The Power of Employee Recognition

A discussion of how to motivate employees and inspire them to become more punctual, productive, and loyal.

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What does it take to truly motivate an employee? What breaks an employee’s resistance to showing up on time and lets them work with joy? What makes employees brag about the company that pays them?

How do successful corporations succeed in keeping loyal employees? Not by fear or intimidation. Once pressure is applied ‘to perform or produce’ -- either more or better -- the average employee becomes less effective.

Many employees are completely self-motivated and never need any outside impetus. They are content with fulfilling their own inward goals. Others need some inspiring, positive feedback in order to apply their most creative and heartfelt energies to a job. They need an incentive to feel they belong, to have a sense of identity with the corporation they work for. The desire for recognition resides in all of us and having this need acknowledged is an important part of one’s work life.

Although an employee is an individual and works as an individual, there is always a need to be aware that the employee is also a part of the whole group, the total corporation, and that each individual is important. When the corporation treats the employees as someone important, the employees will also feel the corporation is important and will feel proud to be a part of its success and growth.

The secret of employee performance comes from the awareness by management or peers that a person is doing a great job and then outwardly recognizing that performance. One proven technique is giving corporate awards that recognize the unique contribution that an employee provides. To be powerful, this award needs to be of a lasting nature and something that others will be able to see and recognize. A sincere compliment is always welcome, but material objects such as rings make the difference in employee loyalty. The inspiration received from a corporate gift can transform an entire department. Motivation to do an even better job enlivens the atmosphere.

Employees aren’t usually going to blatantly ask for recognition. Actually, when singled out for a special award they will appear shy and mutter something about not really deserving it. However, inside they are glowing and are probably having a hard time holding back tears of appreciation -- making acceptance speeches isn’t part of one’s everyday activity in ordinary corporate life. When an employee receives a reward in the form of a pay raise, the reaction is usually one of relief. "Whew! I actually got it!" When one receives a Safety Award Ring or a Company Ring with a special inscription on it, awkwardness can be expected. The implication, silently stated, is, "You are unique and special! We truly appreciate you." Acceptance of this appreciation is often best expressed with eyes meeting in trust and a nod of the head.

The power represented by an award of this type goes beyond the dollar value in a corporation. Without loyal, fantastic employees a corporation doesn’t exist. Those who are the life blood of the corporation truly deserve all the awards and recognition that are bestowed upon them.

Dave Cohen founded Onera Company Rings in 1990 to create employee service recognition incentive awards jewelry that can be worn with pride. Dave has been in the jewelry business 25 years.

By David Cohen
Published: 3/3/2006

Employee Burn Out Prevention

Employee motivation is the key to preventing burn-outs and ensuring professional success for employers and employees.

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Employees who are motivated are the assets, even secret to the success of successful companies. However, these employees aren't robot nor machines. They can feel pressure, be overwhelmed, or even worse, be burned-out. Recognizing and preventing symptoms of burn-out will save your company and your employees from self-destruction. Organizational psychologist David Javitch, PhD, names the most common signs of burn-out. According to him, the most telltale signs of burn-out include a decline in productivity. It is most noticeable when a highly productive employee starts turning in mediocre work. Lateness, leaving on the dot, leaving work early, prolonged breaks, and increasing absences are the most common actions of burned-out employees. He also named the simplest means to prevent it such as employee scheduling, employee training, employee rights, employee performance, employee time, employee incentives, and regular evaluation.

Employee scheduling
Rotating employee's schedule may refresh your employees. However, there is a risk that you may hasten the burning out process. To prevent this from happening, be sure to consult with your employees about the rotating schedule. Put morning persons on the a.m. shift and the late risers on the afternoon shift. Night owls would definitely prefer the evening shifts. This will significantly reduce stress and pressure on your employees to perform at the time when their energies are low. Plus, you will get to benefit from their top performances because they would work at the time when their productivity levels are at their peak.

Employee Training
Provide training on areas that interest and help your employees. If your business is all about computers, train your employees on new programs or applications. A fashion or entertainment business would do well to conduct image consultancy and development training for its employees. Writers would benefit from writing workshops. Aside from breaking the monotony of their daily schedule, the employees and your company would also benefit from this move. You will have more trained and confident employees that are motivated to put their training to good use. Also, widen employees' responsibilities or cross train them. Have them handle other projects than their regular work to challenge them.

Employee Rights, Employee Incentives, And Employee Time
Convene with your employees and discuss with them their rights and the incentives they would get if the company performs well. They would get a big boost from being reminded and knowing that the company's future depends on them and their productivity. Give them employee time or a break from work. Declare a company holiday and treat your employees to an outing. A change of scenery would refresh them and energize them for another work season. In addition, they would feel that they are important to the company and that they are rewarded for all their efforts. Nothing boosts a person's morale most than praise and reward. These will encourage them to perform well and top their earlier efforts.

Employee Performance and Regular Evaluation
Conduct regular evaluation system to monitor your employees' performance. Reward good employees to encourage them to perform better. Encourage slackers with training and an assurance that the company, and you, as their employer, would help them in coping with their workload. Present your employees with a definite career growth plan such as promotions for top performing employees. Their enthusiasm for work would be revived if they know that they can move up the corporate ladder.

According to Javitch, these motivation methods will serve to aid you and your employees in the evaluation of their present company roles. He stressed that these are key improvements to an efficient employee management program. These methods would increase motivation, satisfaction, and most of all, productivity in your employees. Implement these and you would be saved from mediocre performances and work disruptions.

For more valuable information on employee scheduling please visit http://www.employee-scheduling.net

By Todd Lange
Published: 5/31/2006

The 3 Secrets

The 3 Secrets of Team Motivation

This article reveals the three secrets of team motivation. Find out how to build a highly motivated team who don’t take time off work, don’t keep looking for other jobs and make a positive contribution to your business.

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Do you want a highly motivated team who don’t take time off work, don’t keep looking for other jobs and make a positive contribution to your business?

If the answer is "yes," then there are three steps you need to take with each member of your team.

Step 1 - Spend some quality time
I didn’t say "quantity time" I said "quality time." One or two minutes of quality time on a regular basis are far more productive than a one hour review every year.

You need to get to know each member of your team better and they need to get to know you.

This will help you build a positive relationship with each team member. You’ll gain a much better understanding of them and how they’re handling the job.

It will also give the impression that you care about the individual and show that you’re there to help with problems both personal and business.

Spending quality time will encourage opinions and ideas to flow from them and allows you to explain the company’s mission. It gives them a feeling of being in on things which is a huge motivator.

It will also help you build an "early warning system" of any problems both business and personal.

Finally, it builds team spirit and morale.

Step 2 - Give feedback and coach
You need to regularly tell each member of your team when they’re doing well and when not so well.

I read some recent research that suggested 65% of employees in the US received no recognition at work in the past year.

My experience tells me that it’s much the same throughout the world and much worse in some countries.

Some managers still believe - "why should I praise people when they’re only doing what they’re paid to do." If you want a happy and motivated team then you need to tell them when they’re doing well.

It’s also important to tell people when they’re not performing well. There are too many managers who either ignore poor behavior or come down on the person like a ton of bricks.

There are particular ways to give feedback and coach and they’re described in detail in the book - How to get More Sales by Motivating Your Team.

Step 3 - Be a believer
We’re now getting into the area of "Empowerment" which was first introduced in the 1980’s and became a bit of a management buzzword. However, I believe that it’s one of the most promising but least understood concepts in team motivation today.

