herzberg and other kinds of motivation such as extrinsic and intrinsic.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory

Abraham Maslow is one of the pioneers of psychology of the 20^th century and the hierarchy of needs along with the pyramid he developed indicate some of the needs and indicate an image that most managers are familiar with. The theory is based on a single non-complex premise that individuals have needs that are ranked in a given order (Hunter 1996). There are some particular needs that are basic to everyone and in case they are absent, nothing does not matter again. As people satisfy these individual needs that are basic in nature, people begin to satisfy needs of higher-order. In case a lower-level need has been satisfied then it will no longer server as a motivator to an employee (Studer and Knecht 2016). In this regard, it is only important that a manager motivates their employee by helping them satisfy the least and basic needs first before proceeding to the other needs.

One basic concept of this theory is physiological needs which encompass air, water and food. When an individual is very hungry, all their behavior may be towards finding food to eat (Arruda 2016). After they have eaten, they may stop to look for food and whenever they have been promised food again, it may not serve as a promise once again. The theory transcends physiological, safety, social, esteem and lastly self-actualization in that order. Maslow’s hierarchy is a detailed way of thinking concerning the variety of needs that employees may be having at random and it offers different ways to react to such kinds of treatments. For instance, a worker who is trying to satisfy their esteem needs may be gratified when their manager offers some praise (Studer and Knecht 2016). However, some other employee who has social needs may not like being praised by their manager in the presence of their colleagues in case the praises may set them apart from their peers.

Therefore, how then may a manager satisfy the needs of their employees? This may be achieved by leveraging the many kinds of planning-organizing-leading-controlling (P-O-L-C) functions. In the end physiological needs may end up being satisfied by an individual being paid but it is also imperative to know that payment may also satisfy other needs which include esteem and safety too (Richardson, Karabenick and Watt 2015). Offering generous benefits that include health insurance and retirement benefits provided by the company and also provision of job security will help in providing safety needs. Satisfaction of social needs may be done through having a friendly environment and offering a place of work that is safe for collaboration and communicating with other people. Organizational picnics as well as other social gatherings may be important if most of the employees are motivated in the most basic way through social needs but may result in resentment if people have to sacrifice their times of rest or worship days for such activities (Ondabu 2014). Provision of opportunities for promotion at the workplace, recognition of the commitments done by an employee through formal means or even verbally, issuance of job titles which show the high status that one has reached are some of the ways that satisfaction of esteem may be arrived at. Self-actualization needs may be realized by provision of development as well as growth opportunities and also by assigning employees with challenging work. By making sure that each of the different needs are satisfied, every manager will be sure that their employees are highly motivated.

Existence, Relatedness and Growth (ERG) Theory

ERG theory posited by Clayton Alderfer is a revision of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory. Here, in place of the five needs which have been arranged in order, Clayton reasoned that needs may be classified into three categories which are Existence, Relatedness and Growth. Existence is aligned with Maslow’s physiological as well as safety needs while relatedness borders on social needs and growth borders on esteem and self-actualization (Ross 2009). This theory has relaxed the assumptions made in Maslow’s theory. For instance, the theory does not give rank to needs in any given order and it out rightly recognizes that any given need may operate at any moment. Furthermore, the theory has an aspect of frustration-regression which suggests that people who get frustrated with their attempts to satisfy their needs may end up regressing to another need Belloc, H. (1967). For instance, an employee who gets frustrated by not having opportunities for growth in their place of work and have slow progress towards their career goals may wish to regress to some other related needs and they may want to spend their time socializing with their workmates. This theory, therefore, advises that managers should recognize the many needs that employees may be having at any given point in time so that they understand the behavior of these employees and also to motivate them.

Two-Factor Theory

This theory was pioneered by Frederick Herzberg who had a totally different idea about the concept of motivation. He asked people what satisfies them at the place of work and what dissatisfies them from the same and he then came to the conclusion that aspects of the place of work that make people satisfied are very different from those that dissatisfy them. He labeled those ones resulting to dissatisfaction as hygiene factors due to the fact that they were within the environment where the job was performed and not the real job. Hygiene factors were like supervision, organizational policies, conditions at the workplace, safety, salary and job security. An example is when an individual is working in a job that is unpleasant to them such as their office being too hot or even being too cold or they are being harassed by their manager (Ross 2009). Such a person may likely be miserable at their place of work. However, if the manager solves these problems it would not really motivate them since they would take it as normal things that should have been corrected. In reality many factors at the place of work are things that people miss when they are not there but do not appreciate them when they are there (Arruda 2016).

On the other hand, motivators are those other factors that are intrinsic to the work environment which include recognition, achievement, having more responsibilities, lively work, growth opportunities and advancement (Arruda 2016). In line with the research Herzberg carried out, motivators are the work conditions that encourage workers to try quite hard to make it in their job. Therefore, the technique that a manager in a given organization has to apply would be to ensure that such motivating factors are given to their employees.

Conclusion

There are different ways and techniques for motivating employees at the place of work. There exist financial, non-financial and even non-financial types of motivation that managers may use to help them in motivating their workers in order to make them be the best that they can be. This offers them the opportunity to change the prevailing culture of their given organization and then create one where workers are motivated and even valued. Each employee is different from their colleague and the needs they have are varied. Therefore, the manager has to take such factors into consideration even as they recognize the difference so as to ensure that they are helping them in realizing their needs. Not everyone is motivated by one factor, but it could end up being a combination of many things that really matter to them at their place of work.

References

Arruda, C. (2016). What Kind of Theory is the Humean Theory of Motivation?. Ratio, 30(3), pp.322-342.

Belloc, H. (1967). On. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press.

Hunter, M. (1996). Motivation theory for teachers. Thousand Oaks: Corwin.

Ondabu, I. (2014). A Theory of human motivation: The Tirimba Grouping Theory of motivation. SOP Transactions on Economic Research, 1(1), pp.16-21.

Petri, H. and Govern, J. (2013). Motivation. S.l: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.

Richardson, P., Karabenick, S. and Watt, H. (2015). Teacher motivation.

Ross, B. (2009). Advances in research and theory. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Studer, B. and Knecht, S. (2016). Motivation. Amsterdam: Elsev