Motivation of Staff Members - Essay Example

Name: Instructor: Course: Class Date: Motivation of Staff Members Why a Manager needs to Motivation Employees Hiring or recruiting employees is one thing while retaining and having their commitment is another. Motivation of employees is an important part of management, especially in human resource management, for enhancing commitment and will from the staff members. Clearly, motivation of employees is a very vital aspect of organizational operations and managers must have this within the work plan or operations framework of the company. Ideally, the success of any department, project or even strategy of the organization relies on the motivation and resultant commitment of employees. Recruitment, retention, productivity and profitability of the available human capital depends on the level of happiness, motivation and, therefore, hardworking employees. As much as motivation of employees is important for business and organization success, it has proven to be a very challenging and enduring part of human resource management. This is mainly because different employees have different likes, preferences and desires regarding what keeps them motivated and, therefore, hardworking. From the ideology above, one can think of factors around employee motivation as psychological forces that shape the staff member’s behaviour, conduct or response within the organization. If these factors, psychological forces, enhance a person’s commitment and hard work, then they also raise that employee’s level of persistence and effort as well. It is difficult to single out a particular employee motivation strategy that will apply across the board due the earlier highlighted dynamics. However, since they are psychological aspects, researches in disciplines such as psychology, biology, sociology and neuroscience, just to mention a few, have given a sneak peek on these issues around the human brain. Therefore, in a managerial attempt to improve employee motivation the human resource manager must take these psychological factors into consideration. Many successful companies and organizations have accepted the understanding, that a motivated workforce is a positive ingredient to better organizational performance by all standards. In this regard, there are many and various ways through which mangers can achieve employee motivation, ensure focus on set objects and, as a result, improve overall organizational performance. At the end of the day, many factors influence the workplace and job quality for the staff member, and employee motivation is one of these many factors. Swanberg and Simmons (119) explore the effects on job and work quality in relation to the physical health of employees. The physical health is a personal factor away from professional and work needs. The suggestion here is that realization of company’s goals and the productivity of the employees are dependent on the strategy that the company employs in its operations. Swanberg and Simmons (120) also identify employment security, co-worker support and employee motivation as determinants of productivity. The general view is that most organisations and corporations with flexible work programs are more productive in terms of the performance of their employees. They define a flexible work program as that which enables one to balance between productive work and satisfaction of social desires. In the article, respect to that flexibility is a show of the management’s recognition of the importance of all aspects of life, be it personal of social, to the stakeholders of a company. How a Manager Motivates Staff Employees Remuneration, which is considered the only real motivator at the workplace, is a form of direct compensation to employees. Direct compensation cuts across many professions and it entails basic salaries, premium payments for overtime, shift differentials or even longevity pay and such like. It also entails contingent programs where the community health workers are treated to incentive plans, awards, and merit pay or achievement awards. Particularly, direct compensation for employees has to be a payment plan made to them for services given to the clients, society or community on behalf of the organization. Therefore, in this sense, direct compensation has to involve monetary payments for time worked and results obtained. Besides direct compensation, there is also indirect compensation, which does not involve remuneration, as a way of motivating employees. Work place flexibility is one of such indirect ways of compensating staff members, through which a manager can achieve effective employee motivation.Sterdwick and Ellis (14) identify workplace flexibility, in terms of working shifts, as one of the most common practice by human resource managers. According to Sterdwick and Ellis (26) both small and leading organizations recognize this and prioritize it for proficient professionals. However, other strategies have their base on the sense that they have a degree of choice for suitable options of working. Workplace flexibility has a scope of advantages and benefits that it gives to the employer, employee and other stakeholders. The various orientations of achieving flexibility at the work place involve flexing time, as earlier discussed, flexibility of locations and flexibility in the employment structure, among others. The gains of implementing flexible work are the potential markers of a productive workforce. All stakeholders benefit from the implementation of flexible work options. For the employer, it improves the productivity of employees. With variation of working hours and location or work, the employees attend to most of their personal needs, hence, reduced employee leave-time and absenteeism. In addition, appreciation of employees’ periods of active energy and periods of fatigue motivates the employees thereby increasing their performance and work quality, and that improves the productivity of the organization. For the motivated employee, it provides time-resource for individuals to attend to personal needs thereby feeling satisfied all round in one’s life. Getting all this from work gives them job satisfaction as well and results in a raised morale for better performance. As the discussion suggests, there are various forms of workplace flexibility for indirect compensation of staff members; Flexibility in Nature of Work: This kind of flexibility can be viewed on the idea that the work option adopted by the company may be permanent or temporary. It can also be discussed in the sense that the employees are contracted on temporary basis. On the contractual basis, the arrangements are such that the company implementing this employs casual labour, use of agency workers and outsourcing as models of achieving their set objectives. Functional flexibility:It focuses on the adjustable schedules so that an employee can opt to work when their potential and performance capabilities are at the peak. For the employees, this type almost gives them total power of choice so that they have control over when to work and when to divert their attention to demands of personal life. Location flexibility:This is flexibility defined by where a person works for payment. This location in question is most commonly away from the company itself. The arrangements of this kind depend on the technology of flexibility so that one can work from home so they do not necessarily have to commute to workplaces daily. Time Flexibility: Work flexibility is defined in terms of the number of hours a day or numbers of days a week that an employer works. Flexibility on the number of hours worked is in relation to the part-time and job-sharing work options. Employers who have access to this kind of options can work for more than one organization in a day for a number of hours of their choice. They are thus not compelled to work particular rigid number of hours in a week. For employers who have adopted this kind, they have access to individuals who want to work part-time and in the same momentum, the company can easily scale employees down when necessary. Flexibility on the number of days, on the other hand, has basis on individuals working on a compressed week so that they spend more hours a day at work for fewer days a week. Can Employees Self-Motivate? Clearly, looking at the aspect of employee motivation suggests that it is impossible for an employee to achieve self-motivation for the organization. An employee, at the individual and personal level, can only pursue self-motivation to achieve an objective of personal development or growth. Motivation for better performance at the work place for the employer can only be an initiative of the human resource manager. In addition, the ways through which employee motivation is achievable, be it direct or indirect compensation, are those that can only come from the employers end. Besides better overall organizational performance and success of the business, there also legal factors that bind managers to seek employee motivation. Some of the legal factors around this are instituted laws that are mean to protect employees’ interests. For example, in the United States of America, the most influential are The Basic Labour Laws.From the discussion above, motivation of employees is not just about adherence to laws or protection of right, but also about work – life balance (Manfred and Holliday, 11). Work and life balance matter to employers because it improves quality of management and provision of quality public services. Accordingly, human resource management contributes by training its employee on work-life balance principles the finds problem solutions to conflicts of work and life. Regardless of whatever form of employee motivation, the need to balance between work demands and those of a person’s personal life is critical to that person’s productivity at the workplace and in their personal life. Work Cited Manfred, S. and Holliday, M. Work-Life Balance.Oxford: The Centre for Diversity Policy Research. 2004. Print. Stredwick, J. and Ellis, S. Flexible Working Developing Practice, CIPD Publishing. 2005. Print. Swanberg, J. and Simmons, L. Quality jobs in the new millennium. Incorporating Flexible Work Options as a Strategy to Assist Working Families. Social Service Review82 (2008): 119‐147. Read More