Business Anlysis

Hudson City Savings Bank, a company that was named the most efficient bank in New Jersey. With over one thousand employees, they have managed to grow by focusing on home mortgages, and deposits. The more the company grows, the more it seems that employees are the last things on their mind. Being part of the management team at the branch level has helped me understand the value of motivating employees within the company. The structure of how we operate is very simple. We have a Senior Vice President, who’s in charge of the Retail Banking system. Under the Senior Vice President, we have the Vice Presidents, who are the Regional Managers. The Regional Managers are the one in charge of making sure the operation of the all the branches are running smoothly. We have six Regional, and each Regional oversees at least fifteen branches. In my region, our Regional oversees twenty branches in total, which means he is in charge of the managers and all the employees on his region. A Regional Manager may be overseeing about one hundred and eighty four to two hundred employees. A branch consists of a manager, an assistant manager, a customer service representative, a chief clerk, a transit clerk, a head teller, and a teller. Each branch can have six to twenty- five employees depending on the size of the branch. As a manager, I have twenty-one employees, and motivating these employees is a hard task. Not only motivating employees as become a task on its own, but cutting down employees turnover as well. As management, I try my best to implement a good working environment for our employees. As hard as I try to implement a motivational environment, it is very difficult because the support system from our Regional Managers is not there. Regional Managers are not making an effort to improve work appetite for their employees. They seem to be more focus on the Stockholders, and Customers to make our company stronger, and successful.

How can Hudson City cut down employees’ turnover, and begin to implement motivational programs? Can increasing motivation at Hudson City Savings, decrease turnovers, and increase employee’s moral? Can we avoid a total failure by doing so? Is it possible to change Hudson City employee’s moral?

Hudson City Savings Bank lacks the motivational skill that’s needed to improve employees’ job satisfaction. More and more, we tend to see employees turnover increasing and branches becoming short handed due to the increase. The Senior Vice President and the Regional Vice Presidents failed to demonstrate any type of acknowledgement, and recognition to their employees for their hard work, and good performances. There’s no program in place that may or can increase the moral of all the employees in our company. It seems that the harder you work, the least you go unnoticed at Hudson City Savings. Many turnovers in our company are due to the fact that we as employee do not feel appreciated. In an article I read, “Anaging Turnover: Slowing the Revolving Door,” stated, “Low moral at staff levels, one reason for turnover is a result of two key problems, Lack of recognition, and feeling lost in the crowd.” (Journal of Accountancy, July 1988, P. 126)

This statement is relevant on the issues we are facing in our company. As management, I have observed how employees, including myself feel a void within ourselves because the lack of recognition, and achievement in our work environment. We as human being need to perceive that our hard work is appreciated, and never goes unnoticed. In the past two month, I had five employees resigned.

Two of the employees were with the company for over six years. When I asked the reason for their departure they both replied, “We as employees of the company, and with its success, we do not receive any type of gratitude for the work well done. We feel as if we are not part of this company. Their model is work, work, work, and who cares how you feel. We can not deal with this anymore.” I pause and thought to myself, “ wow, “I feel the same. I was able to hear it in their tone of voice that their morals as employee were low. The funny thing was that I shared the same feelings. The difference was that I am a manager, and being a manager I was not able to demonstrate to them how I felt. This reminded me of an article that I read called, “Motivation and Job satisfaction,” which emphasized that, “The instilling of satisfaction within workers is a crucial task of management. Satisfaction creates confidence, loyalty, and ultimately improved quality in the output of the employed.” (Management Decision. London: 1998.Vol.36, P. 226).

At Hudson City Savings, we as employees and managers feel a sense of discontent, and our desire for responsibility, and acknowledgement has not been satisfied. This can change by having the Senior Vice president and the Regional Manager make an effort in appreciating our work performance, and putting in place some type of motivational program. For example, “Things like titles, praise, and recognition for achievements in firms or company newsletters or local papers, small gifts and company outings build team spirit. Encourage extracurricular activities that fulfill the staff and promote the firm or company.” (Journal Of Accountancy, July 1988, P.126)

These are a few things that our Senior Manager and Regional Manager may apply to improve employee’s spirit, and moral. Not only wills employee spirit, and moral increase, but also employee’s turnover will decrease. Barbara Keene, a writer in the personnel field says that, “High Turnover rate are costly and disruptive. How costly? It cost 18% to 31% of the first year’s salary to replace a nonsupervisory employee. You pay an additional $5,040 to $8,680 whenever a $28,000 employee says goodbye.” (Journal of Accountancy, July 1988, P.127)

This mean it would be more beneficial for our Senior Vice President, and our Regional Managers to begin satisfying the emotional need of the employees, and maybe we can see a decrease in employee’s turnover. By not rationalizing to the needs of the employee, and their management staff, this may become a costly situation for the company. Motivation and job satisfaction by Mark A. Tietjen, and Robert M. Myers, it reviews the literature of motivational theorist Frederick Herberg, and Edwin Locke. “Herzberg developed two distinct lists of factors. One ser of factors caused happy feeling or a good attitude within worker, on the whole, were task related. The first group he called motivators (job factors):