Employee Motivation - How? What? When?

Why do we need to motivate our employees?

Success and happiness go hand in hand when we look at achieving goals in the workplace. To achieve success, satisfaction and happiness together, we would most definitely need our employees to be motivated. This ultimately means that motivation is a direct product of happiness, work satisfaction and success. And when a person is happy, and content at work they tend to become more motivated, and will thus strive to succeed further. To further our discussion on this topic we would need to understand meaning of motivation. How is motivation created? And how can motivation be maintained? Why are these questions so important when we looking at motivation?

Well to begin with we have to understand the meaning of motivation. In normal terms ‘Motivation’ is:

“Internal and external factors that stimulate desire and energy in people to be continually interested and committed to a job, role, or subject, or to make an effort to attain a goal.”

https://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/motivation.html

So, basically motivation is excitement to achieve, drive to move forward and satisfaction at attaining desired outcomes.

How do we motivate our staff?   

According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory which was created by psychologist Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation”, individuals’ most basic needs must be met before they become motivated.

The following five levels are considered here:

1. Physiological – these needs must be met in order for a person to survive, such as food, water and shelter.

2. Safety – including personal and financial security and health and well being.

3. Love/belonging – the need for friendships, relationships and family.

4. Esteem – the need to feel confident and be respected by others.

5. Self-actualization – the desire to achieve everything you possibly can and become the most that you can be.

 According to the hierarchy of needs, you must be in good health, safe and secure with meaningful relationships and confident, before you are able to be the most that you can be. 

The Incentive Theory (Clark Hull, 1940’s/50’s), insinuates that our actions are often stimulated by a desire to gain outside reinforcement. The incentive theory is one of the major theories of motivation and suggests that motivated behavior is a direct result of positive reinforcement or desirable incentives. Therefore, creating the understanding that motivation is influenced by the promise of reward or an incentive to gain something in return for your efforts or punishment. Maybe a staff member has been promised a salary increment only if a certain task/project or professional goal is achieved, and if not achieved a negative response could come about, thus demoralizing instead of motivating. 

Overall, we can say that all these pieces of research are correct. Combined they make the perfect equation in order to acquire motivation among your team (collectively and individually). 

All basic needs met + desired incentives met = Motivation (& vice versa)

With the introduction of basic needs/requirements and with ongoing support and guidance coupled with a somewhat desired incentive (dependent on staff profile and professional plans) we may be successful in motivating the employee or team to succeed. You may only require one value from the equation or you may require all or you may not need any of these elements (especially for the self-driven employee). It maybe that you add the factors and remove some eventually once the motivation has been instilled within the individual or group of employees. Incentives may change over time and so will basic needs and the amount of support and guidance will also need modification over time. 

Scheduled, ongoing group meetings, individual supervision sessions, regular follow ups, individual and team vision, goals and objectives acknowledged and supported etc. are all productive ways in which you will be able to motivate your team. 

Tailor-made strategies for the individual employee, the sub-team and not forgetting whole-team will always be the most productive way to ensure motivation.

Get to know your staff, be honest, understand things from their point of view, what do they need right now? What will they need then? Acknowledge that you may have missed some information, do say ‘sorry’ and try to fix things as soon as possible. If you are unable to fulfill their requests – tell them! They’ll find out anyway and if you tell them in time they will not hold it against you and they will in fact respect you more for it. Set the rules with real explanations – your staff will admire you for your professionalism. If a mistake is made change it into a learning opportunity, empower your staff. 

Be their leader and with the right values in the equation you will be able to create motivation among your team – leading the team to a real dose of success!     

Shamila Nazim, Nursery Manager

Sunday 28th October, 2018

https://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/motivation.html