I’m a fairly down to earth practical sort of person (probably comes from my engineering background). I’m not big into motivation theories unless I can see the benefits for me - I see a great deal of benefit for managers and team leaders in Empowerment.

Empowerment is about utilizing the knowledge, skill, experience and motivation power that’s already within your people.

The majority of people in teams and organizations throughout the world are severely underutilized. Your team has probably more to offer in terms of skill, knowledge and experience.

Put this to the test right away - implement these steps, motivate your team and achieve your business goals.

By Alan Fairweather Published: 9/8/2005

Creating The Dream Employee

This week’s column presents the final four steps in our system for creating "dream" employees. In prior articles, we defined the "dream" employee as being one that is dedicated to his work, is energetic and, most importantly, they constantly seek to improve both themselves and the business.

In last week’s column we looked at how to build an environment that encourages entrepreneurism. That is, a workplace where staff think like entrepreneurs, where they adopt the mindset of a business owner, and where their personal focus is on adding value to the organisation.

In such a workplace, each staff member should identify who their most important "client" is. The "client" is the person to whom that employee is responsible. It doesn’t necessarily have to be someone external to the business; it could be a manager.

The staff member then looks at some of the key frustrations of the "client" – those things that cause their client to bang their head against their desk in frustration. The employee asks themselves: "What can be done to solve my client’s key frustration? What would it be worth to them to have me solve it?"

This brings us to the final four steps in our process:

Step Four: Your employees need to pitch their ideas.

It’s all very well for your staff to have great ideas for solving key frustrations, but they’ve got to be able to sell these ideas to their clients. When making the pitch, they’ll need to speak in terms of the benefits that their ideas will have to offer.

Take for example a manager in a supermarket. He recognises the owner’s frustration in training new salespeople, the cost and effort involved. The manager comes up with a solution, offering to design a system for training salespeople in half the standard time.

He has to be able to explain to the owner, in the simplest way possible, what the benefits will be of implementing this solution, how it can save the owner time and money. The owner needs to be made to feel that this is a solution that’s just too good to refuse.

What you will need to do is ensure that your workplace environment is such that staff who offer new ideas and systems for doing things are acknowledged for their efforts. Innovative ideas are valuable to the business and, as such, work in this area deserves to be appreciated, if not rewarded.

Step Five: Delivering on their promise.

Once staff have come up with an approach aimed at resolving a business problem, and this offer has been accepted by their most important client, they then need to ensure that the deliver on what was promised. Their integrity and credibility are dependent upon it.

Step Six: Measure and control.

Once the ideas have been implemented, there should be standards and indicators need to be monitored to ensure that the "solution" remains on track.

For example, if a manager offers to successfully train junior employees in half the standard time, he will need to establish tangible indicators that will clearly illustrate how successful he’s been.

Step Seven: Create and maintain a Staff Growth Strategy.

The final step in the process is for your staff to invest in their own education. Get them to adopt the idea of constant and never-ending improvement. Today’s super-service enhancement will become tomorrow’s standard.

Your staff, as entrepreneurs, must always seek to be ahead of the game, always looking for better and improved methods and systems, and always on the lookout for the next entrepreneurial opportunity.

A concluding note to business owners: The effectiveness of this system for creating an entrepreneurial environment within your business and for creating dream employees will be determined by the levels of effort and commitment putting it into practice.

Patrick Lumbroso is a business development expert and CEO of The Mentor Program, www.thementorprogram.com. He can be contacted via email patrick@thementorprogram.com

By Patrick Lumbroso Published: 11/4/2004

The 3 Secrets

The 3 Secrets of Team Motivation

This article reveals the three secrets of team motivation. Find out how to build a highly motivated team who don’t take time off work, don’t keep looking for other jobs and make a positive contribution to your business.

Enlarge Image

Do you want a highly motivated team who don’t take time off work, don’t keep looking for other jobs and make a positive contribution to your business?

If the answer is "yes," then there are three steps you need to take with each member of your team.

Step 1 - Spend some quality time
I didn’t say "quantity time" I said "quality time." One or two minutes of quality time on a regular basis are far more productive than a one hour review every year.

You need to get to know each member of your team better and they need to get to know you.

This will help you build a positive relationship with each team member. You’ll gain a much better understanding of them and how they’re handling the job.

It will also give the impression that you care about the individual and show that you’re there to help with problems both personal and business.

Spending quality time will encourage opinions and ideas to flow from them and allows you to explain the company’s mission. It gives them a feeling of being in on things which is a huge motivator.

It will also help you build an "early warning system" of any problems both business and personal.

Finally, it builds team spirit and morale.

Step 2 - Give feedback and coach
You need to regularly tell each member of your team when they’re doing well and when not so well.

I read some recent research that suggested 65% of employees in the US received no recognition at work in the past year.

My experience tells me that it’s much the same throughout the world and much worse in some countries.

Some managers still believe - "why should I praise people when they’re only doing what they’re paid to do." If you want a happy and motivated team then you need to tell them when they’re doing well.

It’s also important to tell people when they’re not performing well. There are too many managers who either ignore poor behavior or come down on the person like a ton of bricks.

There are particular ways to give feedback and coach and they’re described in detail in the book - How to get More Sales by Motivating Your Team.

Step 3 - Be a believer
We’re now getting into the area of "Empowerment" which was first introduced in the 1980’s and became a bit of a management buzzword. However, I believe that it’s one of the most promising but least understood concepts in team motivation today.

I’m a fairly down to earth practical sort of person (probably comes from my engineering background). I’m not big into motivation theories unless I can see the benefits for me - I see a great deal of benefit for managers and team leaders in Empowerment.

Empowerment is about utilizing the knowledge, skill, experience and motivation power that’s already within your people.

The majority of people in teams and organizations throughout the world are severely underutilized. Your team has probably more to offer in terms of skill, knowledge and experience.

Put this to the test right away - implement these steps, motivate your team and achieve your business goals.

By Alan Fairweather Published: 9/8/2005

INTRINSIC MOTIVATION

Revved!

Put Yourself and Your Team On the Road to Real Results - A New book by Harry Paul, who co-wrote "Fish!" and Ross Reck, about creating enthusiasm for your employees.

By Harry Paul and Ross Reck

How do you inspire people to work harder, reach higher, and achieve more? How do you get them to support you and go above and beyond in everything they do? How do you get them to care? You show that you care about them.

Nice Managers Get Results
Some years back, a group of researchers studied 16,000 corporate managers. The results surprised many skeptics. They showed that the highest achievers were those who valued people as highly as they valued profits.

Master Your Emotions
Even the best leaders have personal problems at one time or another. In those situations, the most effective leaders reach down inside themselves to find the strength to keep their emotions in check, especially at work.

Listen to Your Inner Voice
When you share your dreams and goals with those close to you -- a change of careers, starting a news business, going back to school -- you're very likely to hear a negative response. Don't let others rain on your parade -- instead, go for it!

Engage With Attitude
Have you ever heard the phrase, "Attitude is everything"? Take it to heart, for there's no such thing as an effective leader with a bad attitude. The best way to engage people is with your attitude, enthusiasm, and excitement.

Caring Energizes Everyone
Caring energizes everyone around you. When you open up and really care about people, you make them feel really good about themselves. This releases the reservoir of positive energy that resides in all of us.

The Power of Positive Action
Don't be nice to people just because you want something from them. Be positive just to be positive, and watch how your life changes for the better.

