T IPS FOR I MPROVING E MPLOYEE M OTIVATION

5.7 T IPS FOR I MPROVING E MPLOYEE M OTIVATION

Create a positive environment—Promote a workplace atmosphere that makes all workers' feel worthwhile and important. Don't play favourites with your staff. Keep office doors open and let folks know they can always approach you with questions or concerns. A happy workplace is a productive workplace.

Put people on the right path—Most workers' are looking for advancement opportunities within their own factory. Work with each of them to develop

a career growth plan that takes into consideration both their current

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skills and future goals. If workers' become excited about what's down the road, they will become more engaged in their present work.

Educate the masses—Help workers' to improve their skills by providing on-the-job training or in-house career development. Allow them to attend workshops and seminars related to the industry. Encourage them to attend adult education classes paid for by the company. Workers' will feel you are investing in them, and this will translate into an improved job performance.

Provide incentives—Offer people incentives to perform well, either with something small like a gift certificate or something more substantial such as a performance-based bonus or salary increase. Give out "Employee of the Month" awards. Such tokens of appreciation will go far in motivating employees.

Acknowledge contributions—You can make a huge difference in employee morale simply by taking the time to recognize each worker's contributions and accomplishments, large or small. Be generous with praise.

Honour your promises—Getting people to give their all requires following through on promises. If you tell an employee that he or she will be considered for a bonus if numbers improve or productivity increases, you'd better put your money where your mouth is. Failure to follow through on promises will result in a loss of trust not only that person's trust, but the trust of every employee that hears the story.

Provide career coaching—Help workers' reach the next level profession- ally by providing on-site coaching. Bring in professionals to provide one- on-one counselling, which can help people learn how to overcome personal or professional obstacles on their career paths.

Match tasks to talents—You can improve employee motivation by improving employee confidence. Assign individuals with tasks you know they will enjoy or will be particularly good at. An employee who is successful at one thing will have the self-confidence to tackle other projects with renewed energy and excitement.

REFERENCES

1. Kreitner, R. (1995). Management (6th ed.). Houghton Mifflin, Boston. Company. 2. Buford, J.A., Jr., Bedeian, A.G., & Lindner, J.R. (1995). Management in Extension (3rd ed.). Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Extension.

3. Higgins, J.M. (1994). The Management Challenges (2nd ed.). Macmillan, New York. 4. James R. Lindner, Understanding Employee Motivation; The Ohio State University. 5. Robbins, et al., Organizational Behavior, Prentice Hall, New Delhi, 2008, p. 215.

Motivation

6. Quick, Thomas L. (1985). The Manager’s Motivation Desk Book. Wiley, New York.

7. A.H. Maslow, A Theory of Human Motivation, Psychological Review 50(4) (1943):370–96.

8. Daft, Richard L. (1997). Management, (4th ed.) Harcourt Brace, Orlando, Fl. 9. Petri, Herbert L. (1996). Motivation: Theory, Research, and Applications,

(4th ed.) Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole., p.236. 10. McCoy, Thomas J. (1992). Compensation and Motivation: Maximizing

Employee Performance with Behaviour-Based Incentive Plans. AMACOM,

a division of American Management Association, New York, p. 34. 11. Steinmetz, L. (1983) Nice Guys Finish Last: Management Myths and Reality.

Boulder, Horizon Publications Inc. Colorado. 12. Steinmetz, L.L. (1983) Nice Guys Finish Last: Management Myths and

Reality. Boulder, Horizon Publications Inc. Colorado, (p. 43–44) 13. Goldthorpe, J.H., Lockwood, D., Bechhofer, F. and Platt, J. (1968) The

Affluent Worker: Attitudes and Behaviour, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

14. Weightman, J. (2008) The Employee Motivation Audit: Cambridge Strategy Publications.

15. Human Resources Management, HT Graham and R Bennett M+E Handbooks (1993) ISBN 0-7121-0844-0.

16. Robbins, Stephen P.; Judge, Timothy A. (2007), Essentials of Organiza- tional Behavior (9 ed.), Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, http:// wps.prenhall.com/bp_robbins_eob_9/64/16396/4197506.cw/index.html

17. Accel-Team.com (2004), Employee motivation , the organizational environ- ment and productivity.

18. Lindner, J.R., (1998) Understanding Employee Motivation, Journal of Extension, June 1998, Vol. 36, Number 3.

19. Anonymous, (1998), Beware the six dangerous myths about compensation, IOMA's Pay for Performance Report. New York: Dec. 1998. Vol. 98, Iss. 12; p. 1–4.

20. Smith, G.P.(2004), Provide a Positive Working Environment for Productivity and Retention, The Navigator Newsletter, Vol. 72, 19 March 2004, p. 1, Chart Your Course International, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

21. Kerslake, P., (2002), How to Create the Productive Office, New Zealand Management, Vol. 49, Iss 6, pp. 41–43, Profile Publishing Limited, Auckland.

22. Clemmer, J., (2004) Beyond Manipulating and Motivating to Leading and Inspiring, QNews, May 2004, p. 4.

23. Falcone, P., (2002), Motivating Staff without Money, HR Magazine, Vol. 47, Iss 8, pp. 105–108, Society for Human Resource Management, Alexandria.

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CHAPTER 6