Report On Millennial Employee Motivation: OB Models And Concepts

Snippets from the Reflective Diaries

Millennial, also called as Generation Y or the Echo Boomers are the ones who are born 1982-2000, falling in the age group of 17-35 Years. Millennial have succeeded Baby Boomers in the corporate organization and are playing a very important role in their individual roles.Millennials are supposed to be the most technologically enhanced and advanced generation of all times, they are well averse with the development of technology and how to use the same to their advantage (Daniel, 2013) Every generation has specific traits associated to it, in the similar manner millennial too have certain specific traits defining their behaviour, such as:

• Passion drives them.
• Risk taking in nature
• Believe in work-life balance
• Think of life in terms of mission and believe in setting milestones for themselves (Hannus, 2016)
• Spontaneous in nature
• Like to travel the world
• Believe in changing the perspective of the society (Vaney, 2015)

These are the 7 traits millennial all across the globe have in common.

In the report further, the analysis will be working on improving the motivation for the millennial. It is observed that the millennial have a different drive altogether when compared to another generation, and thus it is very important to strike a chord with how the millennial think and believes in. It is the duty of the managers to understand the same and apply in the organization to increase the productivity of the millennial.

For the purpose of the case study, various motivation theories will be applied to understand what could possibly motivate the millennial based on their specific traits. The contrasting views of the manager and an employee would serve as a starting point to understand the millennial behaviour and how the organization perceives it to be, causing a feeling of discontent in them, which eventually leads to their exiting the company. Hence, with the help of this report, it will be analysed what pushes the millennial to stay motivated in their jobs.

Before delving further into what motivates the millennial and what are their pain points to address with the view point of motivation, it is extremely essential to know what motivation means. Motivation in the simplest of terms is the reason behind a person’s actions, desires and needs. It is one’s direction to a particular behaviour (Nuttin, 2014). It is the accumulation of the internal and external factors which stimulate desire and energy in the individuals to make them continuously interested and committed towards a job, a role or a subject in order to attain a goal. Motivation results from interaction of both conscious and unconscious factors such as, intensity of the need, reward value, performance expectation and so on (Maslow, 2013). It is very essential for organization to keep their employees motivated, in absence of motivation he really is left with no desire to do a particular job. There are multiple theories which facilitate motivation among millennial, some of the ones which would help in motivating the millennial are:

Job Satisfaction is one of the most important attribute for millennial motivation. Job satisfaction can be understood as the level of comfort and content one derives from his/her job, he may or may not like a certain aspect of a job, but in sum totality he feels a sense of satisfaction doing the job he has been assigned. Undoubtedly it is one of the major contributing factor for motivating the employee, also mentioned by the manager and employee (Fu & Deshpande, 2014)

• Provide a positive work environment for the employees- This can be done by one to one feedback, recognition, flexible work hours etc. (Price, 2015)
• Reward and recognition- Although monetary benefit is not the only parameter but it sure does play an important part of job satisfaction.
• Involve and engage the employees in the workplace- An empty mind is a devil’s workshop, goes without saying if the employees are free, not engaged and busy with work or other activity, they are bound to create problems in their heads which could lead to demotivation, hence engaging them is certainly an important facet for creating a positive work environment (Hayes, Douglas & Bonner, 2015)
• Evaluate and measure the job satisfaction- The management has to continuously review the strategies it has deployed under job satisfaction, needless to say, make changes wherever required to further boost satisfaction at workplace.

Motivation

Placing a roadmap to create job satisfaction is only half job done, there are certain causes of Job satisfaction for millennial, some of which are:

• Culture-When employees like their co-workers, subordinates, superiors, they tend to put in more effort in the workplace and feel comfortable, leading to job satisfaction.
• Interesting work- Nobody likes mundane jobs, it bores them out. Millennial are characterised by need for achievement and hence require interesting work to keep them engaged and employed, leading to job satisfaction (SKaalvik, 2017)
• Rewards-There is no denying that rewards are single most extrinsic motivation factors which leads to job satisfaction. Reward and recognition thus forms are formidable part of causing job satisfaction.
• Low Stress-Millennial tends to keep a work-life life balance to reduce stress. They don’t want to be bogged down by work while they are with their families or having a personnel day, hence low or no stress certainly keeps them motivated and is an essential attribute for job satisfaction.

This refers to the unwritten set of expectations of the employment relationships as opposed to the formal employment contract. Psychological and employment contract both define the employer-employee relationship. Psychological contracts are a set of promises or the expectations which are exchanged between the employee and the employer, this type of contract is implied and not written, but at the same time it is the foundation stone of trust between the employee and the employer (Rayton, Brammer & Millington,2015) Millennial feel strongly about such contract, not honouring to the promises leads to employee dissatisfaction and he feels cheated, which eventually leads to his exit from the organization .Millennial value this contract more than any of the past generations.

