Employee Motivation and Engagement
One of
the most frequently debated subjects in every firm is how to increase employee
overall performance. Furthermore, it affects the employee’s efficiency and
effectiveness. But what will be the starting point of enhancing performance? it
is the positive mind set, and the positive vibes running through from top to
bottom in an organization which will create a solid platform for an employee to
actively participate and engage in day-to-day work. In
simple terms this can be called as employee motivation and engagement.
Employee
motivation is all about ensuring that employees are in a positive mindset to do
their daily job functions. As per Sounders (2021) motivation define as “a
change in behavior, thoughts, feelings, self-concept, environment, and
relationships.” Furthermore, motivation includes empowerment, creativity and
innovations, learning, quality of life and monitory incentives.
In an organization, it is imperative to set a working culture, embedded with strong ethics and values which will directly influence and enhance the employee creativity and motivate them to run that extra mile for the organization to achieve its goals and objectives Said by Bawa, (2017). According to CIPD (2021) “employee engagement is based on trust, integrity, two-way commitment and communication between an organization and its members.” Prioritize diversity and inclusion, improve transparency, organize social outings, empower to take ownership, and recognize and reward employees publicly are the ways of engaging employees in an organization.
Driving
extra ordinary performance
Profit
is the core of any company. As per Schrita Osborne (2017) “Disengaged employees
typically cost U.S. corporations $350 billion annually”, therefore, to mitigate
this cost, organizations need to set up a platform which drives extra ordinary
performance of its employees to maximize the profitability of the organization in
a sustainable manner. In this, it is extremely important to motivate and engage
employees. The sustainability of an organization majorly depends on the level
of engagement and the motivation said by Schrita Osborne (2017)
“A
substantial body of theory and empirical evidence exists to attest to the fact
that motivation and productivity are concepts which have been subjects of
immense interest among researchers and managers” Stated by Bawa, (2017). In
doing so, there are several ways to motivate employees.
- Empowerment
- Employee empowerment is primarily concerned with assigning
responsibility and authority to make decisions to employees. This
encourages employees to give 100% since they feel valued.
- Creativity
and Innovation - There are several businesses that do not enable employees
to express their innovative ideas. But if a company allows employees to
freely do innovations, they will be motivated. For an example 3M company
encourage their employees to do 3 innovations every quarter and they will
be rewarded on same.
- Learning
– Organizations should always facilitate its employees training to improve
their skills. This drives their creativity and innovation in return.
- Quality
of Life - Ensuring the quality of life of an employees should be taken
care by the organization in other words this can be called as work life
balance.
By
implementing above mentioned forces to motivate people, organizations can reap
unprecedented results. As per Skinner (1981) Increasing performance, higher
productivity, positive working culture, greater innovation, and easier change
management are key results of having a motivated work force for an
organization. Furthermore, this was proven by (VARMA, 2017) “it is also
noteworthy for organizations to stop loses of performing employees due to
decreasing job satisfaction and lack of motivation to continue with the
organization for long. Motivated and satisfied employees will have committed
approach towards organizational objective”
In
parallel to motivation, employee engagement is also an equally important factor
for its stability. Any successful organization is backed by a committed
employee base and the commitment is the result of motivation and job
satisfaction. It is the energy that forces employees towards organizational
goals concluded by VARMA (2017) It would be an impossible task for an
organization to sustain without employee commitment.
SHRM,
2006 has stated that, commitment will be enhanced through better engagement of
employees. In actively getting employees to engage, following steps can be taken,
- Prioritize
diversity and inclusion - To keep your staff engaged, you need to create a
business culture that welcomes everyone. You convey an extremely
supportive message to your staff by celebrating diversity
- Improve transparency – It
is vital to have trustworthy leadership in an organization which enables
the employees to place full of trust on the management and count on their
leadership and guidance towards the journey of success.
- Organize
social outing – it is important to let employees to connect with all the
team members equally so that they will be happy to work more, and it will
create an open feedback culture.
The
research done by Sarangi (2016) proves that there are other factors that
improve the purpose of effective employee engagement are clarity, confidence,
convey, connect, credibility.
“Positively
influenced work force, enhancing the customer service, comfortable staying in
their role are the benefits that a company could experience by creating an
engaged work force” (SHRM, 2006)
References
Bawa,
M. A., 2017. EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION AND PRODUCTIVITY: A REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND
IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGEMENT PRACTICE. International Journal of Economics,
Commerce and Management, V (12), pp. 662-673.
Chartered
Institute of Personnel and Development, 2021. Engage for success. [Online]
Available at: https://engageforsuccess.org/what-is-employee-engagement/
[Accessed 19 March 2022].
Dr.
PratimaSarangi, D. B. N., 2016. Employee Engagement and Its Impact on
Organizational Success. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 18(4), pp.
52-57.
Nitin
Nohria, B. G. L.-E., 2008. Employee Motivation. [Online] Available at:
https://hbr.org/2008/07/employee-motivation-a-powerful-new-model [Accessed 21
March 2022].
Schrita
Osborne, M. S. H., 2017. Effective Employee Engagement in the Workplace.
International Journal of Applied Management and Technology, 16(1), pp. 50-67.
Skinner,
W., 1981. Managing Human Resources. [Online] Available at:
https://hbr.org/1981/09/managing-human-resources [Accessed 21 March 2022].
Society
of Human Resource Management, 2006. Employee engagement and commitment,
Alexandria: SHRM Foundation.
Souders,
B., 2021. PositivePhysicology. [Online] Available at:
https://positivepsychology.com/what-is-motivation/ [Accessed 19 March 2022].
VARMA,
D., 2017. IMPORTANCE OF EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION & JOB SATISFACTION.
