A motivated employee will be eager to be at work, and deliver on tasks as expected. He or she might even surpass expectations. A motivated employee is so easy to work with, and a great team player. Attaining individual and collective goals is always important to a motivated employee. For real, innovative ideas flow in the head of that motivated staff. The word here is “motivation”.
Motivation can be gained or lost right from the recruitment process.It is important for recruitment officers to be professional and also be humane in their decisions. A new recruit that feels under-priced during the recruitment process will only start work as a disgruntled staff. Trust me, nothing good can come out of a disgruntled staff than complaints. You think he or she should not have accepted the offer, if they are not fine with the terms. Yes, they will sign the offer letter, with the hope of getting a better placement soon after.
It is understandable that recruitment officers work with a budget, and they want to recruit the best talent(s) available. However, it is better to recruit a talent that falls within your budget, than demotivate a highly paid talent with unintelligent recruitment gimmicks ( I call it penny wise, pound foolish moves of recruitment officers). If you cannot pay them, negotiate with them. If negotiation gets to a point where the candidate accepts the recruitment terms, albeit dissatisfied, the recruitment manager should understand that such recruitment cannot be truly successful. Most likely, that employee will start looking for a new job from his or her first day at work. In a nutshell, start-off remuneration could be a determinant of employee motivation.
Still on remuneration, even for existing staff members, it is better to keep them happy. The happiness will have a ripple effect on their work output, loyalty and their relationship with the customers. When customers are satisfied, the business will thrive. Fairness and equity are very important in the workplace, for a healthy culture. The underlining principle guiding a pay structure should be fairness. When there is fairness and equity, there will be a culture that promotes good attitude, and that is performance focused. A culture like this will retain good hands; employee turnover rate will be low; hence, the cost (money and time) expended on recruitment will be minimal. Good and well trained managers will understand this.
A good on-boarding is also vital for a successful recruitment. Demotivation could set in, if the on-boarding/orientation of new employees is not skillfully planned. Research shows that employees resign within the first three months of starting a new employment, whenever they feel dissatisfied with the on-boarding program; especially, highly skilled professionals that are used to structured processes and environment.
It is also important to understand what each employee appreciates. This is an aspect that requires the line mangers to work with the talent manager, to keep employees engaged. There are some high flyers that organisations cannot afford to lose to the competition. Most organisations keep increasing remuneration and benefits for employees in this category. The consequence of this maybe that they get to a point of being overpaid and pushed to a high wall, or reach their career potential too early, and attract early retirement. This is not true motivation. It will lead to no success.True success comes from steady growth; and true leadership is a result of experience, skills, sometimes, age. From another perspective, lack of job satisfaction might be the reason many employees jump from job to job, after every pay raise, to increase their earnings. If employers think career is all about pay raise, invariably, there will be no sense of satisfaction and loyalty.
No doubt, good performance must be rewarded. However, it does not have to be a pay raise all the time. It could be a fully paid conference, training, job enrichment, promotion and title, flexible working conditions and so on. The point here is to understand what each employee appreciates. Yes, what motivates your staff, regardless of the size of the organisation. After all, there should be talent managers assigned to each region or axis, to make every employee’s work experience count. If we measure performance per individual, reward too should be individual tailored. General rewards are central, while individual rewards are specific. Every employee should enjoy both.
Another factor that affects employee motivation is the leadership style. What kind of a manager are you? A boss or a leader? A boss is everything no employee wants in a manager. While, a leader leads by example and with empathy. If you are humane enough in your dealings with a staff, you will earn his or her respect and loyalty. An example was when I wanted to poach a young man from his employer. I offered him twice his salary with his current organisation and offered him a clearer career path, but he declined my offer. His response was simply, “it is not about the money. My manager has shown me kindness and understanding so far; I cannot trade these two acts for anything else”. I was touched. Truly, people do not leave bad jobs, they leave bad bosses.
Having mentioned hiring impressions, on-boarding, remuneration and leadership, another important motivating factor in the workplace is the self. As an employee, you must be self aware. Have clearly defined goals and find a way to align your personal goals to your current function or organizational direction. If your goals can no longer fit into organisational goals, please, plan your exit from the organisation, and pursue your dreams. Ensure you live a balance life. Find time for the important people in your life. Do everything possible to overcome emptiness. Importantly, always encourage yourself to be the best version of yourself.
