MEMO
TO: Philip Thomas, VP of Human Resources
FROM: Student Name, Consultant
DATE: (insert date here)
RE: Employee Motivation
Employees are one of the critical assets in a business. In light of this, employers and business managers must ensure that their employees are motivated to do their duties for better performance and productivity. When employees lack motivation, they are highly likely to perform duties irresponsibly or perform lesser tasks and hence not meet the employer’s demands. Various reasons make employees’ motivation to wane.
One of these reasons is poor working conditions. Often, employers and business managers outline the tasks they want to be completed but do not provide all the resources necessary to complete the assigned responsibilities (Ramlall, 2004). As such, the workers continue to look for the resources by themselves and hence performing poorly. Sometimes employers and business managers expose their workers to hazardous working conditions. Notably, every individual wishes to have good health at all times. When employees work in risky situations, they feel that their health and life are in danger and hence are demotivated to work in such conditions. Besides, some employers and supervisors harass, abuse, and sometimes keep threatening the workers. In these working conditions, employers feel demotivated to work, develop a sense of job insecurity, and thus low performance as they begin to look for other better jobs.
Another reason for employees’ low motivation is a lack of inclusivity in organizational matters—fairness at the workplace very essential for employees. In specific business models and organizational structures, employees are just workers who cannot give an opinion or suggestion. Incorporating employees when making some business or task-oriented decisions makes the employees feel recognized as part of the organization. Therefore, the lack of this kind of inclusivity diminishes employee motivation. When managers and business owners recognize and appreciate employees’ efforts in a specific area, the workers often feel motivated to work harder and hence the right organizational image and better performance.
The third factor that reduces employee motivation is poor remuneration. Usually, employees are motivated to work in an organization that has reasonable pays. Every individual yearns for growth and development. In the modern world, one of the essentials towards growth and development is adequate capital. As such, employees look for jobs that pay reasonable pays so that they can improve their lives, have some savings, and engage in some development projects. Poor remuneration hence decreases employee motivation.
In light of this, supervisors can use goal-setting theory to motivate their workers. This theory involves the creation of an action plan for guiding and motivating an individual or group towards achieving a specific goal (Lee & Raschke, 2016). Therefore, managers can use the famous SMART (“Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound”) criteria in setting the organizational goals. Employees increase motivation when they have clear and specific goals that they can achieve and have some strategies to measure their achievements. In this regard, human resources managers should develop short-term and long-term goals. Employees work well when they understand the amount of time available for specific tasks and the available resources for the job.
In summary, this memo recommends two approaches that one can employ to enhance motivation among the employees. One of these strategies is recognition. As a human resources manager, one can ensure that they recognize every effort that the workers make towards success. While some people are motivated by good salaries and wages, recognition enhances motivation among most of the workers. The manager can recognize the workers in different ways, including giving some gifts, bonuses, free trips, and promotions at workplaces.
Another method of improving employees’ morale is through inclusivity. When making some decisions that touch on the employees, it is often useful to involve them. As argued earlier, employees feel part of the organization when they are involved in making individual decisions. The latter increases their motivation because they begin to think that their efforts will propel the organization towards success and growth and that the company’s growth will translate to better remuneration and other working conditions.
REFERENCES
Lee, M. T., & Raschke, R. L. (2016). Understanding employee motivation and organizational performance: Arguments for a set-theoretic approach. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 1(3), 162-169.
Ramlall, S. (2004). A review of employee motivation theories and their implications for employee retention within organizations. Journal of American academy of business, 5(1/2), 52-63.