Sincere Appreciation Gets Results
One of the deepest needs of our human existence is the need to be appreciated. Each and every one of us absolutely loves to be appreciated for who we are and what we do.

Get Others to Go the Extra Mile
To really energize those around you, you need to not only take a sincere interest in them and what they do, but also Blow Them Away by doing something incredible and unexpected.

Excitement is Contagious
So is passion. If you're fired up about what you do, chances are that those around you will be, too!

Engage People by Involving Everyone
In today's hypercompetitive marketplace, you cannot afford to take anyone for granted or leave anyone on the bench. Consider an informal get-together to discuss a key issue or topic. The key is making sure everyone has a voice in making suggestions on how things can be improved.

Leave a Trail of Gratitude
When people really hit one out of the park for you, or even if they do something simple but well-meaning, find a sincere way to express your appreciation.

Give Credit to Others
The best leaders are confident enough to give credit to others when things go right -- and to take the blame when things go wrong.

Don't Let 10 Seconds Ruin Your Day
Whether it is a put-down or a rude driver cutting you off in traffic, do not take it personally. Remember, you are in charge of your emotions!

The Roughest Road Leads to the Top
This is because it's loaded with new challenges and experiences that enable you to learn, grow, and expand your comfort zone.

Turn Enemies Into Allies
The workplace is too small a place for you to have enemies. They can only sidetrack you from important things. If someone seems to have an axe to grind, find a way to engage that individual informally to find out the problem. That's better than letting the matter fester and grow worse.

Caring is a Win-Win Proposition
Caring costs nothing, it makes you feel good, and it makes those around you feel good because it releases their reservoirs of positive energy. As a result, not only do people feel compelled to care back, but they use some of this newly released energy to care about those around them.

Capitalize On Moments of Truth
A moment of truth is an opportunity to come through when the people around you don't expect you to. Think of ways to do this for colleagues and coworkers. You'll earn the respect of those around you, and the next time you ask one of these people for a favor, you can bet that the answer will be an enthusiastic yes!

The Care and Feeding of Relationships
Personal relationships don't maintain themselves. Like any other living thing, they need to be fed and cared for if they are going to thrive.

Celebrate Your Success
When you achieve something that is important to you, make sure you don't let the moment pass without celebrating. Celebrating successes with friends and family recharges your batteries!

Copyright © 2006
Adapted from the new book Revved! by Harry Paul and Ross Reck, Ph.D. Published by McGraw-Hill; May 2006;$19.95US/$24.95CAN; 0-07-146500-6

About the Authors:

Coauthor of Fish!, the best-selling book that brought fun and passion back into the workplace, Harry Paul shows the world the positive power of total teamwork. Formerly a senior vice president with the Ken Blanchard Companies, he was a driving force behind the landmark blockbuster, The One Minute Manager. Today Paul is an internationally renowned speaker and management trainer.

Bestselling author of The Win-Win Negotiator, Ross Reck, Ph.D., speaks and trains on the transformative power of a positive attitude in the workplace. He brings his motivational message to leading companies around the world.

Visit www.revvedbook.com coming soon.

By Buzzle Staff and Agencies
Published: 5/18/2006

Are Happy Employees

Motivated Employees ?

As managers, do we consciously try to provide this same level of motivation for all of our employees? Or, are we merely fixated on striving to achieve the deadlines, budgets and targets that are set for us (and that seem to be getting tougher and tougher and placing more and more stress on us and our people), and forgetting what it was really like when we worked in an environment that was truly "motivational". This article suggests some answers

When was the last time you felt excited, motivated and extremely keen to be at work? Chances are it was when you had a job or project that really interested you, you had control over what you did and the way you did it, and you didn’t have any worries about "over zealous boss" interference or lack of job security. It’s a great feeling and we can all probably relate stories of how and when we were most "motivated" at work.

But as managers, do we consciously try to provide this same level of motivation for all of our employees? Or, are we merely fixated on striving to achieve the deadlines, budgets and targets that are set for us (and that seem to be getting tougher and tougher and placing more and more stress on us and our people), and forgetting what it was really like when we worked in an environment that was truly "motivational".

My challenge to practising managers, is to think back to when they were most motivated at work and identify the reasons why (list them on a sheet of paper as dot points). Then, set about implementing these same conditions for their own people. (Draw up your own list now and see how it compares with mine)

I’ve issued this challenge to managers over the last 20 years in management development forums and invariably their "motivational conditions" they identify are:

• Autonomy – the chance to take control over a complete project or unit of work in which I am really interested
• Responsibility – for setting goals and targets and being accountable for achieving them
• Recognition – for achieving meaningful results
• Development – of my skills, knowledge and capabilities to their full potential

I then ask them to identify the things that really irritate and annoy them and (often) change what could have been a motivating workplace into a drudgery. They are:

• Bosses who do not recognise them for their efforts, or worse still, take the credit themselves
• A lack of feeling of "team", ie., "we are in this together"
• Constant implied or implicit threats of demotion or dismissal
• Insufficient salary (by comparison to others in the firm or in the industry)

If these sound familiar, then you’re right! Frederick Herzberg in his classic HBR article "Once More, How do you Motivate Employees?" (harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu) came up with two similar sets of lists nearly forty years ago that he labelled "Motivators" and "Satisfiers".

Do they hold true today? Recent research into the turnover rates for young employees (20 – 30 yrs) shows that in some industries, the turnover rate of young employees is as high as 25% annually due to lack of perceived career development and training, and limited opportunities for involvement in other areas of the firm and their profession. These younger people, by comparison to their predecessors:
• Are more opportunistic in taking new jobs.
• Are more mobile.
• Have greater expectations.
• Are easily bored.
Andrew Heathcote (www.brw.com.au/stories) in answer to this challenge suggests that managers need to:
Communicate:
• Be honest during interviews.
• Be serious about performance reviews.
• Do more career mapping.
• Create a forum to develop a greater spirit of involvement.
Tailor the workplace:
• Provide more job rotation.
• Arrange more rotation between offices.
• Develop specific training.
• Introduce variety.
• Develop forums for social interaction.
Be flexible:
• Consider providing sabbaticals (so they can travel without resigning).
• Increase the availability of unpaid leave.

So today’s younger employee is not so different from the generation who manage them – maybe they want their motivation and satisfaction a little faster!

By the way, notice that the majority of items on Andrew’s list are what Herzberg called "Motivators". In fact the only two that could be termed real "Satisfiers" are the last two – sabbaticals and unpaid leave.

But, to return to my initial question, does motivation equate with happiness? Richard Layard (www.pfd.co.uk/clients/layardr/b-aut.html) suggests that work plays a very important part in our happiness and that a lot of our happiness actually comes from the work we do. And the job that we do is affected by how we are allowed to do it. In addition, he found that in regard to the "Satisfiers":
• Not having a job when you should have one, is much worse than suffering a sudden drop in income
• People who feel insecure about retaining their job, suffer a loss of happiness (relative to those who do feel secure) that is 50% greater than the loss of happiness suffered by people whose income drops by a third.

Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick (www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/ staff/faculty/oswald/homejobs.pdf) confirms some of the importance of the "satisfiers":

• Having a lot of job security is important to feeling a high degree of satisfaction with your job
• People with relatively high incomes or university degrees tend to get more satisfaction
• Women tend to be more satisfied than men
• The self-employed tend to be more satisfied
• People who work in a small workplace tend to be more satisfied than those who work for large employers
• Working at home tends to lead to higher satisfaction
• A job that involves dealing with people tends to bring higher satisfaction

Herzberg would be very pleased with the results of the amazing amount of today’s research that confirms his contention that it is important for managers to concentrate on both the "Motivators" and the "Satisfiers" if one is to have happy and motivated employees.

