Motivation in the Workforce

The workforce is the machinery that an organization runs on. A company that has any hopes of being successful and retaining success will have to focus on retaining its best performing employees by motivating them to stay and perform to the highest of their abilities. Unmotivated employees are dissatisfied employees, and dissatisfaction in the work force leads to low productivity, high labor turnover and all the other problems that can consume the management’s time and effort to solve. Dealing with high turnover can itself be a sap on a company’s managerial resources.

In the past couple of decades or so, companies have increasingly begun to realize the importance of motivating their employees in order to not only retain their services but also to push them to achieve higher goals. Large amounts of money are spent to conduct seminars and workshops where employees can brush up their skills, and sops and incentives are provided to motivate top performers to stay on. Here are just a few ways management might motivate its employees.

•	Motivating employees is all about helping them correlate the well being and success of the company with their own well being or success. An employee who isn’t interested in the well being of the company will never be motivated to put in his best effort. At best, he may go through the motions, going about his daily duties and responsibilities, but you can rest assured he will never go above and beyond the call of duty to serve his company. This is the most crucial part of building motivation in employees. They must be encouraged to make the connection between their own happiness and the success of the company.
•	Encourage an open minded free environment in which the employee is at liberty to voice his opinions. Such an atmosphere will enhance productivity while a closed insulated environment where the management only likes to hear its own voice will de motivate employees, leading to high attrition rates. The management may encourage its employees to form focus groups and brainstorm their own ideas about the direction the company is headed. Here, the employee is made to feel like an integral part of the company, and is treated in a manner that makes him invested in the well being of the company. When such groups are formed, management should also take the suggestions and feedback of the employees into consideration.
•	In many companies, the word “employee” has been done away with altogether. Workers are referred to as “partners” or “associates.” This encourages a sense of ownership about the company in the employees. A person will naturally be more inclined to feel pride in and work towards the welfare of something that he “owns” as opposed to a place where he works. Some of the biggest companies in the world have made the switch to such methods to motivate employees and enhance employee morale. Some Japanese auto companies even have prescribed work uniforms that management and workers are required to wear. This helps eliminate any class distinction in the company between the employees and the management, and thus leads to a highly motivated workforce.
•	Delegation of responsibility is another way that a company can motivate its employees. It might seem difficult to let authority slip away from your grasp, but when employees are handed power and responsibilities in their department, those motivation levels are enhanced dramatically.
•	Little tokens of appreciation for no rhyme or reason can go a long way towards boosting employee morale and motivating them further. You need not wait for a special occasion to turn up. A little gift can raise flagging spirits and encourage grater productivity.
•	Recognizing the best performing employees is another morale boosting exercise that many companies have made a part of their annual exercise. Not only does this tell the employee who’s turned in a superlative performance that his superiors at the workplace are recognizing his efforts, but it also sends a clear motivating message to others in the company about the benefits of putting in their maximum efforts. Be careful however not to reward high performing employees at the cost of other employees. Doing this will take a certain amount of tact and choosing the right words.
•	Identify and encourage other areas where employees can use their talents. Your employees will most likely have skills outside their job description that could be utilized for the benefit of the company. Encourage employees to come out with ideas that go beyond what their job title describes and watch as motivation levels run high.
•	Make sure stress levels in the workplace are low. A stressed out employee is a disgruntled and unmotivated employee. You can keep the office environment stress free by keeping things consistent and avoiding too any changes in the work processes and office dynamics. Change is a good thing, but too much of it at frequent intervals can be exhausting to keep up with. Employees are more satisfied when they arrive at work everyday knowing what their duties and responsibilities are. Keeping things consistent goes a long way in keeping the workplace atmosphere stress free.
•	Don’t over police the workplace. Having rules and regulations is definitely a necessity but unbendable policies and guidelines can actually be quite demotivating. Employees need to know that the management recognizes them as people, not numbers that have just committed a blunder recording to Policy No. 43. A little flexibility and some amount of delegation of authority to the supervisors in charge will go a long way in making employees feel connected to the organization.
•	Other ways to motivate employees are to stimulate out of the box problem solving techniques that will help them hone their creative abilities.