BUSINESS
It is quite certain that for ensuring the success of an organization, the workforce has to be motivated to achieve its goals. If the employees are not motivated, they will not be able to perform and yield results for the organization. Motivation is an intangible idea which makes the employee achieve the organizational targets in an efficient and effective manner. It is the core responsibility of the management to make sure that all the employee must feel motivated at work and they must come up with creative ideas to improve their motivation levels. Motivation could be achieved by several ways such as:
Incentivizing the employees
Giving monetary incentives to employees for achieving their targets is a great way to enhance their motivation levels. This move will make the employees feel valued for their contribution.
Non monetary benefits
Non monetary benefits are also helpful in improving employees’ involvement levels. Giving away small gifts, shopping vouchers, discounted meals or even a pat on the back can elevate employees’ motivation levels.
Leadership
Sound leadership is required to ensure that employee stay intact to their goals and keep on improving their motivational levels. When an organization has strong leadership, it will continue to inspire employees to perform their daily tasks with passion and yield improved results.
Job Rotation
Allowing the employees to improve their skills by allowing them to perform a variety of tasks with the help of job rotation is another way to improve their efficiency. When the employees are given several tasks to perform, not only their skills improve but they also begin to enjoy their job.
Participative Management
Allowing the employees at all levels to give their input for solving various organizational matters raises motivational levels. This is because employees feel valued and respected when they realize they have the right to raise their opinions. Participative management is good for improving the self-esteem levels.
Telecommuter
Telecommuting is considered as an effective way to improve make the employees motivated and involved. Allowing the employees to work from home at the convenience can certainly help improving their performance.
Representative Management
Building the knowledge of employees and making them feel that they carry the image of the organization can also generate motivation among employees. They will feel that they are an important part of the organization and one wrong action on their part can bring a bad reputation to the organization.
We will discuss job rotation, participative management, and telecommuting as ways to improve motivation levels.
Job Rotation
Job rotation is a great technique used by management when they want to motivate and retain employees. In job rotation, the employees are rotated among tasks or in simpler words, all the employees are given the opportunity to work on various tasks which contribute towards organizational effectiveness in their own way. In job rotation, employees not only stick to their own job responsibilities but also get the flavor of other tasks so as to improve their knowledge and skills (Ortega, 2001). When jobs are rotated, the employees feel lively and enthusiastic to perform at work because it saves them from the monotony of doing the same tasks over and over again for years. Job rotation brings novelty and a new level of motivation for employees. Job rotation is helpful in letting the employees understand how different work activities are performed and coordinated so that the organizations can succeed in attaining its goals. Job rotation is suitable for employees with varying levels of experiences, however, the approach is usually more successful when new hires are performed various tasks for a shorter period of time so as to give them a solid exposure of how the organization works and how different functions within the organization coordinate to achieve expected results.
Participative Management
The traditional approach in organizations was based on the fact that the senior management would take crucial organization decisions and then those decisions were trickled down to the employees for obeying. This approach had several flaws for instance, it would leave the employees demotivated because they had no right to express their novel ideas and opinions. Such a situation would lead to employees switching from one organization to another. This approach would although deliver results but the employees were left unhappy. Now organizations have realized this fact that in order to achieve success, they need to keep their employees happy and satisfied because employees lie at the root of an organization. When the employees are not taken care of, the roots will become weak and ultimately, the entire organization will suffer. On the other hand, if the roots are nurtured and looked after, then it is quite certain that employees will yield fruitful results for the organization. Participative management is one way to keep the employees motivated and loyal to the organization. This approach allows management to allow employees to give their input in important decisions of the organization. In fact, employees are encouraged to give suggestions on important organizational matters. This is because all employees have unique and novel ideas which if given a little encouragement can bring exceptional results for the organization in the long run. Allowing the employees to play their part in the decision-making process of the organization will not only make them feel a valued and important element of the firm but also give exposure to the management team about creative ideas and opinions (Kim, 2002).
Telecommuter
Technology has become quite advanced and everyone has now access to electronic gadgets such as smartphones and laptops. Office work has also become quite dependent on internet and gadgets. Everything including data has become computerized. Due to this trend, organizations allow their employees to stay connected to their workplace via their laptops and smartphones. This means that employee can a log on to the company intra-communication software while sitting at home or even at some far off location and complete his work online. Piskurich (1998) mentioned that telecommuting motivates the employees to a great degree because it allows flexibility and easiness of working from home. Telecommuting has also opened vast business opportunities. Now remote offices exist which appoint people from all over the globe and these people submit their work from their location to the organizational software thus making it easy for the organization to have talent pool from all over the world. Telecommuting is suitable for young mothers who can work from home while fulfilling their household responsibilities. Allowing the employees to work from the ease of home at least three to four times can certainly elevate their motivation levels because the transportation cost will be saved and the employee can generate more productivity while working from a comfortable location.
References
Kim, S. (2002). Participative management and job satisfaction: Lessons for management leadership. Public administration review, 62(2), 231-241.
Ortega, J. (2001). Job rotation as a learning mechanism. Management Science, 47(10), 1361-1370.
Piskurich, G. M. (1998). An organizational guide to telecommuting: Setting up and running a successful telecommuter program. American Society for Training and Development.