The message? Managers, revisit your own list of "Motivators" Start working on implementing the things on that list of your’s with your employees today!

If you would like to find out how motivated and satisfied your people are, you can do so with a simple feedback profile such as CHECKpoint™ (nationallearning.com.au/index_files/EmployeeFeedbackandMotivation.htm). CHECKpoint™ has been developed on the work of Herzberg and another great social psychologist, D.C. McLelland. It not only provides feedback on employee motivation and satisfaction, but also how to maintain these and address any problematic issues.

Copyright © 2006 The National Learning Institute

About the author:
Bob Selden is the Managing Director of the National Learning Institute. He is a part time member of faculty at the International Management Development Institute in Lausanne and the Australian Graduate School of Management in Sydney. You can contact Bob at http://www.nationallearning.com.au/

By Bob Selden Published: 11/4/2006

Motivation –

Motivation – Is the Problem the Leader or the Lead?

These days it is not enough to say "Jump", and expect the follower to say "How high?"

I. Expectations

People need to know what is expected of them. There needs to be agreement as to their responsibilities and outputs. From a motivational angle the question is how do we expect people to get fired up if they don’t know where they are heading. Their goals must be compatible and in synchronization with the Vision and Strategic Business Plan of the unit they are working in.

II. Authority

People want to know, and are entitled to know, what authority they have in the organization. That is, what control over which resources they are entitled to. To achieve the things that are expected of them. Put another way, we can’t expect people to take on responsibility if they don’t have the authority to go hand in hand with it.

III. Support

People want to know who they can get to help and support them when they need it. Delegation isn’t abdication. There must be some built in controls as to how it is all going – people don’t want to be left out on a limb.

IV. Standards

People want to know what the specific requirements or standards of performance of their position are. They want to know what criteria are being used to judge their performance.

V. Feedback

A person wants to know if he or she is doing well, or not so well. In a word – feedback. There is no doubt that from a motivation angle feedback is the food of champions. It is only when people get feedback that they can move towards taking repetitive or corrective action. Without feedback people will not stay motivated for long. Giving feedback is often the most neglected of all the human relations aspects of a business.

VI Training

People expect and are entitled to get training and guidance to improve their performance. They want to work in an environment where they know their manager is concerned about them as individuals and is committed to their success. The manager can do this by respecting and using their input and ideas.

By Bob Pearce Published: 10/25/2007

Motivation:2

Motivation: A Driving Force For Human Beings

Motivation is the way by which a person’s feeling to do a certain work is given a boost so that he can do the work with real enthusiasm. Certainly great work can be achieved from human beings if they are given motivation. Today this fact is realized and all the companies give importance in keeping their employees motivated.

Motivation can be considered as art of encouraging people or oneself to work. It is the continuous effort of stimulating people to positive action directed towards achieving the targets. Motivation can be positive or negative, intrinsic and extrinsic, financial and non financial. It is seen that needs give rise to wants, which generate tensions. This tension can be removed by motivation. The immediate effect can be seen in ones behavior which results in improved performance.

Different ways of achieving motivation:
1) Working conditions should be improved.
2) Healthy atmosphere and proper ventilation should available.
3) Safety of workers should be given first priority.
4) The workers must be taught different ways of achieving efficient work without much effort.
5) Training must be imparted to them for adapting to newly adapted machines.
6) Awards should be given to proper employee.
7) Increase in wages of workers should be done after a specific period.
8) The incentive schemes must give justice both to employees and employers.
9) Feeling of job security should be generated in their mind.
10) Goodwill and sincerity of management should be reflected through proper actions taken by them.
11) Employees should be given social security and care must be taken to identify their problems.
12) The structure of motivation must be flexible. It means that encouraging employees by adapting techniques relevant to situation.
13) The system of motivation should be transparent and easily understandable by all.

Money as motivation factor:
1) In today’s modern era materialism has gain importance in each individual’s life.
2) New schemes should be carried out for employees for example: creating their savings account, insurance policies.
3) Money is main objective and should be measured as means for measuring relationship between effort and reward.
4) Wages should be increased in proportion to increase in output.

Goals:
An environment of faith and freedom can be created by setting goals with that are jointly decided by workers and management. The goals that are fixed should be concise and to the point. The employees should be aware of what exactly is expected from them. Quality and quantity is what matters and hence should be made clear. Objectives to be achieved if are moderately challenging motivates the members of team. A leader of team must encourage his team and guide them on the path of success. Following requirements should be met to achieve goals
1) Specifying target.
2) Difficulties in achieving goal.
3) Getting involved in achieving goals.
4) Looking into the feed back of efforts.

Advantages of Motivation
There are certain distinct advantages which are highlighted below:
1) It keeps the employee cheerful thus imparting delight on group by keeping them merry.
2) Each member of organization feels for the company and tries to gives his sincere effort in achieving new goals.
3) Changes can be easily brought in a firm if employees have complete faith on its firm. This happens only when they are motivated regularly.
4) Motivation gives job satisfaction.
5) Productivity is the outcome of performance. Performance can be improved by motivation.
6) It raises self respect and raises discipline among employees.
7) It helps to improve the interest and attitude of employees which is useful while training employee which require their complete attention and devotion.
8) It helps to avoid strikes and other such activity that hampers company’s production.
9) It helps in making the efficient use of available human resources.

By Yogesh Ambekar
Published: 12/6/2004

Motivation for Employees

Motivation for Employees Simplified!

Have you ever wondered what the secret behind motivation for employees is? Now, you can discover these hidden truths for yourself! Discover exactly how to get employees to truly work for you…

Many professional corporations struggle with lack of motivation among their employees. If you are experiencing complications with motivation the employees in your business, this article is for you! Here, can discover the truth behind what really makes your employees tick as far as motivation is concerned. You will understand that, as long as your employees are truly happy, the potential for success is extremely high. With that incentive for success you can expect an increase in performance. If morale in your business is down, you can learn the essentials of turning this situation around in this particular article!

If you own, operate, or manage a business, you know and understand the importance of employee motivation. If employees are not motivated, then this will impact your business in a negative fashion. Generally employees who are lacking in the area of motivation will lack in the area of productivity as well. When productivity slacks because of complications with motivation among employees, the quality of your goods and/or services is also affected in a negative fashion.

When there is an issue with employee motivation in the workplace, there is often an issue with the quantity of work that is performed. So if you are wondering how this affects performance you can see that stated here. Even more important than the overall productivity of the employees is the quality of work produced by the employees. When these individuals experience low morale, they make very little effort to ensure that the work that they perform meets and/or exceeds the standards as set forth by their organization. In turn, your business will not only produce less work, but less quality as well.

You probably believe that you pay your employees at least an average compensation, offer them good benefits, and this should motivate them, right? Wrong. It has been discovered, after many years of psychological and scientific research, that while employees are appreciative of pay rates and benefits, this is not the ultimate source of motivation in the workplace. As a matter of fact, many employees are more satisfied in receiving recognition for a job well done than a health insurance policy that has a good prescription plan.

Some organizations have tken it upon themselves to ask employees through the use of a questionnaire or survey what they would like to see changed or improved in the workplace. The theory behind these surveys or questionnaires is to allow the organization a stricter definition of what program or programs should be instituted for the effect of increased employee performance.

