The Ups and Downs of an Employee Motivation Program

A well rounded employee motivation program is a vital part of an overall strategy for not only improving morale, but profitability as well. A company is only as good as its work force makes it, so maintaining the health of that work force should be at the top of the list.

If you were the only person in your company, it would live and die by what you did. As an employee, however, you're part of a larger team effort. Often, though, employees don't see the big picture because they don't have an ownership interest in the company, and they feel disconnected. They often don't feel like they can truly make a difference, and they don't feel rewarded for their efforts. Part of the function of a good employee motivation program, then, should be to reconnect employees.

Why Every Company Needs an Employee Motivation Program:

There are four key points I want to cover which will detail the challenges facing employees, business owners and managers with respect to employee motivation, morale, and the success of any enterprise.

1. Work force motivation - Work force motivation is key to business success, no matter the size of the company. For most of us, the primary motivation is money. After all, I have a job because I need the money, right? But it takes a lot more than money sometimes to keep someone on the job, or at least keep them motivated to do their best. How many times have you heard someone say, "it just isn't worth the money?" Maybe you've said this yourself. Most of us, unfortunately, do need the money, so we often stay in jobs we are not happy with for far too long. Other factors, such as benefits, work environment, social aspects of employment, personal accomplishment, and recognition all factor in to the job satisfaction equation.
2. Employee morale - Employee morale tends to be bad to horrible, by and large, in both small and large companies. Large businesses tend to be slower moving. The large corporate world tends to foster an environment of faceless impersonality, with a "hurry up and wait" and "follow the rules" mentality. This tends to make employees feel unappreciated and saps energies. As a result, it creates lackluster attitudes and performance among employees.

   Small businesses, on the other hand, tend to be able to adapt more quickly to change and have a faster pace. They lack the security and stability, however, of the larger companies. Typically they offer fewer benefits to employees, and they often get away with treating their employees with a less kind hand. This tends to make employees feel unappreciated and insecure. The result is pretty much the same as in the large companies.

3. Ignoring a key success factor - Companies ignore employee motivation as a key factor in success - Although motivating employees is extremely important to success, many companies ignore the importance. To the public, companies tend to preach that they are results oriented, and customer focused. Internally, however, they tend to be process oriented, and company-centric. This leaves the employee kind of in the middle. The customer is expecting customer service, but the company is expecting profits. Often this comes out in practice. Have you ever tried to buy something or return something at a store, only to leave feeling like no one cares? Customer service and profits don't have to be opposing thoughts. In fact, if done correctly, they go hand-in-hand. Any business owner knows that a little good will and customer service goes a very long way to making a healthy company. Healthy companies make healthy profits.
4. Too little too late - An employee motivation program should be an ongoing and all pervasive aspect of an overall business strategy. Many companies both large and small miss this point and only try to improve conditions when confronted with a bad situation. Don't wait to do something about this until members of your team start saying that they hate their jobs or the company doesn't care about them.

Many companies will try to put a band-aid on a morale problem with some kind of training or motivation session. This is especially true in companies with large sales forces, and in larger companies that are sold motivational programs by third parties.

Over the years, I have been subjected to many such employee motivation programs. Having been through countless rah-rah sessions and corporate training programs over the years, I can say that none of them were as effective as they should have been.

Most of them are very one-sided, not at all taking into account the needs of the employee. This is a fatal mistake. We are all each other's customers. Not taking into account the needs of your employees, coworkers, and managers is to ignore your internal customer.

A solid employee motivation program will take into account both internal and external customer service, as well as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation factors. It will be all pervasive and a way of doing business so that it is integrated into the company's culture.

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