26 Strategies Used to Increase Motivation

Salaries and Benefits

As we know from our earlier section, our paycheck can be a motivator to a certain extent. It is important to note that when we look at compensation, it is much more than only pay but things such as health benefits and paid time off.

Some of the considerations companies use surrounding pay can include the following:

1. Instituting a standard process. Many organizations do not have set pay plans, which can result in unfairness when onboarding (the process of bringing someone “on board” with the company, including discussion and negotiation of compensation) or offering pay increases. Companies should make sure the process for receiving pay raises is fair and defensible, so as not to appear to be discriminatory.
2. A pay communication strategy. Many companies work hard to make sure the fair pay process is communicated to employees. Transparency in the process of how raises are given and then communicated can help companies retain good employees.“The Knowledge of Pay Study,” WorldatWork and The LeBlanc Group LLC, 2010, accessed February 26, 2011, http://www.worldatwork.org/waw/Content/research/html/research-home.jsp.
3. Paid time off (PTO). Companies pay us not only with our salary but also from the time off we receive. Paid holidays and vacation time might be an example.

Training and Development

To meet our higher-level needs, we need to experience self-growth. As a result, many companies and managers offer training programs within the organization and pay for employees to attend career skill seminars and programs. It is a great idea to take advantage of these types of self-growth opportunities in your current or future organization. In addition, many companies offer tuition reimbursement programs to help you earn a degree. Dick’s Drive-In, a local fast food restaurant in Seattle, Washington, offers $18,000 in scholarships over four years to employees working twenty hours per week. There is a six-month waiting period, and the employee must continue to work twenty hours per week. In a high turnover industry, Dick’s Drive-In boasts one of the highest employee retention rates around.

Performance Appraisals

The performance appraisal is a formalized process to assess how well an employee does his or her job. The effectiveness of this process can contribute to employee retention, in that we can gain constructive feedback on our job performance, and it can be an opportunity for the manager to work with the us to set goals within the organization. This process can help ensure our upper-level self-actualization needs are met, but it also can address some of the motivational factors discussed by Herzberg, such as achievement, recognition, and responsibility.

Succession Planning

Succession planning is a process of identifying and developing internal people who have the potential for filling positions. As we know, many people leave organizations because they do not see career growth or potential. Companies can combat this by having a clear career path for us to follow. For example, perhaps you start as a sales associate, become assistant manager, and then become manager. Proper succession planning shows what we must accomplish at each level in order to attain a higher-level position. This type of clear career path can help with our motivation at work. If your current or future organization does not have a succession plan, consider speaking with your manager about your own career path and potential. The performance appraisal process might be a good time to have this discussion.

Flextime, Telecommuting, and Sabbaticals

According to a Salary.com survey, the ability to work from home and flexible work schedules are benefits that would entice us to stay in our job.^[1] The ability to implement this type of retention strategy might be difficult, depending on the type of business. For example, a retailer may not be able to implement this, since the sales associate must be in the store to assist customers. However, for many professions, it is a viable option, worth including in the retention plan and part of work-life balance.

Some companies, such as Recreational Equipment Incorporated, based in Seattle, offer twelve weeks of unpaid leave per year (beyond the twelve weeks required under the Family and Medical Leave Act) for the employee to pursue volunteering or traveling opportunities. In addition, with fifteen years of service with the company, paid sabbaticals are offered, which include four weeks plus already earned vacation time.

Management Training

In a recent Gallup poll of one million workers, a poor supervisor or manager is the number one reason why people leave their jobs.^[2] Managers who bully, use the theory X approach, communicate poorly, or are incompetent may find it difficult to motivate employees to stay within the organization. While, as employees, we cannot control a manager’s behavior, companies can provide training to create better management. Training of managers to be better communicators and motivators is a way to handle this retention issue.

Conflict Management and Fairness

Perceptions on fairness and how organizations handle conflict can be a contributing factor to our motivation at work. Outcome fairness refers to the judgment that we make with respect to the outcomes we receive versus the outcomes received by others with whom we associate with. When we are deciding if something is fair, we will likely look at procedural justice, or the process used to determine the outcomes received. There are six main areas we use to determine the outcome fairness of a conflict:

1. Consistency. We will determine if the procedures are applied consistently to other persons and throughout periods of time.
2. Bias suppression. We perceive the person making the decision does not have bias or vested interest in the outcome.
3. Information accuracy. The decision made is based on correct information.
4. Correctability. The decision is able to be appealed and mistakes in the decision process can be corrected.
5. Representativeness. We feel the concerns of all stakeholders involved have been taken into account.
6. Ethicality. The decision is in line with moral societal standards.