International Journal of Social Science & Interdisciplinary Research_,
2(6), pp. 10-20.
Hi Samantha, I agree with the contents of the post. As it is emphasised in Karanges, et al (2015), employees willing to commit both emotionally and rationally within the organization is defined as Engagement. According to Osborne, S. and Hammoud, M. S. (2017), engagement level of employees affects the productivity of an organization and motivation level relates to job satisfaction.
ReplyDeleteHi, Nilushi to support your comments, increasing employee engagement in the twenty-first-century workforce is critical because strong employee engagement can boost productivity, profitability, customer focus, and other beneficial organizational outcomes. In other words, high employee involvement has a beneficial influence on individual and business performance Siddhanta & Roy, (2010)
DeleteSamantha, your post clearly describes that engagement is a sense of purpose, attribution, and commitment to an organization, whereas motivation is the willpower and drive to act on those feelings. Based on findings of Mohanan and Kumar, (2012) employees may be motivated on the job by many things, such as a sense of achievement, recognition, enjoyment of the job, promotion opportunities, responsibility, and the chance for personal growth. To maximize the potential of the employees it's important that employers create a work environment where team members can be involved and motivated. The two concepts often work together, but to get the best results, employers need to distinguish between the two and get the best results from their employees.
ReplyDeleteHi Chamara Employee motivation in the workplace is still a delicate topic that defines the level of effort that employees will put into the business in order to commit to good performance. This indicates that inner and extrinsic motivation both contribute to employee happiness, which improves performance and productivity (Bhattacharyya, 2007)
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ReplyDeleteHello Samantha. You have very well described the factors of motivation and employee engagement. I would like to add a thought from a study by Singh (2016), where his study findings claims " that future information leaders and managers should recognize that intrinsic factors play a bigger role in employee motivation and put more effort into creating a culture of respect, recognition, trust, and autonomy when tailoring their management strategies to tap into the emotions of their coworkers. These intrinsic motivators are more important to staff than extrinsic factors such as money. LIS educators have a role to play in developing graduate expectations within an holistic framework that furthers professional development and career advancement".
ReplyDeleteHi Udana your points are well taken however, according to George and Jones (2012, p. 146) extrinsically motivated employees are generally motivated when they get positive appraisals or reinforcers provided by other people, and they are often motivated by factors like their salary at the end of the month or a bonus, raise, or promotion.
DeleteHello Samantha, I agree with the contents of this post. I would like to add few more things to it. Employee motivation is very important in organizations because it is basically the practice on which outcome depends. Motivated and committed employees are more innovative and often come up with creative ideas. Such employees become more engaged and involved and contribute in growth of organization. They may change the market conditions with positive actions. According to Shaheen and Farooqi Employee motivation is positively related to Employee commitment, Job involvement and Employee engagement. Motivated employee was more committed with their job. So employer need to provide motivation to employees at different levels. Positive relation shows that motivated employees were more involved and more engaged in their job (Shaheen and Farooqi, 2014)
ReplyDeleteHi Dinith I am very much in line with your comments, further, I would like to add employee engagement is driven by both intrinsic and external factors, such as career progression prospects as well as hard job tasks. Furthermore, the main drivers are frequently linked to how leaders act, such as their passion for employee health, wellness and well-being and how they assure the organization's performance, and how they communicate with their employees (Towers Perrin, 2008).
DeleteHello Samantha. Well explained blog and I totally agreed on this post. Employee engagement, according to (Muthike, 2016), is described as employees' willingness to work extra hours, trust the organization and what they stand for in order to contribute to the organization's success.
ReplyDeleteHi Ruwan I accept the valid points, you have highlighted on the employee engagement topic and I would like to further comment in a nutshell, work motivation defines a process where employees are stimulated in an organization to achieve organizational goals (Parashar, 2016, p. 9). Sometimes the terms motivation and performance are used interchangeably. Because motivation explains what employees do and how committed and willing to go to accomplish a goal, it is frequently conflated with an employee's job performance (George & Jones, 2012, p. 158).
DeleteHi Samantha. An interesting and descriptive post. There is an old saying you can take a horse to the water but you cannot force it to drink; it will drink only if it's thirsty - so with people. They will do what they want to do or are otherwise motivated to do. According to Ganta (2014), there are several guidelines by which motivation can be increased quickly. Some of which include treating people fairly, restructuring jobs, effective discipline and punishment, and positive reinforcement.
ReplyDeleteHi, Ashanthi your points are very well valid and there are some more to add. Unmotivated employees tend to put minimal effort into work duties, create lower-quality work, avoid the office, and even quit if given the chance
Delete(Amabile, 1993, p. 185). Motivated employees, on the other hand, are more likely to take on duties willingly, generate high-quality work, and be innovative, persistent, and productive (Amabile, 1993, p. 186)
Hi Samantha , Agreed with you , Employee motivation is an important aspect of all private and public businesses. Employee performance is critical to the organization's success. It also learns what inspires an employee to work harder for the organization's ultimate advantage. Because it is related to multiple rewards at work, motivation is considered a crucial driver of performance (Pinder 2008).
ReplyDeleteHi, Maheshini your points are well taken. Employee motivation has become one of the buzzwords of the organization today. Motivation is defined as the energy that promotes job-related behaviour and determines one's work habits, purpose, speed, and endurance (Baron, 1991 ).
DeleteHi Samantha, I agree with you and like to add "In order to make employees satisfied and committed to their jobs, effective motivation at the various levels in the organization is strongly needed (Tella et al., 2007). Mohsen et al. (2004) suppose, that employee motivation and commitment is very important for an organization’s success.
ReplyDelete