Looking To Increase Employee Performance? Motivation Is
Critical.
What's an organization to do when all of its honest and genuine
efforts to motivate Sally and Sam to come to work on time, work
safely, deliver efficient services, and act as if they were
happy to be a part of the team, fail? There is no shortage of
pop-psych books and motivational speakers who'll tell you a
thousand-and-one ways to light a fire in Sam's belly. But what
do you do when the fire goes out and none of those
thousand-and-one ways seem to work any more? What do we really
know about motivation?
Does anything work? Given the constant barrage of pep talks and
posters, slogans and free advice on the topic of motivation,
there should certainly be at least a couple of core principles
that predictably work every time. Aren't there? Or are we stuck
with the notion that everybody's an individual, and what's a
turn-on for Sally is likely to be a turn-off for Sam?
Rather than speculate, let's gather some data. Think back
through all the jobs you've ever had, and bring to mind the job
you had that produced the greatest amount of motivation in you.
It doesn't matter what the job was -- it might be the job you
have right now; it might be a part-time job you had in high
school. Doesn't matter.
It also doesn't matter what the word, "motivation," means to
you. However you choose to define the term is fine. Simply bring
to mind the job that you had when you had the greatest degree of
job satisfaction, excitement, enthusiasm, turned-on-ness. Now
that you've got the job clearly in mind, quickly jot down the
factors that caused you to feel so motivated, so satisfied, and
so turned on. If you're like most people, the factors you listed
are highly predictable -- and so are the ones that didn't make
your list. On your list appear such items as recognition,
opportunities for achievement, freedom and autonomy, challenge,
the chance to learn and grow, and the work itself. What was
missing? You probably didn't write down such important items as
job security, benefits, working conditions, and the
organization's policies and procedures.
It turns out that the missing link in understanding motivation
is understanding that there are two very different factors at
work. On one hand there are the things that motivate us, that
turn us on, that cause us to feel satisfied with the job. On the
other are those things that dissatisfy us, that turn us off,
that demotivate us. There are two separate variables at work,
and you have to attack both of them. Psychologist Fred Herzberg
stated it best, "Job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction are
not flip sides of the same coin. They are entirely different
coins, and the wise manager uses both those coins to buy better
performance."
What is motivation? A good working definition of motivation is
this: motivation represents a measurable increase in both job
satisfaction and productivity. The motivated worker does his job
better and likes it more than those folks who are not so
motivated. What generates real motivation is the first set of
factors mentioned: opportunities for achievement and
accomplishment, recognition, learning and growth, having some
say in how the job is done, and worthwhile work. Those are the
items that generate strong feelings of loyalty, satisfaction,
enthusiasm, and all those other important attributes we want to
see in those whose paychecks we sign.
But you can't get away with working exclusively on the
satisfiers scale. You have to make sure that you clean up the
job to reduce or eliminate those things that cause people to be
unhappy and quit.
Wait a minute, some of you are saying -- where does money fit
into this scheme? Pay is the ringer in the equation; the one
factor that shows up as both a source of satisfaction and a
source of dissatisfaction. People are dissatisfied with their
pay when they feel it isn't commensurate with their efforts, or
is distributed inequitably, or doesn't reflect the
responsibilities of the job, or is out of touch with market
realities. If you don't pay competitive wages, people will be
unhappy and they will quit. But no matter how much you raise
salaries, you won't generate motivation and job satisfaction,
because job satisfaction is a function of the content of the job.
Look at it this way: Hire me to wash dirty dishes and pay me
chickenfeed and I'll be unhappy and demotivated. But raise my
wages to a princely sum and guess what -- I'll still hate
washing dirty dishes. But I won't complain any more about my
crummy compensation; I probably won't quit; and I may even
improve my attendance record (if you pay me my munificent wages
on an hourly basis). What you have bought with the generous pay
increase you provided me was not real job satisfaction. All you
have bought is the absence of dissatisfaction. They are not the
same thing. If you really want me to be a happy camper, you'd
better change the nature of my work.
And changing the nature of the work is the true key to
motivation. The message is clear: do everything you can to get
rid of the things that generate employee unhappiness,
recognizing that no matter how big an investment you make you'll
get precious little in return. All your money will buy is the
absence of dissatisfaction. Listen up -- you have no choice! You
must pay people competitive wages, you must provide a healthy,
safe and attractive work environment, you must give at least as
good insurance policies and vacations and retirements plans as
people could get working for the bagel joint down the street. If
you don't, people will quit and you won't be able to hire
replacements. But all you'll get for the fortune you spend in
this effort is a bunch of people who have to search hard for
something to complain about.
If you want genuine motivation, though, you've got to look at
the job itself. Does the work provide me with the chance to
really accomplish something? Does my job allow me to do
something that makes an actual difference? Do I have a lot of
say in how I do my job or am I totally constricted by standard
operating procedures? Can I learn and grow and develop on this
job, or will I be tightening the same nut on the same bolt for
the next thirty years? Do I get any recognition when I do
something particularly well?
Providing recognition of good performance is the best place to
start. Recognizing good performance any time it's encountered --
with just a "Thanks" or a literal pat on the back -- can be
enough to get the motivational engine working. Sally and Sam
will need more than just an attaboy, but acknowledging excellent
work every time it appears is a wonderful place to start the
engine of motivation running.