Undoubtedly, employee motivation is an important consideration in any corporation or business. This is because it can mean the difference between failure and success for your business as encouraging employees to act as if they were owners of the company has been shown to be a successful business growth strategy. Conversely, canned motivation programs for employees often lead to disillusionment and lack of motivation as they are devoid of the personal touch that leads an individual employee to know that they are valued and appreciated. And it matters little the product or service that is provided by your company. As long as your employees are not motivated enough to meet your needs, they simply will not.

More than Money

Many employers hold the mistaken belief that all the motivation that an employee needs is contained in a paycheck. Yet more believe that investing in employee motivation strategies would lead to the business becoming bankrupt. However, what they fail to see is that they can ill afford not to. In addition, there have been cases where some cynical managers have claimed that business growth can never be attributed to employee motivation. Others have even gone as far as citing past instances where such strategies failed. This probably explains why most companies have skewed pay structures that reward the most diligent employees with the same pay as others who merely warm their seats.
Lack of an employee motivation strategy in a company will not only result in failure to achieve its goals, but also foster apathy and mediocrity among the ranks. Needless to say, the companies that are most successful in keeping their staff motivated usually go above and beyond implementing rewards and standards. They create and sustain a culture of employee motivation that permeates every level of the organization which then becomes a significant reference point for every process.

Case Study

In a business setting, the effectiveness of employee motivation strategies was sufficiently demonstrated by the Springfield Remanufacturing Corp. (SRC) where the company’s net profits increased despite a 1991 recession. The CEO witnessed first hand the results of a team of highly motivated employees when the company registered a production goal unlike any other in the company’s history. Consequently, the company earned very solid profits with the employees not doing anything markedly different. They had managed to solve several business related issues on their own largely because they wanted to do it. By earlier coining the phrase ‘You gotta wanna’, the CEO had managed to motivate his team which had previously been producing about 3 tractors per day to push over 800 tractors in under three weeks! From the foregoing, it is clear that when employees understand the company’s expectations and specific goals and realize what their rewards are likely to be, then they will be highly motivated to succeed.

What Works

Over the years, plenty of research has been carried out by human resource professionals on the subject of employee motivation. What is consistent is that employee motivation is not derived from a paycheck. It comes from other factors such as the work environment, feeling like you are part of the greater good, career advancement opportunities, being recognized for a job well done, and having employers who value employees’ contribution. Companies that act consciously to make employee motivation part of the agenda are the ones that not only attract and retain the best talent, but also succeed in surpassing their organizational goals.

Article Courtesy of: Apply Direct