Human Resource Management: Motivated Employees Equals Success

Motivating employees towards success is one essential ingredient in maintaining a vigorous, cost-effective, serviceable and productive organization. This is true whether your business is profit driven or a non-profit organization.

One of the top challenges that human resource management faces is maintaining an effective method of motivation over the long term. It involves a thorough understanding of the core definition and concepts of motivation and the skills to implement them. Motivation is a temporal and dynamic state of having the desire and willingness to do something. It gives momentum and draws employees towards the achievement of organizational and personal goals.

One way to motivate is through rewards and incentives given with the intention of acknowledging positive work behavior that contributes to the attainment of the organization’s goal and often with the additional intent of encouraging it to happen again. This practice should comprise both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic motivation is evident when people engage in an activity for its own sake. This could be triggered by good office relationships and healthy working environment. While extrinsic motivation is actualized through tangible rewards such as payments, promotions; or intangible rewards such as praise or public commendation.

It is human nature for people to want to be a part of something great. For employees to be more motivated, consistently remind them that they are the key to achieving the mission and goals of the organization. Their involvement could be further enhanced by asking their opinions on improving the business’s vision, mission, goals, strategies, etc.

Get to know your employees better. Take note on what motivates them in both professional and personal levels. This may be monetary, longer day offs, faster promotions, incentives, etc. Express genuine concern and take time to listen to whatever troubles they have. Be observant of the skills that they posses and assign specific tasks to personnel who would definitely enjoy the job; thus, making the work load seem lighter and faster to accomplish.

The management should have clear directions and priorities. If the management is composed of more than one person, they should discuss matters among themselves first before disseminating information. Having employees confused due to contradicting and vague instructions could greatly damage the morale and productiveness of the organization. This form of mismanagement often leads to conflict, chaos, and creates a threatening work environment.

Nothing motivates employees more than seeing their boss in action. Setting a good example is one potent motivator that all managers should apply. Practice the Golden Rule. Be punctual, friendly, witty, enthusiastic, alert, hard-working… Be everything that you would want your subordinates to be. And never be ashamed to admit that you are wrong when you are. Your people will be happy to know that you are, after all, still human who has his/her own share of flaws and frailties.