Many professional organizations will reward their employees for performing their basic responsibilities in a manner that is consistent with in-house objectives and expectations. Many companies do not feel as if it is appropriate to reward an employee for simply performing the responsibilities that are expected of them. Regardless of what type of "reward" system you have in place, the most important thing that you can do to ensure employee motivation is to always recognize the fact that they are working according to expectations, and thank them for doing so.

If you want to show your appreciation for employees in order to motivate them, there are many different methods of doing so. First, you may elect to buy them lunch during the week, or simply offer a free pass for an extra break when they feel as if they need it. Many companies may allow employees to have a casual dress day, or engage in a variety of activities while on their breaks, like surfing the internet in the break room, and similar things.

Discovering the method of properly motivating in the workplace is truly a trial and error process. However, the main thing to remember is that money and benefits do not always motivate your employees. Many times, a simple pat on the back, or peer recognition means more to an employee than money or gifts. When you recognize this fact, you will learn exactly how simple it is to motivate your people. In conclusion, it is important to understand that employee motivation is the basis to the success of your business. You must encourage your employees in such a way that they are willing to provide the productivity and the quality that you expect of them. The old saying about money not buying love holds true in today’s business sector. Sometimes, simply taking time to focus on a job well done and the extra effort an employee puts forth is more rewarding than a paycheck.

By Bruce Hoover
Published: 12/11/2007

Employee Empowerment 1

Employee Empowerment

The modern entrepreneur bears the dual responsibility of working towards the smooth functioning of the business and retaining quality staff, as part of the long term scheme for the success of the venture.

Employee empowerment is an absolute business essential today. It involves the expressions and avenues through which the non-managerial staff members are conditioned to be able to make certain important company decisions, with the support and backing of a well planned empowerment program. The self-willed decision making capacity is generated from the amount of the power vested by the management within the employees, during the training provided. Employee empowerment training actually culminates in the whole set-up becoming an empowerment model. The guided ability to take some decisions empowers the employees and also adds to the retaining module adopted by the company.

Employee empowerment can be attempted via dedicated virtual courses, special employee empowerment workshops by management gurus, dedicated books and articles and even software packages. There are a myriad of dedicated magazines that companies can subscribe to and convert effectively to employee driven decision-making. The basic concept behind the employee empowerment program is to give power to the individual, which in turn gives the company happier employees, who feel important! The delegated choice and participation and subsequently responsibility makes the employees feel like first hand representatives of the business.

Employee empowerment can only work if the management team believes in it. The issuing of authority to the employees could be graded, but it needs to be a rippling activity within the organization and consistent in nature. The entrepreneur or management should be completely committed to allowing the employees to make decisions and execute them, also taking responsibility. The management could pre-determine and define the scope of decisions made and work towards effectively building decision-making teams. This model used in employee empowerment is very effective because it enables the staff to contribute toward efficient steering of the company profits, in a way that benefits all.

The implementation of employee empowerment involves managers willing to give up control in certain areas of work production. The system must have scope for improvement of the strategy and flexibility within teams. The ability of the employees to contribute to a choice and direct decisions, leads to an alleviated feeling of self-worth and dedication. The sense of self and the retaining of some power is a deadly combination that works wonders on the psyche of the employee. The elimination of the hawk’s eye and the regular criticism creates a more positive environment.

The strategy of implementing a suggestion box, where the suggestions are made without fear of retribution is a great management tool. However, it is important that the managers read and consider the suggestions. The management could also attempt establishing a monthly forum like a symposium or monthly newsletter. It is very essential to ensure that the employee suggestions are addressed and discussed, especially if the management sees potential. The points or rewarding system will give you a competitive work force.

The employee empowerment program is designed to work only with the support of at least some suggestions being approved for some impact on the company, failing which the same empowerment program only re-confirms to the employees that the strategy is a farce and real power continues to be exercised only by the managers. The empowered work force moves front-stage and is matched by action. The anecdotal reports and management surveys all recede inot the peripheral, once effective empowerment is executed. The age old concept that the work force is more efficient using their brains and not just their hands is proven true with the various case studies on employee empowerment.

The concept of employee management is designed to act as a practical guide to leadership in liberated organizations. The empowerment ripples on to the manager-managed relationship and becomes deeply organizational in good time. Empowerment does not only include delegating job authority, it also means job enhancement via decision making. The traditional bureaucracy, and the age old emphasis on control and standardisation are now things of the past. The new vistas involve innovation, flexibility and commitment and consistent improvement.

By Gaynor Borade
Published: 2/23/2008

How to Engage Employees,

Improve Productivity & Sustain Improvements Over the Long Haul

There is an urgent need for every company in this global economy to improve its processes continuously. The ongoing strive to be better than everybody else and become better than oneself the day before, is at the core of survival. And the key to the success of the program lies in sustaining the gains from every step!

Step 1. Get Everyone Engaged

To sustain the results for your continuous improvement process, you must first engage all employees involved in the business. This should also include those contractors and suppliers you do business with for an extended period of time. Here's why:

* By including the biggest number of people with insight in your business processes, you open the widest idea pool.
* When every person impacted feels as if they are a driving part of the change, they are more likely to accept changes and new ideas.

Step 2: Visualize

To sustain success, you must visualize the process and the progress achieved for every person in the company. The visualization needs to be physically present for all managers, team leaders and employees as well. Everybody needs to see the rules of the program and the baseline, target, and ongoing progress for the key performance indicators (KPI).

Step 3: Use Realistic Optimism

Your company's business process key performance indicators need to be determined in a way that directly indicates how successful your improvement efforts are. Here's how...

* Start with the baseline performance from the last one or two business periods.

* Targets for the KPIs should be set with "realistic optimism" from your baseline data. They must pose challenging goals while not being out of reach.

* Ongoing progress needs to be measured in a timely manner
* Representation of the KPIs should be given in graphics, not purely numerically.

When improvements are implemented, the KPIs will show the positive impact. They also will show the sustained achievement. Or if things fall back, it will give you early feedback so corrective actions can be started fast.

Step 4: Balance the Workload

As your company moves forward with the continuous improvement program, teams should be established for ongoing administration and support and for specific improvement projects. This means your employees will be responsible for additional tasks including completing the required training in the new processes and tools and collecting data for the control.

Your management team will need to acknowledge this additional workload. A certain amount of add-on work will be unavoidable to start the process. But it is urgent to introduce a way to free people for the work in the improvement process from the normal tasks of their jobs. Maintaining hours worked during a time of lower production or adding additional people to create dedicated improvement teams are ways to start a great program. The advancement of the improvement process will pay for the added labor costs fast.

Step 5: Celebrate Milestones and End Results

Build personnel engagement for the continuous improvement process by celebrating successes. Appreciation for progress made in all different layers of the improvement process must be shown in a timely way by management from the CEO to the direct supervisor and his or her peers of every team member.

Appreciation can be shown in many ways, from lunch or dinner invitations, gift certificates, or direct monetary rewards to the individually targeted public acknowledgement of the success or a special service provided to the employees. Rewards work best when every employee feels they are appropriate for the success achieved and when they fit the needs of the individual employee. One of the most effective appreciations for reaching a milestone was the personal effort of the team facilitator in washing every team member's car in front of the company building.

