There has been a lot of talk in the industry about motivating employee,. There is no one golden rule to motivate them. It varies from person to person. A very important aspect is why do you want to motivate the employees. Do you want to reduce the attrition rate , do you want to enhance the performance of the employee, etc. So the motivation tool will depend on the reason for motivating employees.What I believe is that each person has differenrt needs and aspirations, so the only thing HR person can do is to create an
atmosphere of trust and harmony in the organization which is conducive enough for the employee to motivate himself.

Make an employee feel a part of the organization. And above all, show it through actions and not mere words. As the qoute goes- Action speak louder than words. Here again the management together with the HR and the employee himself can make the organization a better place to work.

Hi Bimal,

You have brought up some excellent points. As you all know, to motivate means 'give someone a reason for acting or to stimulate the interest of a person to perform a particular activity'.

The stimulating factor could vary person to person and even time to time for the same person.

Recognition and education are only two of the many initiatives we practice in our company. Continuous education is a key factor for the development of individuals and our company is well recognized for it.

lion_king

Hello Team,

Just my opinion:

* I am completely against the term Motivating. To me it comes across as somewhere in between bribing and instigating. It says that my ultimate goal as a company is to ensure that my bottom line looks healthy. For that, I will tell you anything so that u deliver. Make you look like 'my main man', give u the ocassional bonus and look up smugly up at my boss and say 'hey, we've got a motivated bunch'. And maybe theres nothing wrong with that at all.

* I guess my greatest reservation is that we cannot use that word in communicating with our employees. On the one hand, we in HR love to say how transparent we are and that we exist for the greater good. Go up to an employee and tell him that we're doing the company picnic to motivate him - am not sure i'd like the look on his face.

On the other hand, talk of words like encouragement, fostering - nicer terms - terms which convince employees that i care about them as individuals - i care about their lives and their careers and i hope that their goals meet company goals and that we can work together for greater good of individual and organisation. Now i've probably taken off on a tangent and am merely ranting. Just to sum up, wouldn't it be better if we used a term other than Motivation when we are speaking of doing something to help our employees??

Thanks

Jaswinder

It is undoubtedly true that in todays world facing global recession in which Companies across the board are downsizing, terms like Motivation have become very dilute.

When, at the outset, the Employability terms are defined on thin lines, employee desnot bring his/her Commitment from the day he/she joins. Similarly, Cos donot welcome him/her with any strong commitment to his/her professional aspirations. So when there is no room for commitment on either side, can Motivation fill this gap & if yes, to what extent.

People say that in times of turbulence, the real role of HR begins when the main objective is to retain the best talent & help each of the employee to sail thru. But the only thing that happens is that temporarily HR emerges as a strategic link to business & when the tide is over, it receeds backto its support role.In most of the organisations I have read about, this has happened.Also HR as a strategic link to Business remains a mere eye wash.

Lets ponder on this further.

Regards

pOOrnima

Hi,

As you know, to motivate means to provide with a motive. It is to look at the motives of people like Sherlock Homes and provide with that motive or fulfill that need. Management literature is flooded with theories of motivation.

Every individual is a unique creation. When you need to motivate people, you need to look at the uniqueness of the individual one the one hand and his motives on the other hand.

In organisation's it is possibe to survey motivating and demotivating factors. Once you identify the `Grwoth' and `Deficit' factors you can decide on action plans to improve motivation.

A number of factors (including the group dynamics, top management's commitment, employee relations / industrial relation climate, etc. ) determinte successful implementation of any `internvention' and therefore requires effective planning and implementaton. Experience in implementation of similar projects would help avoiding problems.

debbie

Hello Friends

This has been an interesting thread to watch and I just couldn't refrain myself from jumping into it. Well, to motivate means to provide with a motive ... a purpose ... a goal. and then to encourage people towards that goal. HR as facilitators help people to identify a purpose of life.... a purpose for the organisation .... help to integrate these purposes... set achievable goals and on achievement of the goal give reward. Perhaps there are lots of theories.... and theoreticians... - from Pavlov, Skinner.... and we all have our own ideas, thessis and antethesis.

One area on which we HR professionals can think is what will be the reaction / response of the individual to these different terms when he is `subjected' to (1) encouragement (2) motivation. Like Victor Frankl who `discover' a purpose to live for and persuades a small group of People to identify with that purpose. Victor gives them a motive... and purpose to live. Take the case `Lagaan' where the hero (Aamir) motivates a handful of villagers to achieve a goal ... win the game. How will you call this motivation, encouragement or anything else?

When we read Abraham Maslow's need hierarchy, we get a picture of `Growth' and `deficit' motivators. Growth items are the higher order needs and deficit items are the lower order - physiological needs. When a welfare officer provide subsidised food in a `statutory' canteen what is he doing? Is he motivating or encouraging? When he `requires' his sweepers to find out solutions for housekeeping problems, is he motivating or encouraging? We can apply these terms to different contexts. Motivation is not synonimous with `bribing' . I have not come across any defintion which include terms like bribing... or any illegal gratification. Our laws prevent it. But gifts (controls applicable) are permissible.... We can have a new definitions: "encouraging individuals to achieve socially / morally acceptable goals", etc.

One can look at the motives (needs) of individuals (like Sherlock Homes) and provide with those needs (which are socially / morally acceptable) and achieve need satisfaction for individuals and goal achievement for the organisation.

Providing for need satisfaction is motivation. If children ask us to give gun, we will not give; if they ask for sweets, we will give. If they ask for too much of sweets, we will not give. A mother will make the child complete his/her home work and will give sweets (which is fulfilment of a `deprived' need)... and the goal is acceptable in all respects. The `subject' will remain deprived of the sweet till he/she achieve the gaol / perform the task. Can we say the mother is bribing the child. And if the child say, if he/she is not given sweets, he/she will not work?

The purpose of business is profit. Our existence in the organisation is to enable that purpose... of making profit. We enable achievement of corporate goals while creating atmosphere for employee's need satisfaction. People should know reality... that if they don't make profit / add value greater than cost, organisations cannot achieve competitiveness and survive in the market. Therefore it is in their interest to exert moore or do more work... Here motivation is effective communication of plain truth (not as threat) .... and awareness / knowledge of reality operate as a drive / pressure within the individual to contribute. Knowledge of real situation changes his values and belief systems and modify his attitudes towards otehr stakeholders.

Another way is to identify values, visions, mission, goals, etc. collectively... and people will do more work to achieve the goals they themselves identified and shall try to give by the values.

Care should be takeen to balance the needs of all stakeholders... one should not be rewarded unduely at the cost of another... that will lead to demotivation and conflict later.