Abstract
The idea of job satisfaction or happiness is not new. In 1958, Landsberger was the first man who introduced the concept of job satisfaction with the Hawthorne effect. Even though the concept of job satisfaction was not mentioned in his studies but still it is marked as the base for the growth of job satisfaction concept.
Hawthorne effect highlighted the fact that, it is necessary to boost the employees on periodic basis in order to achieve the desired level of outputs (Johnson et al., 2001). The same fact was later on explained by Locke in 1976. It explained worker job satisfaction as happiness or positivity in attitude as a result of increment in salary or with increasing experience.
Restaurants have many employees but each employee doesn’t work with same excitement, passion or motivation. And if more than few employees of restaurants show same activity like getting stressed, tired and less motivated then it creates problem for restaurants.
There are many reasons behind such behavior. At the time of new hire the restaurants don’t mention clearly the terms, condition, job profile, salary and extra benefits that will be provided to employee which later creates misunderstanding and confusion. Restaurants fail to provide their employees a healthy and stress free environment to work which makes them tired and stressed out. Scolding and abusing employees in front of customers is another important factor which leads negative impact on employee.
Restaurants very rarely appreciate their employees in public but very frequently scold them in public which is very humiliating and which directly affects the loyalty of employee. Their views and ideas are never considered or appreciated which is another basic reason why employees are unsatisfied and lose interest. They don’t feel valued and their and their values don’t align with restaurants.
Dissatisfaction of employees directly affects their service that is given to customer, which ultimately results to customer dissatisfaction. A clear effect can be seen through various papers where the less loyal employees fail to provide a better customer service which further results in low retention rate of the customers. Sometimes this may also result into a poor brand experience to the customers. Loyal customers also make an organization to focus on the customers, while the unsatisfied ones decrease the focus. Majority of the restraints fail due to the same problem, as discussed in various research papers.
Introduction
It is necessary for every organization to motivate their employees in one or the other way. They need to provide them with the necessary boost and empowerment so that they can continue delivering in the same way. The organizations can promote them or increase their pays or can even provide necessary trainings so that their net workload gets reduced. Motivation is the key factor to not only employee empowerment but also to the success.
Employees are considered to be the backbone for any organization. Hence, the top-level management along with the Human Resource (HR) Department needs to formulate strategies that will actually help the employees to get motivated and work with full dedication. At the same time, on the basis of their performance and keeping their personal priorities as well, the management can provide them with several benefits and perks (Shil & Das, 2008).
The current report will thereby, try to focus upon how employees are motivated and what is the basic necessity to motivate the employees. Employees will be following the instructions provided to them, and accordingly, they will be following to achieve the desired objectives in a given organization. The current report presented here will thereby, try to analyze upon several facts and theories that help in empowering the motivation factor amongst the employees.
Analysis
It has been observed that, motivation and empowerment of the employees are linked with each other. Hence, we find that, if employees are not motivated on regular time, they will not be able to deliver as per the expectations of the organization. The current problems faced by the organization is regarding how to motivate the employees and how to boost their inner satisfaction levels so that they can perform well and complete the assigned responsibilities on time.
I am thereby, planning to introduce the reward program for the employees so that they get motivated and can deliver as per the expectations of the organization. it is necessary to make them happy from time to time. In addition, they need to remain productive so as to achieve the desired objectives. The key points of this program are thereby designed keeping these things into the consideration. They are listed as follows:-
Daily Competitions
The Restaurant arranges daily competition for their employees either for gifts or for their name to be displayed on a company board, which will lead to their name recognition in company. For example restaurants that deals with sea food offers a $10 gift card to the employee who serves maximum quantity of dinner during the working hours (Jham, 2005). Hence, the employee with the highest productivity levels will be receiving this reward.
Monthly Sales Goals
Monthly sales goals give restaurant workers a fair chance to win a prize or acknowledgement even if they have a bad night or two. For instance, one could offer a $500 bonus to whoever sells $20,000 worth of food at the end of the month.
Acknowledgement
Bulletin board on which employee of the month is displayed or on which some other achievements of staff is displayed motivates the employee to make its own bulletin board with his achievements and success stories. So restaurants should encourage such activities.
Training
Training in restaurant is very fruitful as it gives the staff a good knowledge of work and purpose to work. If the training is not proper and doesn’t provide instruction in detail to either new or existing employee they don’t get interest in work and are less motivated. They don’t complete the job on time neither they take it seriously as necessary. Staff should be trained by multiple people so that they can learn both the managerial and technical details regarding their job and responsibilities. They will be able to identify different aspects and hence, will be trained in a better way.
Longevity Bonus
The restaurants provides bonus or prizes to the employee who stays with it for certain duration for example restaurant gives cash incentives to its employee who works with it for duration of six month, a year and after every six month. This will attract employees and will give them reason to be with the restaurant for a longer duration of time and work with full enthusiasm.