Your 3 Action Items for Success

To improve productivity and sustain improvements over the long haul your employees must drive the continuous improvement process and be at the core of sustaining it. In order to make effective strides forward your company must work to engage every employee in the process. So start performing these 3 action items for success today:

1. Visualize the steps it will take to achieve results so that every person involved sees it every day
2. Make organizational adjustments to allow people the time to participate in the effort
3. Develop milestones and celebration schedule to show your company's appreciation for every successful step forward in a balanced way.

Bottom line: Think positively about it, put your best support forward for it, and feel part of it!

Vice President of Manufacturing for Nanosphere, Inc., Bernhard Opitz builds high-performing, rapid-response engineering organizations by driving technology innovation and productivity improvement initiatives. Let Bernhard Opitz teach you how to exponentially grow your revenues organically by engaging your employees at your next leadership conference. To invite Bernhard to be your next keynote speaker, contact him at http://www.linkedin.com/pub/2/986/a19

By Bernhard Opitz
Published: 2/25/2008

team motivation

The truth about team motivation

Do you believe you can 'buy' your way to peak performance? This article explains why, incentives, bonuses and prizes wont build a highly motivated team; it takes more.

You might disagree but hear me out on this. Incentives prizes, gifts and bonuses don't motivate people at work. Okay, so they may have some short term benefits, however if
you want a highly motivated team, you'll never buy your way to peak performance. Let me give you an example of what I mean. My friend Tom who works in sales was telling me that he'd come first in a recent team sales competition. His success was announced at
the sales meeting and he was presented with his 'prize;' a bottle of beer with a branded glass in a presentation box.

If his prize had been a two week holiday in the West Indies then it might have been better received; however, to be honest, it wouldn't have made a great deal of difference as
far as Tom's motivation is concerned. Of course the low value of the prize contributes to his de-motivation. You see, my friend Tom doesn't like his manager, doesn't like his job anymore and spends much of his time looking for a new job. Now I know his manager and I know the rest of the team aren't happy. Tom's manager isn't a bad person, but he thinks that team motivation is all about handing out the occasional 'prize.' He recently suggested to another team member that he take his wife out for a meal and charge it to expenses. This team member has been divorced for five years.

Let me illustrate what I mean in another way. Imagine for a moment that a rich business man has just been asked by his wife - "Do you love me darling?" and he replies - "Of course I do, didn't I just buy you that new car!?" It's like a parent who feels that showering toys and presents on a child will make them a better person. You know as well as I, this won't work; it takes more.

Now don't panic, I'm not suggesting you 'love' your team members. However, I am saying that you need to meet their emotional rather than their practical, logical, tangible needs if you want to motivate them. You need to care about your team and you need to show it - are you tough enough to care?

Alan Fairweather - The Motivation Doctor - is a professional speaker, author and business development expert.

To receive your free newsletter and free ebooks, visit:
http://www.themotivationdoctor.com

By Alan Fairweather Published: 3/19/2008

Employee Appreciation Day

- Did You Thank Your Employees

Despite employee appreciation day being over, being recognized and acknowledged is important to people and something to not overlook and ignore.

Many people were unaware that employee appreciation day was March 7th this year. If you are an employer or manager, you know how important motivation is for job satisfaction. People that drag themselves in to the job and live for lunch and breaks feel alienated and unenthusiastic. Employees and staff want to enjoy work and be treated with respect.

There are many ways to demonstrate this. Listening is a very important skill and something that is not always practiced due to all the multi-tasking. To speak to someone privately if they look like they are having a hard week and be available goes a long way..

Many employees enjoy being rewarded by receiving some flex time. On forums many people will say that being able to be late if they have to drop the car off and stay later would mean a lot. If this works with your place of employment it's a good idea to implement.

Inquire of your employees what they might want to make work less routine. It may involve an on-site class such as yoga or exercise a few times a week . Bringing in speakers that present on health matters can also be useful and create inner peace.

Don't let your office atmosphere turn into the scenes from the movie Office Space. Having an atmosphere of authentic communication, humor. empathy and real dialogue makes a job much more humanizing and alienating. To introduce Hawaiian Shirt day and superficialities as shown in the movie really creates no enjoyment or connection amongst people. Instead, try to find out what people want and ways to bridge any of the tensions that are present. Don't create competitive situations that make people feel insecure. Though some people may like picnics with the company, others may find doing sports with employees difficult. Some companies will make this optional to avoid peer pressure.

Giving someone a suprise gift is always a nice treats and they don't have to be expensive to be valuable. Think about what people are concerned about and that will help you to formulate a gift package.

Dee Cohen is a licensed social worker and yoga teacher. Stop by at Employee Appreciation Gifts to learn about a meaningful yet inexpensive gift that your staff will value and share with other at http://www.outside-the-box.net

By Dee Cohen
Published: 3/26/2008

Tips for Motivating Employees 2

Have Expectations and Standards For Employees Not Rules and Regulations

By Jack Mitchell

I’m told that many, even most, companies maintain thick employee handbooks jam-packed with all shapes and types of rules -- rules about when you come to work and when you leave, rules about how often you get a break, rules about coarse language, rules about penalties for defacing bulletin boards, rules about this, that, and everything, so many that even the person who wrote them couldn’t possibly know them all. Every year or so, they make revisions to the handbook, usually sticking in still more rules but rarely, if ever, discarding or updating any of them to reflect a changing world. So you have a business drowning in rules that no one can remember, including the managers who dreamed them up.

In this regard, companies are as bad as governments. I’m always reminded of this when I read about some antiquated local or state law that never got updated for common sense. For instance, South Carolina has a two-hundred-year-old law banning games with cards or dice -- even in your own home. So I guess the police can bust in and haul you and the kids to the pen for playing Monopoly or Go Fish!

When you have piles of rules, we believe it makes people extremely uneasy. They feel like they’re back in school -- or, worse, in prison. And the upshot is that they don’t feel as if they’re trusted. One of our sales associates shared how, at another company, she came to work one day despite having wrenched her back the previous night. She was in a fair amount of discomfort, but didn’t want to miss a day. So between customers, she sat down to ease the pain. Her supervisor spotted her, stomped over, and barked: "Get up right now. You can’t sit, because it sets a bad example. It’s the rule."

You know the old saying "Rules are made to be broken." Well, we find that people look on rules as meaning that you’re testing their integrity. Which translates to "I don’t trust you." So one of the most important ways we show that we trust our people is by not having rules except those required by law.

Now, when we say that we don’t have any other rules, we don’t mean that we operate in complete anarchy -- maybe a touch of organized chaos, but not anarchy. No business could be successful if it were run that way. People don’t come and go as they please, they don’t have limitless expense accounts, they don’t come to work in bikinis.

You see, we’re a hugging culture based on values and principles, not rules and regulations.

So how do we establish parameters? Rather than rules, we have expectations. And if you have a company comprised of trustworthy people, setting examples and expectations works a lot better than rules.

What’s the difference between rules and expectations? To our mind, rules are unbending. If the rule is that you have to take lunch from noon to one o’clock and you don’t take it at that time, then you starve to death. So rules are rigid. To me, they’re cold and impersonal.

Expectations, on the other hand, are warm, and they’re flexible and freeing when they need to be. The clear understanding is that you are expected to live up to our expectations, and so you come in and leave when you are scheduled to, but you don’t need a time clock to keep you honest. Expectations are mutually agreed upon -- and they can be fulfilled in different ways by different people. No two individuals are completely alike in talent, strengths, motivation, or personality -- everyone has plenty of quirks or weaknesses -- so why should everyone have to follow rigid rules? Expectations are pliable and they may be adjusted to suit an individual and build on his or her strengths.