Perceived breaches of psychological contract severely damage the relationship between the employee and the employer which leads to disengagement, reduction in productivity and also workplace deviance. Fairness forms an important part of psychological contract which is bound up in the equity theory(Abdullah, 2017)

Millennial mostly relate to need of achievement, hence this theory of motivation can be of utmost importance while motivating them (McClelland, 2015)

The McClelland theory helps to identify the major motivators of people on the team, this information can then be used to set goals for them, provide feedback and then motivate and reward (Petty, 2014)

For millennial, who weigh need for achievement more than power and affiliation are supposed to be provided with challenging work projects. The challenge thrown towards them in context to their work keeps them in high spirits and extremely motivated, they feel valued in the organization and appreciate that they have been found suitable for the challenging work. Millennial often tend to work alone, because of high complexities in the work or work alongside high achievers. In case of feedback millennial requires a very fair, balanced and a detailed feedback. They have this need to know what they are doing right, and what they are doing wrong and why; curiosity is a big forte of millennial which needs to be satisfied (Deci & Ryan, 2014)

Adam’s equity theory states that people who feel they are overpaid feel positive inequity and increase the quantity and quality of work allocated to them, on the other hand, the ones who feel they are underpaid feel negative inequity which results in decrease in the quality and quantity of work. This theory is for certain conclusive about felt negative inequity. It can also be understood that people feel less comfortable when they are under-rewarded than when they are over-awarded (Lazaroiu, 2015)

Managing the equity dynamics is important; it is highly unlikely that all the employees at the end of financial year, at the time of appraisal will feel that a fair appraisal has been done. It depends on person to person and the perception they have built in their heads. It is the duty of the managers to maintain their psychological contract with the employees and come up with a fair treatment, resulting from fairly balanced inducements and contributions (Ryan, 2016)

Job Satisfaction

Millennial believe in the equity theory and they want a fair and equitable treatment for all, hence in order to maintain the process and motivate the millennial through the equity theory, certain steps have to be ensured:

• Employee will always make a comparison whenever visible rewards, promotions, pay hike etc. is allocated to an individual.
• It is a prerequisite of the managers to anticipate negative inequity.
• Communication can do away with any organizational issue, in this case too, communicating to each individual reason behind his/her appraisal and the comparison points can rest the feeling of inequity and make him feel treated fair.

The theory was propounded by Edwin Locke and refers to setting up of goals on the subsequent performance. It is researched and proven that the individuals who set specific goals, difficult goals are performed better than those who set general and easy goals. Locke has proposed 5 basic principles for goal setting which are extremely useful for the millennial (Perve, 2015) the principles of goal setting are:

• Clarity-A clear well defined goal is much more achievable than a vague immeasurable goal. It requires the goal to have clarity, specific and measurable
• Challenge-Millennial requires a certain set of challenge in their goal or the work, to motivate them to achieve the same.
• Commitment-One has to give his commitment towards his role and be accountable for the commitment towards the goal set by an employee.
• Feedback- Millennial encourages and appreciates feedback, they see feedback as a source to further improve and work on their weakness.
• Task Complexity-In case the goal is complex, it is required by an individual to breathe in easily, move over the learning curve and overcome the challenges set in ensuring the completion of the goal (Arends, 2014)

A lot of insight has been given about how the millennial can feel motivated in the workplace. Under the same light, there are certain ideas for the manager to motivate the millennial. Some of them are:

Give time to employees to work on their personal projects- In the present era when the tension in the business environment is surmounting, it becomes extremely essential to provide some free time to its employees to work on whatever they want. Progressive tech companies these days are providing such enabling projects to its workforce.

Provide education and professional development- According to a survey conducted by Deloitte, millennial are hungry to learn and advance in their careers, any organization which provides them with an opportunity for further learning and advancement are valued much more.

Keep it simple and make it fun- It has been observed that millennial like to work in a stress free environment, it increases their productivity. They would like to have some fun in the workplace to keep them in high spirits and motivated. A little bit of fun will go down a long way in keeping the millennial motivated.

References:

Abdullah, A. B. M. (2017). Introduction. In Managing the Psychological Contract (pp. 1-22). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Arends, R. (2014). Learning to teach. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Daniel, D. (2013). Millennial generation students search the web erratically, with minimal evaluation of information quality. Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 8(1), 81-83.

Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2014). Autonomy and need satisfaction in close relationships: Relationships motivation theory. In Human motivation and interpersonal relationships(pp. 53-73). Springer Netherlands.

DeVaney, S. A. (2015). Understanding the millennial generation. Journal of Financial Service Professionals, 69(6), 11-14.

Fu, W., & Deshpande, S. P. (2014). The impact of caring climate, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment on job performance of employees in a China’s insurance company. Journal of Business Ethics, 124(2), 339-349.

Hannus, S. (2016). Traits of the millennial generation: Motivation and leadership.

Hayes, B., Douglas, C., & Bonner, A. (2015). Work environment, job satisfaction, stress and burnout among haemodialysis nurses. Journal of nursing management, 23(5), 588-598.

Lazaroiu, G. (2015). Employee Motivation and Job Performance. Linguistic and Philosophical Investigations, 14, 97.

Maslow, A. H. (2013). A theory of human motivation. Simon and Schuster.

McClelland, D. C. (2015). Achievement motivation theory. Organizational behavior, 1, 46-60.

Nuttin, J. (2014). Future time perspective and motivation: Theory and research method. Psychology Press.

Pervin, L. A. (Ed.). (2015). Goal concepts in personality and social psychology. Psychology Press.

Petty, T. (2014). Motivating first-generation students to academic success and college completion. College Student Journal, 48(2), 257-264.

Price, R. (2015). Job Offer Negotiation Process and the Effects on Job Satisfaction Levels.

Rayton, B. A., Brammer, S. J., & Millington, A. I. (2015). Corporate social performance and the psychological contract. Group & Organization Management, 40(3), 353-377.

Ryan, J. C. (2016). Old knowledge for new impacts: Equity theory and workforce nationalization. Journal of Business Research, 69(5), 1587-1592.

Skaalvik, E. M., & Skaalvik, S. (2017). Still motivated to teach? A study of school context variables, stress and job satisfaction among teachers in senior high school. Social Psychology of Education, 20(1), 15-37.

Wellin, M. (2016). Managing the psychological contract: Using the personal deal to increase business performance. CRC Press.

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