For example, let’s suppose JoAnn just received a bonus and recognition at the company party for her contributions to an important company project. However, you might compare your inputs and outputs and determine it was unfair that JoAnn was recognized because you had worked on bigger projects and not received the same recognition or bonus. As you know from the last section, this type of unfairness can result in being unmotivated at work. Excellent communication with your manager when dealing with these types of situations would be imperative.

Job Design, Job Enlargement, and Empowerment

As we have discussed previously, one of the reasons for job dissatisfaction is the job itself. Ensuring our skills set and what we enjoy doing matches with the job is important. Some companies will use a change in job design, enlarge the job or empower employees to motivate them.

Job enrichment means to enhance a job by adding more meaningful tasks to make our work more rewarding. For example, if we as retail salespersons are good at creating eye-catching displays, allowing us to practice these skills and assignment of tasks around this could be considered job enrichment. Job enrichment can fulfill our higher level of human needs while creating job satisfaction at the same time. In fact, research in this area by Richard Hackman and Greg Oldham^[3] found that we, as employees, need the following to achieve job satisfaction:

• Skill variety, or many different activities as part of the job
• Task identity, or being able to complete one task from beginning to end
• Task significance, or the degree to which the job has impact on others, internally or externally
• Autonomy, or freedom to make decisions within the job
• Feedback, or clear information about performance

In addition, job enlargement, defined as the adding of new challenges or responsibilities to a current job, can create job satisfaction. Assigning us to a special project or task is an example of job enlargement.

Employee empowerment involves management allowing us to make decisions and act upon those decisions, with the support of the organization. When we are not micromanaged and have the power to determine the sequence of our own work day, we tend to be more satisfied than those employees who are not empowered. Empowerment can include the following:

• Encourage innovation or new ways of doing things.
• Make sure we, as employees, have the information we need to do our jobs; for example, we are not dependent on managers for information in decision making.
• Management styles that allow for participation, feedback, and ideas from employees.

Pay-for-Performance Strategies

Some organizations have a pay-for-performance strategy, which means that we are rewarded for meeting preset objectives within the organization. For example, in a merit-based pay system, we might be rewarded for meeting or exceeding performance during a given time period. Rather than a set pay increase every year, the increase is based on performance. Some organizations offer bonuses to employees for meeting objectives, while some organizations offer team incentive pay if a team achieves a specific, predetermined outcome. For example, each player on the winning team of the 2010 NFL Super Bowl earned a team bonus of $83,000,^[4]. while the losing team of the Super Bowl took home $42,000. Players also earn money for each wild card game and playoff game. Some organizations also offer profit sharing, which is tied to a company’s overall performance. Gain sharing, different from profit sharing, focuses on improvement of productivity within the organization. For example, the city of Loveland in Colorado implemented a gain-sharing program that defined three criteria that needed to be met for employees to be given extra compensation. The city revenues had to exceed expenses, expenses had to be equal to or less than the previous year’s expenses, and a citizen satisfaction survey had to meet minimum requirements.

As we have already addressed, pay isn’t everything, but it certainly can be an important part of feeling motivated in our jobs.

Other ways to motivate

According to Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For^[5] things that companies do to motivate us may be more unusual. For example, the list includes the following:

• On-site daycare or daycare assistance
• Gym memberships or on-site gyms
• Concierge service to assist in party planning or dog grooming, for example
• On-site dry cleaning drop-off and pickup
• Car care, such as oil changes, on-site once a week
• On-site doggie daycare
• On-site yoga or other fitness classes
• “Summer Fridays,” when all employees work half days on Fridays during the summer
• Various support groups for cancer survivors, weight loss, or support in caring for aging parents
• On-site life coaches
• Peer-to-peer employee recognition programs
• Management recognition programs

While some of these options may not be options in the companies we work for, the important thing to remember is often our own motivation comes from us internally. As a result, we need to be aware of our changing motivations and ask for those things that could make us more motivated at work.