Six Ways to Drive Employee
Performance and Motivation
FRIDAY, JULY 13TH, 2012 | 12 COMMENTS | SHARE:
Since the industrial revolution and the theories of Fredrick Taylor, employers have tried
countless ways to improve employee performance and drive motivation and moral.
Company environments differ significantly. And as I discussed in Under New
Management, The nature of knowledge work has rendered much of Taylorism
inadequate. Some organizations are driving employees through fierce competition while
others strive to ensure a congenial, team-based atmosphere. No one can claim with total
assurance that they’ve found a method for driving performance that works consistently.
Motivating your employees is a delicate and purposeful challenge that requires more
than an annual review or jotting a few notes in someone’s personnel file. Just like
getting in shape or learning a new language, bolstering the motivation and performance
levels of your employees won’t happen overnight. Here are six ways you can improve
performance and motivation in your workplace.
1. Make Expectations Clear
Employees without goals will be naturally aimless. Provide them with clear achievable
goals and make sure there are measurable standards in place to evaluate their
performance. Victor Vroom’s work on expectancy theory supports the concept that
employees must know what action they are expected to take and that it will yield the
desired performance. Your employees should understand what they are expected to do,
how they are expected to do it, and how they will be judged on it.
2. Provide Continuous Feedback
Immediate, continuous feedback lets an employee know that their actions affect the
company. It’s hard for you, and the employee, to remember specific incidents when
employee performance review time rolls around. Goal-setting theory predicts (quite
obviously) that employees are motivated by setting goals and by receiving continuous
feedback on where they stand relative to those goals. More recent research shows just
how motivating it can be when employees know they are making progress.
Always be specific in your feedback. For example, instead of telling an employee he, “did
a great job,” compliment him on the way he organized his presentation, the citations he
used, or his public speaking style. He’ll be more likely to apply these strengths to his
next project if you point them out specifically.
3. Correct Privately
Most people are not motivated by negative feedback, especially if they feel it’s
embarrassing. The only acceptable place to discuss an ongoing, performance-related
issue or correcting a recent, specific error is in the employee’s office or your own, with
the door closed.
Don’t think of correcting an employee’s performance or behavior as punitive. Instead,
consider it a learning opportunity for the employee. Keep an open mind, remember
Deming’s 85/15 rule, which suggests that a majority of performance problems are
actually outside of an employees control. If it is something the employee can change, it’s
up to you to present the issue in such a way that the he feels he can correct the mistake.
4. Believe in Your Employees
Whether you tell him so during an employee performance review, or in the breakroom,
an employee whose boss constantly calls him worthless, or a screw-up will feel a lot of
emotions. He will not, however, feel particularly motivated to improve his performance.
Present weakness or errors in the context of, “I know you can do better. You’re smart
and capable…and that’s why I expect more from you.” The perception of leaders’ trust is
a key component of transformational leadership.
Encourage your leadership team to take this same approach when you’re trying to
motivate your employees for a major event, “This is the most talented, hardest working
group I’ve ever had, and that’s why I know you can win this sales competition.”
5. Praise Publicly
Feeling under-appreciated encourages complacency – there’s a reason so many
companies celebrate an Employee of the Month. People love praise; they thrive on it.
Some research even suggested we’re willing to sacrifice incentive bonuses for public
recognition. Make it a standard practice in your office to recognize positive people and
trends within the business.
Announce publicly when one of your employees made a particularly outstanding
presentation, sale, or other notable achievement. Tie an incentive to accolades, such as a
bonus or a gift certificate. Praising your employees in front of others helps motivate
their continued stellar performance.
6. Make Rewards Achievable
Everyone is familiar with the annual bonus trip awarded to the top-performing
employee. The problem is, such rewards usually go to one or two employees. This leaves
the rest of your staff feeling like there’s not much point in working hard because the
same few people always reap the rewards. Remember the other end of Vroom’s
expectancy equation, which offers that individuals must also see the desired
performance and linked reward as possible.
Set up a series of smaller rewards throughout the year to motivate ongoing performance
excellence. For example, instead of an annual trip, award several three-day getaways for
each quarter. Vary the basis for the awards. Top sales might be one category, but so can
top research or most diligent. Recognize that several types of excellence motivate your
employees to focus on additional areas of their performance.
Importance of Motivation
Motivation is a very important for an organization because of the following benefits it provides:
1. Puts human resources into action
Every concern requires physical, financial and human resources to accomplish the goals. It is
through motivation that the human resources can be utilized by making full use of it. This can be
done by building willingness in employees to work. This will help the enterprise in securing best
possible utilization of resources.
2. Improves level of efficiency of employees
The level of a subordinate or a employee does not only depend upon his qualifications and
abilities. For getting best of his work performance, the gap between ability and willingness has to
be filled which helps in improving the level of performance of subordinates. This will result into-
a. Increase in productivity,
b. Reducing cost of operations, and
c. Improving overall efficiency.
3. Leads to achievement of organizational goals
The goals of an enterprise can be achieved only when the following factors take place :-
a. There is best possible utilization of resources,
b. There is a co-operative work environment,
c. The employees are goal-directed and they act in a purposive manner,
d. Goals can be achieved if co-ordination and co-operation takes place simultaneously
which can be effectively done through motivation.
4. Builds friendly relationship
Motivation is an important factor which brings employees satisfaction. This can be done by
keeping into mind and framing an incentive plan for the benefit of the employees. This could
initiate the following things:
a. Monetary and non-monetary incentives,
b. Promotion opportunities for employees,
c. Disincentives for inefficient employees.
In order to build a cordial, friendly atmosphere in a concern, the above steps should be taken by a
manager. This would help in:
a. Effective co-operation which brings stability,
b. Industrial dispute and unrest in employees will reduce,
c. The employees will be adaptable to the changes and there will be no resistance to the
change,
d. This will help in providing a smooth and sound concern in which individual interests will
coincide with the organizational interests,
e. This will result in profit maximization through increased productivity.
ii. Leads to stability of work force
Stability of workforce is very important from the point of view of reputation and goodwill of a
concern. The employees can remain loyal to the enterprise only when they have a feeling of
participation in the management. The skills and efficiency of employees will always be of
advantage to employees as well as employees. This will lead to a good public image in the
market which will attract competent and qualified people into a concern. As it is said, “Old is gold”
which suffices with the role of motivation here, the older the people, more the experience and
their adjustment into a concern which can be of benefit to the enterprise.
From the above discussion, we can say that motivation is an internal feeling which can be understood
only by manager since he is in close contact with the employees. Needs, wants and desires are inter-
related and they are the driving force to act. These needs can be understood by the manager and he can
frame motivation plans accordingly. We can say that motivation therefore is a continuous process since
motivation process is based on needs which are unlimited. The process has to be continued throughout.
We can summarize by saying that motivation is important both to an individual and a
business. Motivation is important to an individual as:
1. Motivation will help him achieve his personal goals.
2. If an individual is motivated, he will have job satisfaction.
3. Motivation will help in self-development of individual.
4. An individual would always gain by working with a dynamic team.
Similarly, motivation is important to a business as:
1. The more motivated the employees are, the more empowered the team is.
2. The more is the team work and individual employee contribution, more profitable and successful
is the business.
3. During period of amendments, there will be more adaptability and creativity.
4. Motivation will lead to an optimistic and challenging attitude at work place.
