By: Elaine Lu
Professor C. Francis once said, you can buy a person’s time, you can hire a person to a regular job, you can buy technical operations on time or by the day, but you can’t buy enthusiasm, you can’t buy creativity, you can’t buy commitment, you have to fight for it. As members of the management team, we need to keep asking ourselves: do we give energy or make enemies others?
A motivated team plays a critical role in the growth of a company. What Is Motivation? Motivation is the process by which a person’s efforts are energized, directed, and sustained towards attaining a goal.
What Motivates Employees to Stay? We will discuss five great motivators.
- Full appreciation for job well done
We have a craving for appreciation. We should stress the positives and say “Thank you” to employees, not failures. We should praise employees for going the extra mile and reward them by giving them positive feedback.
We should understand and manage employee goals and the linkages among and between effort, performance and rewards. An employee’s effort will result in a certain level of performance. A particular level of performance will result in the attaining a desired outcome (reward). The attractiveness of the performance reward(outcome) to the employee.
Employees tend to act in a certain way based on the expectation that the act will be followed by a given outcome and on the attractiveness of that outcome to them. We should develop variable compensation plans that reward employees on the basis of their performance: piece rate, wage incentive, synergy bonus, profit-sharing etc. The reward should be delivered in a timely manner, openly and publicly.
2. Be part of Decisions
Employees’ motivation is maximized by participating in decision making. We can use more of their talents and ask for their inputs such as how they would change and how they put ideas into action. Participation in decisions will increase employees’ acceptance of decisions, foster commitment to decisions and provide feedback that guides behavior as well as motivate performance.
3. Open communication
It is important to tell employees exactly what we want and then let them do it! We should often communicate with employees to know how we can help them succeed. They may ask for training, cross-training, diverse resources etc. We should share information with employees and let them know what is happening. We should ask about their goals and discuss organization and individual goals. Motivation works best when individual Goals are compatible with organizational goals. Absolutely, Gossip is refusal.
4. Interesting & meaningful work
We should help employees design motivating jobs that create meaningful work experiences that satisfy employees’ growth needs. We can
- Combine tasks to create more meaningful work.
- Create natural work units to make employees’ work important and whole.
- Expand jobs vertically by giving employees more independence and self-management.
- Open feedback channels to let employees know how well they are doing.
5. Good Relationships at Work
Good relationship can build enjoyable, fair and mutual-trusting work environment that makes employees feel affiliated to company. We should get to know our employees’ needs so that we can develop an effective system that can consistently satisfy their needs. We should apply the same standards to all employees and continuously stress equal and fair treatment for all. Unfairness or inequities would change employees’ inputs or outcomes and then drive work environments into negative and unfriendly paths.
A study found that employees who were paid by the hour perform only 20%-30% of their abilities, while those who were sufficiently motivated perform 80%-90% or even more. The 50%-60% of the gap is caused by motivation, therefore, job performance= ability X motivation. That is to say, under the condition that the individual’s ability remains unchanged, the level of performance depends on the degree of motivation. The higher the degree of motivation, the greater the job performance. In the long run, you cannot force anyone to do anything but only make them do it willingly. And only motivation can make employees burn up so that enthusiasm lasts; only motivation can bring employee’s potential into full play.
Biography of Elaine Lu
Elaine Lu joined Exact Medical Manufacturing in 2009. Ms. Elaine has witnessed company growth over last nine years, which has made her life and career change as well.
During those years, Ms. Elaine has established, maintained and implemented the Quality Management System within four EMM facilities effectively. In the process, she has developed a strong, stable and competent team to work with her. In the past years, she has led the team to successfully pass numerous customer audits, US FDA audits, CFDA audits etc.
As a team leader of EMM CN, Ms. Elaine has opportunity to get involved in every detail of each process of the company, which lays the foundation for a successful and robust Quality System.
Ms. Elaine is an influential employee. She is able to inject energy and spirit into individuals around her.
In her free time, Ms. Elaine enjoys playing Yoga, Guzheng and Jogging.
