It is important for companies to motivate and reward their employees. Motivation is when a leader talks to the employees and urges them to do better. Motivation does not only have to be in words but it can be in form of actions. Motivation is when the management or the CEO gives encouragement to the employees. Every employee has goals and he/she sets out to achieve something. When a manager recognizes an employee's efforts, the employe gets some motivation.
Rewards are also important because they are an incentive for the employee to work even harder. Most firms reward hardworking employees or instill a winning spirit in them and encourage them to keep up with the good work. Motivation and rewards are important for all the companies because they make the employees achieve their goals and fulfil their potential.
Most companies look for employees who are passionate about the jobs. It is easy to spot passion during the recruitment phase. Recruitment ensures that the people who make the cut will not stay in the company for a short time then go away. When a company has passionate workers, then it easy to motivate them because they have great goals. It is hard to motivate someone who does not have passion.
Startups have to maintain a competitive advantage by hiring new people every year because they are growing. For example, tech startups have challenges of retaining engineers and programmers. This is not the case with big companies like Google. The startups fight for talent. Employees go for the company that motivates them the most and makes them achieve their dreams. One way that a big company motivates its employees is by offering a competitive salary. These companies cater for the people who intend to relocate with their family. Another way which the company motivates people is by engaging them and involving them in the development of the company. This way, the employee can feel motivated.
Startups can also reward employees. For example, startups should set up reward programs for their employees. One idea is for a startup to have an app that the employees engage. It uses this to gauge employees’ suggestions and recommendations. By getting feedback from the horse’s mouth, the startup can ensure that it keeps the employees motivated. All the successful managers are aware of the fact that people get motivation from different things. They also know that they have to tailor make different products and practices for their employees. They know that they ought to satisfy the needs of their employees to keep them in the startup. There are some theories of motivation. Leaders can use information from these theories to have an insight on how to treat their employees.
Theories
One of the theories is the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory. This theory shows that human beings have a hierarchy of needs. At the top of the chain is the Physiological needs which are food, shelter, drink, and sex. Secondly, the safety needs are the assurance from harm. The third part of the hierarchy of needs is the Social needs of belonging and affection. The fourth part is the esteem needs and the fifth is the self-actualization and fulfillment needs. Maslow argues that as one moves from one hierarchy to the other, so do the needs.
A person must have his first needs fulfilled before the others. The other theories are the cognitive evaluation theory, acquired needs theory and goal setting theory among others. The theory X leader believes that people need coercion and responsibility for them to work. The theory Y leader believes that people exercise self-motivation. Another theory called the Herzberg’s two-factor theory says that people get motivation when they work. This theory states that there are intrinsic and extrinsic factors that motivate people.
There are many ideas that surround the motivation theories. This enables the management to understand how to keep its employees motivated. While comparing the theories of motivation, it is important to note that the expectancy theory shows that people act in a given way depending on the expectation and the results. The goal setting theory shows that some goals make people work harder. In the goal-setting theory, people must be willing to make their situation better. For the management, the point to note are that there are five job dimensions. These are skill, task significance, autonomy, feedback and task identity.
Conclusion
There are many ways that a manager can motivate the employees. One of them is to align the earnings of the employees with how the company performs. Incentive programs in a company give the workers a chance to get more money when the company goes on an upward trend. Companies with competitive packages maintain their employees. Secondly, the leaders ought to take interest in the career path of the employees. They ought to introduce programs and courses that develop people’s careers. The company also needs to ensure that the hardworking people climb the career ladder. Most managers of many companies in the world started their career in lower positions and they grew with time. Thirdly, the management also needs to give the workers a work-life balance so that they can concentrate on their jobs. This means that the company should plan to give employees allowances in event of a relocation. The fourth way is to listen. Listening to the needs of the employees is one way that the management can motivate the workers. Respect, compassion and fairness are other qualities that employees expect from their management.
