Motivating

Employees
Lesson Objectives
• Why people work and what is motivation
• Benefits of a well-motivated workforce: labour productivity, reduced absenteeism and labour

turnover.
• The concept of human needs – Maslow’s hierarchy
• Key motivational theories – Taylor and Herzberg
• Understand the financial and non-financial rewards for motivation.
• Recommend and justify appropriate methods of motivation in given circumstances.
Activity:
• What would motivate you to go your future workplace?

• List them out.

What is motivation?

• Derived from the word ‘motive’ which means

needs, desires, wants or drives within individuals.

• Process of stimulating people to action to

accomplish goals.

• Motivation is the reason why employees want to

work effectively for the business.

Why people work ?
Security: a sense of security
Money: to pay for necessities
helps workers feel safe in their
and some luxuries
job and continue working

Why work

Social and esteem needs: Job Satisfaction: Enjoyment is

Feeling like a part of the group derived from the feeling that
and empowered to do the job you have done a good job
Benefits of a well-motivated workforce:
• High output per worker
• Willingness to accept change
• Two way communication with management
• Low labour turnover
• Low rates of absenteeism
• Low rates of strike action
MOTIVATIONAL THEORIES
 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-4ithG_07Q
F.W Taylor (Frederick Winslow Taylor)
• Started as a laborer in America in the 1880’s.
• Became a chief engineer.
• Conducted experiments at the steel company into labour productivity.
• Based his assumption that all individuals are motivated by personal gain.
Frederick Taylor
• Broke down jobs into simple processes and observed workers in relation to their
productivity.
• Higher productivity was rewarded with more money.
Criticisms
• Taylor saw employees rather like machines.
• His ideas were too simplistic
• You can pay an employee more money, but if they are
unfulfilled by their work, there will be no increase in
their effectiveness.
• A practical problem arises if you cannot easily measure
an employee’s output.
 Herzberg-
⮚ Based on his study of the work of engineers and accountants in the USA.
⮚ 2 sets of needs:- one is for basic needs, which is called the hygiene factors,
and second is for a human being to be able to grow psychologically, which
he called motivation
⮚ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ8ap4kWPxo

Hygiene factors (if not present,

Motivators
might demotivate employees, but
• Achievement
do not motivate employees to work
• Recognition
harder)
• Personal growth/ development
• Status
• Advancement/promotion
• Security
• Work itself
• Work conditions
• Company policies
• Relationship with supervisors and
subordinates
• Salary
Financial rewards
Methods of motivation:
Financial rewards:

Wages: Salary:
• Payment for work, usually paid weekly. • Payment for work, usually paid monthly.
• Paid to manual workers (such as warehouse/ • Paid to office staff or the management.
factory workers) • It is calculated as the amount of money per year for
• Workers working longer than normal hours can the job performed by the worker.
get paid for the overtime. • Employee has the money in the bank for a longer
• Weekly calculations can be time consuming. term as compared to wage payments.
• Time rate and piece rate can be used for the • No payment for extra time worked.
calculation of wages • Workers may prefer to be paid weekly.
Methods of motivation:
Financial rewards:

Bonuses:
• Additional amount of payment above
basic pay as a reward for good work.
• Motivates workers
• This can be paid to an individual or all
employees
• They can become “expected” by the
employees every year.

Commission:
• Additional payments made to the
sales staff in relation to their number
of sales.
• Similar to piece rate system of paying
wages.
• Can be stressful for the sales staff.
• High level of internal competition
Methods of motivation:
Financial rewards:

Profit sharing:
• A system whereby a proportion of the company’s
profits is paid out to its employees.
• Usually used in service sector businesses.
• Low profits and loss situation in a business will limit
the profits shared.
• Usually calculated on the basis of additional
percentage of their salary so higher paid workers
receive higher share.
FRINGE BENEFITS

• Businesses can give employee benefits like:

1. Company vehicle
2. Discounts on business products
3. Health care paid for
4. Children’s education fees paid
5. Free accommodation
6. Share options
7. Generous expense discounts
8. Pension paid by the business
9. Free trips abroad/holidays
• These vary according to the seniority of the
job.
Non-Financial rewards
Methods of motivation:
Non-Financial rewards:

Job satisfaction:
• Enjoyment derived from feeling that you have
done a good job.
• Organization should make sure that
employees are satisfied in their job.
• Some of the motivation theories identify
aspects of job that should be recognized and
fulfilled for all employees to be satisfied.
 Methods of motivation:
Non-Financial rewards:

Job rotation:

• Involves workers swapping around and doing each

specific task for only a limited time and then

changing around again.

• Increases variety in the work itself.

• Easier for managers to move workers around the

factory if an employee is on leave/sick.

Methods of motivation:
Non-Financial rewards:

Job enrichment:
• Involves looking at jobs and adding tasks that require more skill and/or responsibility.
• Additional training maybe required.
• Managers should design jobs in such a way that it fulfils higher human needs making the workers
more committed to their jobs.
Methods of motivation:
Non-Financial rewards:

Autonomous work groups/Teamworking:

• Involves using groups of workers being given responsibility for a particular process, product or
development.
• Workers become more involved and take responsibility for the process.
• A feeling of control over the tasks raises satisfaction as workers feel more involved in the decision
making process.
Methods of motivation:
Non-Financial rewards:

Training:
• It is a process of improving a worker’s
skills.
• Workers feel a sense of achievement
if they can successfully gain and apply
new skills.
• These workers could also be given
more challenging tasks.
• Workers may also feel motivated since
management recognized their work
and potential to learn and selected
them for training
Methods of motivation:
Non-Financial rewards:

Opportunities for promotion:

• It is the advancement of an employee
in an organization, for e.g.: to a higher
job/ managerial level.
• The business benefits from promoting
workers internally to higher level
positions since these employees
already “know how business
operates”.
• The workers also feel motivated since
they receive a higher status and more
challenging work to perform.
 ACTIVITY

Rank these in order of importance to you. Start with the factor that is most likely to motivate
you at work and finish with the factor that is least likely to motivate you at work.

• Impressive job title

• High pay
• Possibility of promotion
• Recognition for your work
• Pension scheme
• Job security
• Friendly working environment
• Training
• Company car
• Feeling like you are making a difference