Motivating Employees Case

Motivating Employees

If you want a successful company, you need to understand the important role that your employees play in any activity. Many times, as an employer, we forget the importance of understanding employees' needs and want to be able to keep an atmosphere with motivated employees. When I think about motivation, I think about the reason that initiates, guides, and maintains people to keep reaching for their goals. Without motivation, people can't find the strength and desirability to do their best to achieve goals in all aspects of their lives. Unfortunately for many employers, motivation plays the same role in the work environment. In other words, motivation is what causes us to act, whether it is getting a glass of water to reduce thirst, reading a book to gain knowledge, or put effort in completing a task at work.

Motivation is an employee's intrinsic enthusiasm about accomplishing activities related to work (Heathfield, 2013). An individual's motivation is influenced by different factors that can be biological, intellectual, social, and emotional. Creating a motivational work environment should be a priority for all companies. Every employee has activities, events, people, and goals in his or her life that he or she finds motivating.

To create the appropriated motivational work environment, you need to figure out how to inspire your employees. Employee motivation is the combination of fulfilling the employee's needs and expectations from work with the workplace factors that enable employee motivation or not (Heathfield, 2013). In addition to creating a strategy to keep your employees motivated, you also need to considerer the importance in creating clear and specific missions and goals. It is important to have your employees understand the purpose of the company's objectives. The more they understand the more they will able to contribute to its success. Failure to do so, could affect their performance and desirability to achieve goals.

There are theories of motivation at work that are important to explore and can help to create and maintain a motivational work environment. The first one we will discuss is the Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Abraham Maslow proposed a hierarchy of needs that indicates how people in general achieve a sense of satisfaction (Richards, L., Media, D., 2013). Maslow proposed that needs are satisfied in a certain order from the most important to the least important. These needs cannot be fulfilled until the one with higher ranking is met and are physiological which are the need for food and water, safety and security, social, esteem and status, and the need for self-actualization, which equals to living up to one's fullest potential. Accordingly, in the workplace, most employees' physiological needs are met. Safety varies from job to job since some professions have more risk than others. Once employees have met these two needs, they will move on to the next one in line which is the need for social and the need of receiving positive feedback and support for their work. With all of these needs met, employees can stay motivated to do their best work.

The next theory is the concept of Locus of Control, Internal vs. External Control. This theory was developed by social learning theorist Julian B. Rotter in 1954. It refers to the degree to which people believed they control their own destiny versus believing they are controlled by others (Richards, L., Media, D., 2013). This theory affects the workplace by focusing on the differences between employees who believe they have more authority than others and accordingly can use control through their own actions. Those employees with an internal locus of control tend to be self-motivated and need less external approval and reward. According to Lin Grensing-Pophal, those with a higher external locus of control respond more readily to external praise (Richards, L., Media, D., 2013).

The Equity Theory is the next to discuss. Psychologist John Stacey Adams developed the Adams Equity Theory in 1963. It suggests that employees become more or less motivated based on the degree to which they believe they are being treated equitably or fairly by those around them (Richards, L., Media, D., 2013). This theory makes perfect sense. If you have a good employee that it is putting effort in the job and think of he or she as an important part of the organization but is not receiving recognition, eventually will become unmotivated and his job performance will be affected.

Lastly, we will talk about the theory of Need for Achievement. David McClelland of Harvard proposed the n-ach theory, or the need for achievement, as a way to explain the common tendency of people to seek higher and higher rewards for their actions (Richards, L., Media, D., 2013).

It is important to identify ways to keep your employee motivated. Support new ideas can be one of them (Desmarais, 2013). If an employee takes the time to come up with an idea or solution, and present it to you, it is an obvious sign that the employee cares about the company and you should let he or she know that you appreciate the idea and that you will take it for consideration. Supporting new ideas and giving the opportunity to the employees to apply their ideas it will be a great motivation regardless of the final results. Don't let them become bored (Desmarais, 2013). People tend to get bored easily, use your imagination and try to come up with ideas that will make employees interested, something that helps them get out of the normal routine and help them to relieve stress and re-charge to continue with their assignments.

Furthermore, don't forget to celebrate personal milestones (Desmarais, 2013). Pay attention to those little details that will make your employee feel special. Try keeping a calendar reminding you about important events such as birthdays and work anniversaries. If you find out about an employee achieving a personal milestone, celebrate it. A little cake, congratulation or gas card could make an employee happy and you will see the benefits of their happiness.

Another way to keep an employee motivated is by encouraging learning new skills. Create training plans that allow your employees to increase their knowledge. Employees appreciate the idea of having new opportunities; the fact that you are helping them to improve their skill is synonymous that you care about them and that by working together you can achieve benefits not only for the company but for the employee as an individual.

Encourage friendly competition (Desmarais, 2013). Friendly competition is another way to motivate employees. If there is a competition in the workplace, employees will put more effort to achieving company goals so they can be accountable for the results. A competitive environment is a productive