What, then, are some of our expectations?

There are seven key expectations that are important to me:

1. Be positive, passionate, and personal.
2. Work and play hard -- and work smarter, too.
3. Understand the power of the team. That means exhibiting mutual respect and trust. Fun and success mean we, not I (remember the old expression, "There is no ‘I’ in team").
4. Dress appropriately (this especially applies to us since we’re in the clothing business).
5. No surprises.
6. Always, always be open and tell the truth!
7. Hug one another and hug the customers!

We also like to use the word standards a lot in place of rules. In general, we set very high standards, and we expect everyone to do their level best to live up to them. My tenth-grade civics teacher wrote in my Staples High School yearbook, "Live up to your potential," and I obviously never forgot it and think about it often, and that’s what we want our people to do: live up to their highest potential.

That’s why effort, hard work, and education are emphasized. We like people to keep raising the bar, especially in areas where they are naturally strong. We realize that if the bar is raised appropriately with each individual in mind, then everyone will reach his or her personal and professional goals and will enjoy -- indeed love -- the journey, the process, the playing of the game of the career of life.

And so within our expectations we establish specific standards, or targets. For instance, we expect our sellers to achieve $1 million in sales their first year with us (but we don’t horsewhip them if they do $900,000). We expect tailors to be fast and accurate -- we never like pants that end six inches above the ankle -- and to work as a team. And, of course, we expect everyone to support one another in a sale, to share their skills and "secrets" on personalizing relationships with other huggers, and to store data for everyone to use in an open and honest way with respect for privacy and confidentiality.

So set expectations for your associates, but leave rules to the prison wardens.

Excerpted from the book HUG YOUR PEOPLE: The Proven Way to Hire, Inspire and Recognize Your Employees and Achieve Remarkable Results by Jack Mitchell. Copyright (c) 2008. Hyperion. Available wherever books are sold. All Rights Reserved.

By Buzzle Staff and Agencies
Published: 4/14/2008

Employee Empowerment 1

Employee Empowerment

The modern entrepreneur bears the dual responsibility of working towards the smooth functioning of the business and retaining quality staff, as part of the long term scheme for the success of the venture.

Employee empowerment is an absolute business essential today. It involves the expressions and avenues through which the non-managerial staff members are conditioned to be able to make certain important company decisions, with the support and backing of a well planned empowerment program. The self-willed decision making capacity is generated from the amount of the power vested by the management within the employees, during the training provided. Employee empowerment training actually culminates in the whole set-up becoming an empowerment model. The guided ability to take some decisions empowers the employees and also adds to the retaining module adopted by the company.

Employee empowerment can be attempted via dedicated virtual courses, special employee empowerment workshops by management gurus, dedicated books and articles and even software packages. There are a myriad of dedicated magazines that companies can subscribe to and convert effectively to employee driven decision-making. The basic concept behind the employee empowerment program is to give power to the individual, which in turn gives the company happier employees, who feel important! The delegated choice and participation and subsequently responsibility makes the employees feel like first hand representatives of the business.

Employee empowerment can only work if the management team believes in it. The issuing of authority to the employees could be graded, but it needs to be a rippling activity within the organization and consistent in nature. The entrepreneur or management should be completely committed to allowing the employees to make decisions and execute them, also taking responsibility. The management could pre-determine and define the scope of decisions made and work towards effectively building decision-making teams. This model used in employee empowerment is very effective because it enables the staff to contribute toward efficient steering of the company profits, in a way that benefits all.

The implementation of employee empowerment involves managers willing to give up control in certain areas of work production. The system must have scope for improvement of the strategy and flexibility within teams. The ability of the employees to contribute to a choice and direct decisions, leads to an alleviated feeling of self-worth and dedication. The sense of self and the retaining of some power is a deadly combination that works wonders on the psyche of the employee. The elimination of the hawk’s eye and the regular criticism creates a more positive environment.

The strategy of implementing a suggestion box, where the suggestions are made without fear of retribution is a great management tool. However, it is important that the managers read and consider the suggestions. The management could also attempt establishing a monthly forum like a symposium or monthly newsletter. It is very essential to ensure that the employee suggestions are addressed and discussed, especially if the management sees potential. The points or rewarding system will give you a competitive work force.

The employee empowerment program is designed to work only with the support of at least some suggestions being approved for some impact on the company, failing which the same empowerment program only re-confirms to the employees that the strategy is a farce and real power continues to be exercised only by the managers. The empowered work force moves front-stage and is matched by action. The anecdotal reports and management surveys all recede inot the peripheral, once effective empowerment is executed. The age old concept that the work force is more efficient using their brains and not just their hands is proven true with the various case studies on employee empowerment.

The concept of employee management is designed to act as a practical guide to leadership in liberated organizations. The empowerment ripples on to the manager-managed relationship and becomes deeply organizational in good time. Empowerment does not only include delegating job authority, it also means job enhancement via decision making. The traditional bureaucracy, and the age old emphasis on control and standardisation are now things of the past. The new vistas involve innovation, flexibility and commitment and consistent improvement.

By Gaynor Borade
Published: 2/23/2008

Employee Empowerment

Employee Empowerment 1

The modern entrepreneur bears the dual responsibility of working towards the smooth functioning of the business and retaining quality staff, as part of the long term scheme for the success of the venture.

Employee empowerment is an absolute business essential today. It involves the expressions and avenues through which the non-managerial staff members are conditioned to be able to make certain important company decisions, with the support and backing of a well planned empowerment program. The self-willed decision making capacity is generated from the amount of the power vested by the management within the employees, during the training provided. Employee empowerment training actually culminates in the whole set-up becoming an empowerment model. The guided ability to take some decisions empowers the employees and also adds to the retaining module adopted by the company.

Employee empowerment can be attempted via dedicated virtual courses, special employee empowerment workshops by management gurus, dedicated books and articles and even software packages. There are a myriad of dedicated magazines that companies can subscribe to and convert effectively to employee driven decision-making. The basic concept behind the employee empowerment program is to give power to the individual, which in turn gives the company happier employees, who feel important! The delegated choice and participation and subsequently responsibility makes the employees feel like first hand representatives of the business.

Employee empowerment can only work if the management team believes in it. The issuing of authority to the employees could be graded, but it needs to be a rippling activity within the organization and consistent in nature. The entrepreneur or management should be completely committed to allowing the employees to make decisions and execute them, also taking responsibility. The management could pre-determine and define the scope of decisions made and work towards effectively building decision-making teams. This model used in employee empowerment is very effective because it enables the staff to contribute toward efficient steering of the company profits, in a way that benefits all.

The implementation of employee empowerment involves managers willing to give up control in certain areas of work production. The system must have scope for improvement of the strategy and flexibility within teams. The ability of the employees to contribute to a choice and direct decisions, leads to an alleviated feeling of self-worth and dedication. The sense of self and the retaining of some power is a deadly combination that works wonders on the psyche of the employee. The elimination of the hawk’s eye and the regular criticism creates a more positive environment.

The strategy of implementing a suggestion box, where the suggestions are made without fear of retribution is a great management tool. However, it is important that the managers read and consider the suggestions. The management could also attempt establishing a monthly forum like a symposium or monthly newsletter. It is very essential to ensure that the employee suggestions are addressed and discussed, especially if the management sees potential. The points or rewarding system will give you a competitive work force.

