Of many of the problems that the organizations face these days, one of the vital one is of employee dissatisfaction and lower motivation for work. Employees feel dejected and demotivated when their basic needs and requirements are not met; those needs might include hygiene and motivating factors that involve the presence or absence of working conditions, salary, empowerment or authority, job status, social relationships, etc (McShane & Travaglione, 2003).
Organizations need to develop such a Human Resource department that effectively performs its activities by understanding the changing trends of the environment and so the employee needs and requirements.
The decisive thing here in this case is that the HR department must scrutinize the productivity level, motivation, direction, attitude, and overall performance of the employees towards their assigned tasks and prosperity of the firm as a whole. HR managers emphasize on keeping the employees motivated, directed, and contented by adapting to several measures; some of which are explained as follows.
First, the managers must consider an employee as a person and treat him with due respect; offensive comments and remarks must not be passed out in order to avoid unwanted consequences.
Second, many employees join the company with their basic motivator of salary; hence the salary package must be handsome enough to make the employee contented or even satisfied. Third, showing the chance of being promoted to the upper level definitely creates a sense of motivation among the workers. Fourth, avoiding monotonous jobs and assigning them with interesting and innovating tasks develops interest in doing work and keeps the workers directed.
Fifth, managers must create a sense of Task Identity and Task Significance among the employees that is to what extent their jobs are important for the company (Daft, 1997). Sixth, timely, accurate, and effective feedback must be provided by the managers to point out the strengths and weakness of the employees in their performance. And, involving the employees in the decision-making processes and empowering them by giving more authority to practice is also another wise strategy to motivate the employees (Kettner, 2002).
Every human being has some needs as mentioned by Maslow in his pyramid of needs that starts with physiological needs, and then follows safety and security needs, then social and affection needs, esteem needs, and finally self-actualization. It should be understood at first hand by the managers or supervisors that employees are given enough time, resources, and opportunities to satisfy such basic needs such as, safety and security and physiological needs.
Competitive benefits should be offered to the employees by analyzing the industry trends as in how much salary, benefits, or allowances are being paid by the competitors, and then the blend of competitive benefits should be offered. This may include providing compensation packages to the workers according to their job design; such as, low-level or assembly-line workers must be ensured enough security and medicinal allowances. Moreover, a sense of achievement and competition must be developed among the workers so that they strive more to perform better.
Bringing on and maintaining the balance among the equality in the compensation of the employees is very important; it is because many employees can get frustrated or dejected if they find their peer who has same job task and gets more pay than him. Therefore, equality must be ensured in the pay-system, discrimination should be avoided, and employees must be treated as individuals. Focus on the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards really pays off for the organization.
As far as the specific benefits and incentives are concerned, they would include monetary benefits and as well as other benefits. Monetary benefits involve basic salary in terms of currency value and as well as bonuses that are often paid each year or over achieving some target or goal; whereas, other benefits include providing the employees with the facility of transportation in terms of pick and drop, medical facilities for free in any hospital or clinic, housing or rental allowance, and insurance for life and as well as for property.
In order to keep the employees motivated and directed towards achieving the goals, the managers must integrate their compensation system with the performance of the employees. They must link the rewards with the performance, which would arouse the need to work more effectively and diligently; and for that the managers must introduce and implement the ‘performance-based’ pay system that rewards the employees who perform better than others in terms of more productivity, more effectiveness, and more efficiency.
This system automatically stimulates the need for skills that must be acquired by the employees in order to be more competitive with others; hence it clarifies the type of skill and training required. Moreover, it encourages the sense of competition within the company, which is beneficial for it. Therefore, we can say that the employees are not initially demotivated or dejected; in fact the circumstances or conditions make them so. Motivation can be categorized as the key to improved performance, and hence must be developed among the employees.
This can be overcome by the managers by properly understanding their needs and wants and acting accordingly to fulfill them. References Kettner. P. M. (2002). Achieving Excellence in the Management of Human Services Organizations. Pearson Education, Inc. McShane. S. and Travaglione. T. (2003). Organisational Behavior on the Pacific Rim. Australia. McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Limited. Daft. R. L. (1997). Management. Fourth Edition. U. S. A. The Dryden Press.