Workforce Motivation- Key Factors of employee engagement
Introduction.
Every organization prefers a productive workforce, and motivation is the only way to ensure employees put their full attention in their work, a fact that results in high production. Motivation being the process of stimulating people’s actions towards the accomplishment of goals, is an integral part of the workforce of any organization. Several factors may encourage individuals’ behavior, including their desire for success, recognition, job satisfaction, teamwork, and the inclination to acquire money. Organizational management has the responsibility of creating a willingness attitude among their juniors for them to perform to the best of their ability, thus making it a principal leadership role the arousal of interest in the performance of their duties. For motivation to be sufficient, employees need to feel the need to work in turn, satisfaction, and accomplishment of goals must also take place. Therefore, motivation is a psychological phenomenon, thus framing an incentive plan that aims to satisfy the needs and wants of workers is mandatory. This paper intends to explore the theories that explain the motivation, impact of employer engagement, and organizational approaches to increasing employee engagement.
Theories of motivation.
Several social scientists’ have been looking at motivation intending to find out the factors that motivate employee behavior and the reasons behind the worker’s preference. Several theories try to explain how employers can increase productivity at their workplace.
Hertzberg’s two-factor theory, also known as a dual theory by Frederick Herzberg, points to two factors that are likely to determine the employee’s motivation and satisfaction. The motivator factor is the parameters leading to the happiness and motivation of workers, thus making them work harder. On the other hand, hygiene factors look at the factors that, when unavailable, results in a lack of motivation and dissatisfaction among workers. Examples of these factors include company rules, salaries, relationships, and benefits. According to Herzberg, both motivators and hygiene factors influence motivation, but they work independently. Though motivating factors increase workers motivation and satisfaction, their absence does not affect workers dissatisfaction.
Similarly, the availability of hygiene factors does not increase the satisfaction and motivation, while their absence causes an increase in dissatisfaction. According to the two-factor theory, for an enterprise to have a happy and productive workforce, the improvement of motivator and hygiene factors is a must. The feeling of correct treatment among employees is the first step towards the elimination of job dissatisfaction.
Happy and committed employees means that the working environment is favorable, and payment commensurate with the job each employee does. Supportive relationships between teams as well as between employees and employers, will also go a long way. With employees being different, they tend to appreciate diverse motivation, and thus, a one-size-fits-all approach may not work in most cases.
According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, for an individual to be motivated and achieve higher goals, their employers must first meet their basic needs. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs comprises five levels: the physiological needs that are vital for human survival, and they include food water and shelter. The safety needs consist of both personal, health, wellbeing, and financial security. The love and belonging that is the need for relationships with both family and friends are important as well. The need to feel confident and earn respect from others that directly affects self-esteem and lastly individual desire to achieve all one possibly can while becoming the most one can (self-actualization). When management assists their employees in understanding the meaning of their position at their workplace, it may contribute to workers reaching their goals and offer them flexible working hours, thus giving them a chance to focus on other life issues.
The Hawthorne effect by Henry A. Landsberger, on its part, states that employees’ motivation increases as a response to particular attention they receive instead of the changes that employers may offer at the workplace. The Hawthorne effects studies imply that when workers are aware that observation is taking place, they tend to work harder, and thus, providing a regular feedback channel may enhance employee productivity rather than employers watching their workers all day. Making employees aware of the fact that their employer knows of all the organization activities may increase motivation, thus raising productivity as it translates to employers showing care for the working conditions and wellbeing of their workers.
Impact of employer engagement
Every organization strives to have employees with 100% engagement and commitment to the organization’s success. Thus, it makes employees with full dedication and involvement and are ready to go the extra mile for the company’s success. Most employees are willing to sacrifice as much as 29% of their salary in exchange for work they love and in a favorable working environment with transparency. Thus they do not think of work as just work but a chance to reach personal fulfillment. According to Kahn’s theory of employment, employee engagement depends on three psychological conditions; the meaningfulness of work both to the firm and the society, the safety of the employee, and the mental and physical ability of the employee to harness themselves for the job.
When employees can fully engage themselves in their duties, productivity is bound to be at its maximum. Diligent employees who are in a position to harness their full potential display loyalty as well as ownership. For instance, workers will perform their duties because they want to and not because they receive instructions and due to their conviction that their hard work will benefit their organization in the long run. Employees’ different experiences at the workplace my change their engagement levels, thus giving employer’s a chance to work with workers that support engagement.
There are higher chances of employees leaving organizations when they are not engaged. Dissatisfaction is one reason behind employees leaving their position in an organization, and better employee experience is the only reason for the maintenance of a workforce. Every employer will agree that continuous employee turnover reduces productivity as knowledge is a vital part of the production.
Most job positions come with a given level of stress that employees must be able to deal with if they are to remain productive in their areas. Therefore, employee engagement significantly contributes to the lowering of both stress and absence that costs employers billions in weekly revenue. Increasing employee engagement thus provides businesses with the opportunity to increase the firm’s productivity.
Organizational approaches to increasing employee engagement.
Though employment engagement is an essential aspect of any business success, increasing employee engagement is tricky. The passion of employees for their jobs is a crucial aspect of improving and cultivating employee engagement. Though there are several methods of increasing employee engagement within an institution, every firm must tailor the particular ways the firm chooses to suit the unique needs and motivation of each of their workers as well as the jobs they undertake.
An organization can encourage flexibility within their firm. Giving employees the chance to adjust their work schedule or even location to suit their needs may of great advantage. Though most employers believe in workers’ close supervision for effective workflow, flexibility may prove to increase workers’ productivity as workers will be happier, more productive, and more willing to engage when they have the chance to choose their working hours. The relationship between employers and their employees need to be authentic as sincere relationships tend to create trust and build teamwork. Employees who see their workplace as an open concept tend not to hide concerns from both their peers and colleagues and instead are always open in their dealings.
Though time is of the essence in the production world, the promotion of breaks helps employees to maintain focus in their work. Organizations may use a given application to remind their employees to take a break after a given period. However, it’s a simple task. Employees will view this as employers concern on their wellbeing rather than concentrating only on profits from their hard work, thus pushing workers always to do their best. When employers ask for feedback from their workers, it makes them know they are part of the organization. When workers have the chance to contribute to organizational goals, they see themselves as an essential part of the firm. Therefore feedback should not only come from employers but also from employees as their opinions even matter.
Conclusion.
The success of an organization lies solely with the employee’s happiness and engagement to their work. Employees input in the running of an organization, therefore, remains the solution to employee engagement. Different scholars use different theories to explain employee engagement in an organization. However, the impact of employee engagement can weigh down any organization and, at the same time, build a reliable firm. An increase in employee engagement should be a high priority task as employees are the strength behind the success of every given company and thus needs careful handling. The level of employee engagement solely depends on the employees level of commitment, which directly relates to employees’ working environment and the freedom an organization gives to its workers to perform their functions.