Compliment
Restaurant appreciates its employees and rewards them when they perform well or achieve a sales target at the dinner or lunch. For example if an employee keeps calm while customer is complaining about food and service or losing his temper then the employee should be appreciated for handling the situation calmly.
Team Building
The restaurant motivates them to work in a team which encourages team work and employee works with full enthusiasm and interest. For example, if a restaurant takes their employee to a rock climbing gym then they have to work together to reach the top. It is necessary to work in a team-based approach rather than the individualistic approach. It helps to complete the assigned task in a better way and much before the time.
Work on the Level
The owner of the restaurant should get engaged in the works that are done by his employee to make them feel comfortable and build a healthy relationship with them. For example if there is a need to cut lemon in kitchen owner should cut that without hesitation, this will give a positive impact on the employees. They will realize that owner work as hard as they do which will motivate them to work even harder. The owner should try to provide all the necessary and required assistance so that the employees will be delivering as per the needs of the organization.
Meals
A restaurant offers free meals to its employee once in a while to keep them happy. As it is said employees who are fed well they work well and are happy employee. If this is done by the restaurant one in a week it will keep its employee happy and motivate them during working hours (McDougall, 2006).
Break Area
Restaurants have a break area where employees can play games or relax whenever possible. Relaxation time is provided to employee between the working hours that keeps them fresh and energetic that is related to their work (Murphy, 2004).
Theories that are followed by Starbucks are as follows:-
Economic Theories: It is based on scientific management concept. People work according to their self-interest and payment is directly linked with the work increment and output. At the same time, the employees are empowered on regular basis so that their job satisfaction level does not go down.
Maslow’s Need hierarchy theory
As per Maslow’s theory man has five basic needs which starts with psychological well-being and goes up to realization of our potential. These needs are basically safety, self-esteem, needs etc (Taylor & Baker, 2004).
Equity theory
Equity theory defines a comparative method that is adopted by an employee in which employees compare their own output/input ratio to the output/input ratio of another employee. This means the ratio of the output or return that they gain from their workplace to the amount of work from their side with which they serve their workplace.
While comparing the ratio, if the employee finds any difference in both the ratios, he becomes dissatisfied with his job and this provokes him to regain that equity. Equality in the ratios leads to an increased job satisfaction and gives rise to an urge to raise their inputs in order to get higher outputs. These outcomes comprises of edge advantages, belief in their jobs, flexibility in their work and all such requirements that an employee deserves from an organization.
Rewards Program
In order to provide rewards and bonuses, it is necessary for the employees to perform in the best way. They need to exceed the expectations of the organization and deliver much more than what is expected from them (Tai, 2005). However, at the same time, the rewards program should be designed in such a way that, it will boost the inner motivation levels of the employees.
The rewards program will include the following in order to overcome the issues of lack of motivation and job satisfaction:
Promote the employee, once he successfully completes two years of work experience at the given organization (Murphy, 2004).
Include ground-level employees into the meetings of the Middle-level Managers so that they can also provide their views and inputs on any given matter
Reward the employee with either increments or perks or by giving any other benefits on the basis of his performance
Reward the best performing employee with any gifts or prizes so that even other staff members can think of performing like him
Provide all the necessary assistance to the employees regarding training and development
The rewards program should be based not only on the performance, but should also take into the consideration the working morale and inner job satisfaction levels of the employees. It will help in overcoming the issues of motivation and lack of support from the organization.
Conclusion
The paper has discussed about the low motivation factor in food industries and has also focused on the solution to this problem by implementation of a reward giving technique. The paper also shows a comparison between the motivational technique followed by us and Starbucks. The various theories also show how the employees are motivated in order to make customers happy and loyal.
The paper also has shown how the plan is different from that of Starbuck’s in terms of customer satisfaction and loyal employees. The reward giving technique on daily, weekly and monthly basis has also been discussed through various examples. The award giving theory not only provides financial benefit to the employees but also gives them a chance to upgrade themselves among each other.
Such motivation techniques will definitely increase the customer satisfaction and will also have a high retention rate of the customers. This technique is helpful and beneficial for the employees as well as the managers, as they can keep the employees motivated which will thereby affect the image of the brand as well as will increase the profit sales of the restaurant (Matzler et al., 2004).
It is necessary for every organization to introduce policies that will boost the motivation amongst the employees. In order to increase the efficiency and effectiveness, the top-level management needs to provide all kinds of support to the employees. The employees at the same time need to update them and deliver as per the expectations of the organization. They need to complete all the projects and deliver them on time, and in return, the management needs to reward their performance. It will thereby, create a ‘win-win’ situation.
References
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