Ways to Motivate Employees

EMPLOYEES today are different from those of previous decades. Old motivational strategies often do not work as well as they used to.

Dr G. Schuman's theory, published in the management magazine Management Solutions, highlights nine ways to motivate today's breed of employees:

1) Cross-train people on each other's functional duties to allow alternating job tasks.

2) Give special assignments that allow for personal growth and development.

3) Assign an experienced pro or senior to mentor a less experienced person.

4) Talk with people about skills they would like to develop and then look for appropriate learning experiences.

5) Take people to a meal/lunch to provide specific feedback on their performance. Ask how they feel about what is happening and what assignments they find interesting.

6) Provide rotating job assignments to different positions/ departments to allow people to broaden their skills.

7) Give assignments that are personally interesting or those that provide high visibility.

8) Assign people to various teams to broaden their contacts and expand their ability to work well with different kinds of people.

9) Allow the opportunity to develop creative or innovative ways for handling assignments.

EMPLOYERS' MORAL PRINCIPLES. Employees tend to give their undivided loyalty if they are motivated by the cultural values of their company. Some of the moral principles that managers/ corporations should inculcate are:

* Autonomy/personal rights. Everyone is intrinsically valuable and have the right to self-determination. Employees and employers should act in ways that demonstrate each person's worth, dignity and right to free choice. There should not be any thought to use others as mere "things" or as "means to an end".

* Loyalty. Promises, contracts and commitments should be honoured. "Loyalty includes fidelity, promise-keeping, keeping the public trust, good citizenship, excellence in quality of work, reliability, commitment, and honouring just laws, rules and policies." (Kreitner, Kinicki; Organisational Behaviour).

* The common good. Actions should accomplish the greatest good for the greatest number of people. One should act and speak in ways that benefit the welfare of the largest number of people while trying to protect the right of individuals.

* Human dignity. The lives of people are to be respected. Humans have value and dignity. Human beings have a right to life; we have an obligation to respect that right to life, and for people to seek employment to maintain adequate income for personal and family upkeep.

* Honesty. The truth should be told to those who have a right to know. One should speak and act to reflect the reality of the situation. There are times when others have the right to hear the truth from us, but we should also know that there are times when they do not have such rights.

* Fairness. People should be treated justly. One has the obligation to treat others fairly and justly, too. Justice includes equal, impartial and unbiased treatment. Fairness tolerates diversity and accepts differences in people and their ideas.

* Humaneness. There are two parts to humaneness: our actions should accomplish good; and we should avoid doing evil. We should do good to others and to ourselves. We should have concern for the well- being of others. Usually, we show this concern in the form of compassion, giving, kindness, serving and caring.

THE TRUTH. Although there may appear to be emotional and financial obligations to keep long-time employees on the payroll, co- workers and customers are cognisant of the fact that unnecessary costs are being incurred. Subconsciously, they realise that the added cost burden could have an impact on their salaries or prices of the products or services.

In many firms or workplaces, there are visible indications that employee attitudes are changing. With the exception of older, non- trainable workers who are close to retirement, the best course of action with this group of employees is to offer them retraining or give them a fair severance package with cushionable outplacement help.

These days, both employers and employees need to assess continually the skill requirements necessary and technical acumen relevant to meet future needs, trends, consumer wants and rapidly changing technology. Employees should monitor their skills and take advantage of every training opportunity.

Providing help and training which will increase the future value of one's skills could foster more loyalty than just clear-cut management acts such as giving handouts in the form of a "golden handshake" in corporate downsizing.

New skills proliferate pride. When a job outgrows the labourer, a good severance package combined with outplacement and training assistance would go further towards instilling loyalty than a meaningless position that provides little job satisfaction. The future focus for employers should be on directing employees towards securing the necessary environment, skills and training to become proud and productive contributors to society.

The writer is principal of RiskFirst Consultancy & Training Services. He can be reached at e-mail: jeruin@riskfirstconsult.com.my or jerwin001@hotmail.com. Part one of this article appeared last Saturday.