Employee Motivation: Factors Paramount for a Motivated Work Force

Google Inc. and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) have been rated by the Fortune magazine at number One and number Eight respectively in it’s 2007 list of the 100 best companies in America to work for. (I am not mentioning companies from rank 2 to rank 7 and jumping directly to rank 8 because I took the liberty of assuming that BCG has comparatively better global recognition than the others which have secured the intervening ranks).

What makes these companies better employers than the other 90 odd? More importantly. what makes the 100 chosen companies better employers (atleast in Fortune magazine’s eyes) than the others not fortunate enough to find a place in the coveted list?

Obviously, a lot of factors are taken into account ranging from facilities, infrastructure, employee systems, policies, career growth opportunities, management style, employee satisfaction levels, industry perception, perception of the company amongst the student community, feedback from industry analysts and sometimes even feedback from ex-employees etc.

But no matter how ‘snazzy’ the physical work environment, no matter how scenic the location of the firm, no matter how cozy the cubicles, a company can never ever hope to witness great productivity levels let alone retain great employees if there lacks a critical component – Employee Motivation.

A great physical work environment is a complementary factor that helps enhance a positive work experience for an employee. You would be making a cardinal error in assuming that just because you have a posh facility with a well stocked pantry, your employees are going to be satisfied and content forever. As many companies (particularly hundreds of failed start-ups every year) have found out, the aforementioned are just cosmetic factors to a large extent, and do not help attract or retain good talent. It’s essentially like dyeing your gray hair and hoodwinking yourself into believing that you are young again. The fact is you are only getting older and the only way you are going to live long is to look after your health and habits.

Hence, Employee Motivation is about starting from the basics and progressively delving deeper (HR Climate Surveys, other HR diagnostic tools etc) as you go along. So where do you start?

The best (and the cardinal) starting point would be your company’s Policies, Rules and Regulations followed by a structured employee engagement and the creation of an objective & a positive work culture.

Sound Policies & Sensible Rules

Far too many organizations lose themselves in a self created maze of multi-layered policies and rules that at times defy logic

I found that one client of mine, when I joined it as a outsourced HR Manager, had such a complex Travel Expenses Reimbursement policy, with so many insensible stipulations, that leave the regular employees (the Admin Manager included), the upper management executives themselves completely disregarded it! In fact the ‘International Travel’ section of the policy was a frequent joke topic amongst the leadership team!

The trouble is, that not all employees everywhere would find something like that funny. It could obviously cause a lot of confusion amongst all and sundry and lead to unacceptable levels of ambiguity in the day-to-day functioning of the organization.

Make sure that:

a. All the basic pre-requisite policies (Leave, Travel, Hiring & Firing, and Compensation etc) are in place and are not created as a reaction to an arising situation.

b. The policies cover all important angles & contingencies, both from an operational and legal perspective without being too longwinded.

c. All policies are put on paper and are accessible to all employees in a simple, direct and easily understandable language.

d. The policies are reviewed at mutually agreed intervals (Yearly, Bi-Yearly etc), so that they remain up-to-date and the conditions contained therein are practically implementable at all times.

e. The tone used in the policy documents is not dictatorial or condescending or worse still, insulting. The tone can be strict (Especially if the organization is a military one or involved in sensitive activities), but doesn’t have to make the employee feel like he/she is facing a firing squad!

f. Educate those who are in-charge of enforcing these policies at the ground level about how to go about doing so. The ‘Enforcers’ or ‘Supervisors’ have to know the degree of discretion to use in varied situations.

Coming to rules, well there’s no doubt that every organization, in order to be professionally managed, has to have a well defined and comprehensive set of rules and regulations. But that does not mean that the rules have to be over-bearing or so rigid that employees feel stifled or infact start treating them like a joke.

Make sure that:

a. There is an optimum number of rules and regulations in place, not too few and not too many, so that the day-today functioning can be smooth and not cumbersome.

b. An easily understandable and comprehensive Code of Conduct (CoC) is in place.

c. All your employees are adequately educated about all the CoC apart from the other major rules and regulations and the reasons these are in place.

d. All employees have a good understanding of the consequences or repercussions of violating the Code of Conduct either on the company premises, or on the premises of the company’s clients incase onsite work is involved.

e. There is no generalization of an employee’s offence or violation with that of others, and as far as possible, each case is treated on it own merits.

Employee Engagement & the Creation of a Motivated Work Culture

Employee Engagement is not just a fancy corporate term as many organizations I have worked with as a consultant seem to think. Employee Engagement is all about engaging your employees in the over all scheme of things in a structured, practical and enthusiastic manner.

Motivated employees are the first step towards a great work culture, something not many companies around the globe can truly boast of. Employees, if engaged in a practical manner both in the day-to-day and overall strategic functioning of the organization, can help create an unparalleled and envied work environment and display exceptional levels of productivity (Ask Google. It’s now famous Gmail application was allegedly developed by an employee while working in his ‘Your Personal Time’ time period which Google provides to its employees.)

So how do you go about doing it? Here are some basic guidelines:

a. Engage your employees if possible, in the rules setting process to ascertain their point of view and to understand the ground realities before embarking on framing the rules and regulations. No doubt that certain and basic rules have to be framed and followed even before employees are hired, but these can again be restructured and revised after some constructive feedback sessions.

b. Encourage employees to ‘own the process’. That is, not just the process involved in the execution of their job responsibilities, but also the process of maintaining the required rules and decorum. This imparts a sense of confidence and responsibility in individual employees, and while there are still bound to be some ‘bad apples’, if implemented logically, this philosophy can make for a seamless and highly functional work culture.

c. Adopt ‘Coaching’ as a tool to help employees go through workplace problems. This will make employees or sub-ordinates more comfortable in approaching you with their problems and over a period of time help the them make their own decisions with more certainty and also keeping the company’s interest in mind.

Keeping your employees motivated is no easy task, but it's no rocket science either!