Employers are often faced with how to motivate employees beyond their comfort zone. However most organizations normally hire external candidates to provide insight often leaving the organization with short-term results and no contingency plan.
Provided below are five critical steps to achieve a motivation matrix plan, individuals will utilize the following methodologies; Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, basic principals of human capital resources rather than the human resources functions, the two roles are mutually exclusive.
“ Companies are becoming more sophisticated in using organization design as a critical tool for driving business growth through new structure and capabilities. It is intuitive that aligning the right measures and reward systems with structure and process is important to organization design. But reward systems are often on the sidelines during the design process. The reasons are many, and they need to change with the help of some simple frameworks that provide a basis for diagnosing alignment needs and for making concrete adjustments in incentive programs and metrics to support changes in structure, process and people.”
A reward systems matrix, which consist of internal low cost alternatives and financial rewards for the largest contributors that results in increased revenue. The organizational culture that reinforces the organizations missions statement, which should possess the ability to motivate, in addition to communication exercises, which incorporates feedback daily.
- A person starts at the bottom of the hierarchy (pyramid) and will initially seek to satisfy basic needs (e.g. food, shelter)
- Once these physiological needs have been satisfied, they are no longer a motivator. The individual moves up to the next level
- Safety needs at work could include physical safety (e.g. protective clothing) as well as protection against unemployment, loss of income through sickness etc)
- Social needs recognize that most people want to belong to a group. These would include the need for love and belonging (e.g. working with colleague who support you at work, teamwork, communication)
- Esteem needs are about being given recognition for a job well done. They reflect the fact that many people seek the esteem and respect of others. A promotion at work might achieve this.
- Self-actualization is about how people think about themselves - this is often measured by the extent of success and/or challenge at work
Human capital is the stock of competencies, knowledge, social and personality attributes, including creativity, embodied in the ability to perform labor so as to produce economic value. It is an aggregate economic view of the human being acting within economies.
- An attempt to capture the social, biological, cultural and psychological complexity as they interact in explicit and/or economic transactions.
- Many theories explicitly connect investment in human capital development to education, and the role of human capital in economic development, productivity growth, and innovation has frequently been cited as a justification for government subsidies for education and job skills training
"Proper management of the work lives of human beings, of the way in which they earn their living, can improve them and improve the world and in this sense be a utopian or revolutionary technique."
The core elements of rewards systems design are: 1) base pay; 2) variable compensation; 3) fringe benefits; and 4) compensation governance including performance management.
- Should compensation be a driver or a reinforcement of behavior?
- Where does the firm wish to position itself in the labor market (at what percentile)?
- What portion of total rewards will be distributed in cash, equity and social benefit programs?
- How much leverage should variable rewards have (how much pay should be at risk at different levels of the organization)?
- Where and how will compensation design and delivery be governed?
Companies that encourage and support open communications outperform their peers, according to research from the Corporate Executive Board. There are four primary ways to influence the culture of an organization:
- Emphasize what’s important. This includes widely communicating goals of the organization, posting the mission statement on the wall, talking about accomplishments and repeating what you want to see in the workplace.
- Reward employees whose behaviors reflect what’s important.
- Discourage behaviors that don’t reflect what’s important. There is no need to punish or cause prolonged discomfort. Rather, you want to dissuade the employee from continuing unwanted behaviors by giving them constructive feedback, verbal warnings, written warnings, or firing them.
- Model the behaviors that you want to see in the workplace. This is perhaps the most powerful way to influence behaviors in the workplace. For example, if you want to see more teamwork among your employees, then involve yourself in teams more often.
- Ongoing telephone, Fill in the blanks, Four at a time
- Listening
- Body Language
- Emotional Awareness
- Common Language
Internal motivation has great potential appeal in the business world when conducted correctly. The message is clear, if management can find out which level each employee has reached, then they can decide on suitable paths to enable motivation of employees beyond their comfort zone.
Additional Resources:
Organizational Culture: An Overlooked Internal Risk
Culture Trumps Strategy, Every Time - Nilofer Merchant - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review
Comments