The employee empowerment program is designed to work only with the support of at least some suggestions being approved for some impact on the company, failing which the same empowerment program only re-confirms to the employees that the strategy is a farce and real power continues to be exercised only by the managers. The empowered work force moves front-stage and is matched by action. The anecdotal reports and management surveys all recede inot the peripheral, once effective empowerment is executed. The age old concept that the work force is more efficient using their brains and not just their hands is proven true with the various case studies on employee empowerment.

The concept of employee management is designed to act as a practical guide to leadership in liberated organizations. The empowerment ripples on to the manager-managed relationship and becomes deeply organizational in good time. Empowerment does not only include delegating job authority, it also means job enhancement via decision making. The traditional bureaucracy, and the age old emphasis on control and standardisation are now things of the past. The new vistas involve innovation, flexibility and commitment and consistent improvement.

By Gaynor Borade
Published: 2/23/2008

Tips for Motivating Employees 2

Have Expectations and Standards For Employees Not Rules and Regulations

By Jack Mitchell

I’m told that many, even most, companies maintain thick employee handbooks jam-packed with all shapes and types of rules -- rules about when you come to work and when you leave, rules about how often you get a break, rules about coarse language, rules about penalties for defacing bulletin boards, rules about this, that, and everything, so many that even the person who wrote them couldn’t possibly know them all. Every year or so, they make revisions to the handbook, usually sticking in still more rules but rarely, if ever, discarding or updating any of them to reflect a changing world. So you have a business drowning in rules that no one can remember, including the managers who dreamed them up.

In this regard, companies are as bad as governments. I’m always reminded of this when I read about some antiquated local or state law that never got updated for common sense. For instance, South Carolina has a two-hundred-year-old law banning games with cards or dice -- even in your own home. So I guess the police can bust in and haul you and the kids to the pen for playing Monopoly or Go Fish!

When you have piles of rules, we believe it makes people extremely uneasy. They feel like they’re back in school -- or, worse, in prison. And the upshot is that they don’t feel as if they’re trusted. One of our sales associates shared how, at another company, she came to work one day despite having wrenched her back the previous night. She was in a fair amount of discomfort, but didn’t want to miss a day. So between customers, she sat down to ease the pain. Her supervisor spotted her, stomped over, and barked: "Get up right now. You can’t sit, because it sets a bad example. It’s the rule."

You know the old saying "Rules are made to be broken." Well, we find that people look on rules as meaning that you’re testing their integrity. Which translates to "I don’t trust you." So one of the most important ways we show that we trust our people is by not having rules except those required by law.

Now, when we say that we don’t have any other rules, we don’t mean that we operate in complete anarchy -- maybe a touch of organized chaos, but not anarchy. No business could be successful if it were run that way. People don’t come and go as they please, they don’t have limitless expense accounts, they don’t come to work in bikinis.

You see, we’re a hugging culture based on values and principles, not rules and regulations.

So how do we establish parameters? Rather than rules, we have expectations. And if you have a company comprised of trustworthy people, setting examples and expectations works a lot better than rules.

What’s the difference between rules and expectations? To our mind, rules are unbending. If the rule is that you have to take lunch from noon to one o’clock and you don’t take it at that time, then you starve to death. So rules are rigid. To me, they’re cold and impersonal.

Expectations, on the other hand, are warm, and they’re flexible and freeing when they need to be. The clear understanding is that you are expected to live up to our expectations, and so you come in and leave when you are scheduled to, but you don’t need a time clock to keep you honest. Expectations are mutually agreed upon -- and they can be fulfilled in different ways by different people. No two individuals are completely alike in talent, strengths, motivation, or personality -- everyone has plenty of quirks or weaknesses -- so why should everyone have to follow rigid rules? Expectations are pliable and they may be adjusted to suit an individual and build on his or her strengths.

What, then, are some of our expectations?

There are seven key expectations that are important to me:

1. Be positive, passionate, and personal.
2. Work and play hard -- and work smarter, too.
3. Understand the power of the team. That means exhibiting mutual respect and trust. Fun and success mean we, not I (remember the old expression, "There is no ‘I’ in team").
4. Dress appropriately (this especially applies to us since we’re in the clothing business).
5. No surprises.
6. Always, always be open and tell the truth!
7. Hug one another and hug the customers!

We also like to use the word standards a lot in place of rules. In general, we set very high standards, and we expect everyone to do their level best to live up to them. My tenth-grade civics teacher wrote in my Staples High School yearbook, "Live up to your potential," and I obviously never forgot it and think about it often, and that’s what we want our people to do: live up to their highest potential.

That’s why effort, hard work, and education are emphasized. We like people to keep raising the bar, especially in areas where they are naturally strong. We realize that if the bar is raised appropriately with each individual in mind, then everyone will reach his or her personal and professional goals and will enjoy -- indeed love -- the journey, the process, the playing of the game of the career of life.

And so within our expectations we establish specific standards, or targets. For instance, we expect our sellers to achieve $1 million in sales their first year with us (but we don’t horsewhip them if they do $900,000). We expect tailors to be fast and accurate -- we never like pants that end six inches above the ankle -- and to work as a team. And, of course, we expect everyone to support one another in a sale, to share their skills and "secrets" on personalizing relationships with other huggers, and to store data for everyone to use in an open and honest way with respect for privacy and confidentiality.

So set expectations for your associates, but leave rules to the prison wardens.

Excerpted from the book HUG YOUR PEOPLE: The Proven Way to Hire, Inspire and Recognize Your Employees and Achieve Remarkable Results by Jack Mitchell. Copyright (c) 2008. Hyperion. Available wherever books are sold. All Rights Reserved.

By Buzzle Staff and Agencies
Published: 4/14/2008

Equity Theory And Employee Motivation

Is there a relationship between how hard an employee works and how fairly they have been treated? Some noted economists believe that there is, so think before you berate your staff!

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In business, the Equity Theory of employee motivation describes the relationship between how fairly an employee perceives he is treated and how hard he is motivated to work. Peter Drucker, an author who specialized in economics, first proposed the link between Equity Theory and employee motivation.

The basic idea behind the Equity Theory is that workers, in an attempt to balance what they put in to their jobs and what they get from them, will unconsciously assign values to each of his various contributions.

In addition to their time, workers contribute their experience, their qualifications, and their capability in addition to their personal strengths such as acumen and ambition. Money, of course, is the primary motivating outcome for an employee, but it is not the only, and in some cases not even the most important, factor. Power and status are also prime motivators, as are flexibility, perquisites and variety.

According to the Equity Theory, the most highly motivated employee is the one who perceives his rewards are equal to his contributions. If he feels that he is working and being rewarded at about the same rate as his peers, then he will judge that he is being treated fairly.

This doesn’t mean that every manager should treat every employee identically, because every worker does not measure his contributions in the same way. For example, flexible working hours might motivate a working mother even more than a pay raise. Conversely, though an across-the-board wage increase may delight most employees, the highest producers may become less motivated if they perceive that they are not being rewarded for their ambition. Research on Equity Theory and employee motivation has shown that, in general, over-rewarded employees will produce more and of a higher quality than will under-rewarded, less motivated employees.

Is there a relationship between how hard someone works and how fairly they have been treated?. Find out more at http://www.motivation-articles.com/motivate/equity-theory-and-employee-motivation.html

Charlie Cory is an Internet Entrepreneur, who also writes articles for his web sites. You can find some of his articles relating to Free motivation activities at his Motivation Article website.

By Charlie Cory
Published: 6/24/2006