It is commonly accepted that high motivation leads to better quality of performance and employees’ satisfaction. According to Stella (2008) employees’ motivation is a deep psychological process that promotes objectives for further achievements. It should be noted that motivated employees, generate higher revenues for the company and are more satisfied with their work. Proper usage of motivational stimuli enhances the company’s prosperity. However, the key question for each human resource manager is why personnel are not performing as well as expected. What should be done to improve this?
In this paper, we shall describe the three motivational concepts, which can be successfully implemented in the company in order to improve performance. The first concept deals with the creation of a motivational environment, which serves as an integrity of conditions, enabling the employees to achieve the company’s targets. The implementation of the motivational environment components may prove to be extremely important for efficient performance.
An adequate system of rewards should become the company’s priority in high-performance achievement. The reward system concept contains financial and non-financial components, which, if used wisely combined, may become perfect drivers of a company’s performance improvement. It should be noted that the employees are more easily motivated if they have a right to choose the combination of financial and non-financial rewards most suitable for their personality.
The third concept is closely connected with the KPI system (key performance indicators). In order to find the optimal scheme of motivational factors, which may most positively hit the performance, the KPI system may be efficiently used. This system allows optimal flexibility in the estimation of the performance results. It may be applied to groups of employees and single individuals. The KPIs helps the managers to evaluate the performed work, its efficiency, and benefits for the company, allowing elaborating of adequate recommendations for further performance improvement.
Motivational Environment Implementation Plan
The empirical evidence suggests that the motivational environment is highly dependent on the factors linking managers’ ability to define the company’s objectives and employees’ personal qualities:
Personal qualities of an employee (diligence, goal-oriented character, and ability to get the job done);
Availability of instruments and resources in the company;
Managers’ ability to maintain the motivational environment in the company.
Beyond labor force personal characteristics and actual resources in the company there may be situational factors as well; for instance, a challenging work, opportunities for self-realization and expected rewards, which may significantly influence the creation of a motivational environment. However, implementation of such an environment requires serious consideration of implementation techniques and expected outcomes. Thus, in order to create a motivational environment in the company able to increase productivity and performance the company should:
Consider company’s objectives, values, and missions;
Support corporate culture: beliefs, formal/informal values, morale;
Assist in implementation of team-building and training programs;
Analyze the existing leadership style in the company;
Track the employees existing relations issues;
Regard the demographics of the labor force population (such as experience, age, gender, qualification, skills, etc.)
Implementation of motivational environment can help to improve the bottom-line company’s results and productivity. Beyond the financial performance improvement, it may increase employees’ job satisfaction, reducing absenteeism and negligence. It is important to underline that teamwork and communication improvement are strong motivational factors promoting significant performance improvement.
Implementation of Financial and Non-Financial Motivational Factors
According to Yousaf, et al. (2014), the crucial factor is the balance between the financial and non-financial reward system combined with an adequate motivating environment in the company. The scheme of workers’ optimal motivation paradigm should be able to combine both financial and non-financial factors to be able to improve performance. The company may be attractive for an employee if the following conditions are satisfied:
The reward system is clearly articulated;
The reward represents the combination of financial and non-financial components;
The employees are perfectly aware of the company’s reward policies;
It is important that the employees know about their compensation plans (financial or non-financial) and expected moral benefits (gain sharing, pay-for-knowledge, life-cycle benefits). However, managers can efficiently motivate their employees if implemented the balanced system of financial and non-financial rewards considering the following factors:
Salary payments depending on the experience, skills and maturity of the employees;
Annual reconsideration of payment conditions;
Flexible bonus/commissions schemes depending on the revenues generated by the employees activity;
Serious consideration of employees’ learning opportunities within the company and outside;
Careful and flexible approach in dealing with unexpected situations and dispute issues;
Respect for cultural diversity and individual values;
Efficient employment policies and personnel selection in order to find the people more suitable for the existing company’s environment.
Financial and non-financial reward system in the company serves as a fundamental basis for reflecting the company’s business strategy and values. In other words, the criteria for the company’s successful performance lies in the sphere of a properly implemented reward system.
The Key Performance Indicators Implementation Plan
Third, one of the most promising and flexible motivational practices able to improve work performance is the key performance indicators (KPI) system . Application of KPIs in the company can help to adequately estimate the overall performance of each employee. This approach enables the CEO and executives to control and evaluate the efficiency of labor force performance and create an adequate rewarding system. The advantages of the KPI system approach can be represented by such important components as manageability, fairness, transparency and permanency.
The KPI system demands close cooperation between managers and employees. The KPI implementation plan includes the following stages:
The preliminary discussion of KPI strategies with all team members;
Organization of presentation concerning the KPI system and feedback collection;
Correction, negotiation, and approval of KPI implementation plan;
Explanation of reporting, calculation and estimation procedures to employees;
Organizing the company meeting and summarizing the first results of KPI implementation.
The KPI system allows accomplishing various goals stimulating productivity and boosting work experience. The company’s management can establish the periodicity of KPI assessment for the employees to find out the optimal balance between the expected results and actual performance. Besides, the special report design of the KPI system allows getting timely feedbacks and associate inputs from employees. This procedure helps to use the appropriate reward method to enhance the motivation of the labor force, which inevitably reflects on the performance improvement.
References
Iveta, G. (2012). Human Resources Key Performance Indicators. Journal of Competitiveness, Vol. 4(Issue 5), pp. 117-128.
Stella, O. (2008). Motivation and Work Performance: Complexities in Achieving Good Performance Outcomes; A Study Focusing on Motivation Measures and Improving Workers Performance in Kitgum District Local Government. Institute of Social Studies (ISS), pp. 1-83.
Yousaf, S., Latif, M., Aslam, S., & Saddiqui, A. (2014). The impact of Financial and non-Financial Rewards on Employee Motivation. IDOSI Publications, Vol. 21(Issue 10), pp. 1776-1786.
