What is motivation?
Motivation is about the ways a business can encourage staff to give their best. Motivated staff care about the success of the business and work better. A motivated workforce results in:
- Increased output caused by extra effort from workers.
- Improved quality as staff take a greater pride in their work.
- A higher level of staff retention. Workers are keen to stay with the firm and also reluctant to take unnecessary days off work.
Managers can influence employee motivation in a variety of ways:
- Monetary factors: some staff work harder if offered higher pay.
- Non monetary factors: other staff respond to incentives that have nothing to do with pay, eg improved working conditions or the chance to win promotion.
Payment methods
Managers can motivate staff by paying a fair wage. Payment methods include:
- Time rate: staff are paid for the number of hours worked.
- Overtime: staff are paid extra for working beyond normal hours.
- Piece rate: staff are paid for the number of items produced.
- Commission: staff are paid for the number of items they sell.
- Performance related pay: staff get a bonus for meeting a target set by their manager.
- Profit sharing: staff receive a part of any profits made by the business.
- Salary: staff are paid monthly no matter how many hours they work.
- Fringe benefits: are payments in kind, eg a company car or staff discounts.
Non-pay methods of motivation
Managers can motivate staff using factors other than pay through:
- Job rotation: staff are switched between different tasks to reduce monotony.
- Job enlargement: staff are given more tasks to do of similar difficulty.
- Job enrichment: staff are given more interesting and challenging tasks.
- Empowerment: staff are given the authority to make decisions about how they do their job.
- Putting groups of workers in a team who are responsible together for completing a certain task.
