Employee Motivation and Engagement Report: ABC Company Analysis

This report delves into the critical aspects of employee motivation and engagement within the context of ABC Company, a UK-based supermarket chain. It examines the roles of line managers and leaders in fostering a productive and engaged workforce. The report defines employee motivation and engagement, emphasizing their importance for organizational success. It then explores the line manager's responsibilities, including communication, establishing personal connections with employees, providing performance feedback, facilitating training and development, and implementing rewarding and recognition programs. The report also touches on the role of leaders in driving motivation and engagement. The report highlights the importance of these strategies for improving performance and achieving organizational goals, drawing from various sources and research findings.

Employee Motivation and Engagement
MANAGING AND LEADING PEOPLE
– 955531
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Employee Motivation and Engagement
Table of Contents
Introduction.......................................................................................................................3
Case Background..........................................................................................................................3
Employee motivation and engagement..............................................................................3
Role of Line Managers in Motivating and Engaging Employees..........................................4
Communication:...........................................................................................................................4
Establishing a personal link with the employees:.........................................................................5
Performance feedbacks:...............................................................................................................6
Training and development...........................................................................................................7
Rewarding and recognizing:.........................................................................................................7
Employee empowerment.............................................................................................................8
Role of Leaders in Motivating and Engaging Employees.....................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................10
Bibliography....................................................................................................................11
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Employee Motivation and Engagement
Introduction
Case Background
ABC Company Pvt. Ltd. is a UK based company that owns multiple supermarket stores in
major almost all the major cities. The company was established in 1980s and has been able to
register a high growth in the past couple of years. The company own around 89 supermarket
stores in the United Kingdom and has a total workforce of 1800 employees as of 2018. Apart
from owning brick and mortar stores, the company also operates on an e-business model,
which allows its customers to place their orders online.
ABC Company gives tough competition to some of the rival firms operating in the area
because of its pricing strategies. Recently, the performance levels of the company have been
dropping down, which has created an alarming situation amongst the senior level
management of the company. After a number of feedback surveys and careful observations,
the management has come to a conclusion that its human resources are not being managed as
effectively as they should have been. It has also been discovered that the employees working
in the ABC Company do not feel motivated to work harder and have shown less job
engagement levels. As a result, the company has decided to make certain changes in its
human resource management policies and give a greater priority to employee motivation and
engagement.
The human resource management department of the company has brought it into the notice of
the senior level management that the managers and leaders of the organisation can play a
vital role in increasing employee motivation and engagement levels. The management of the
company has therefore decided to get a deeper insight into the role that a manager or a leader
can play in motivation and engaging his employees in the workplace. Therefore, this report
has been prepared to discuss the roles and responsibilities of a leader or a manager in
motivating and engaging the employees of a company.
Employee motivation and engagement
Before proceeding into the topic, it is important to understand the concepts of employee
motivation and engagement. In simple words, employee motivation is defined as the feeling
that increases the willingness of the employees to exert higher level of efforts for the
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Employee Motivation and Engagement
achievement of organizational goals and objectives (Lăzăroiu, 2015). On the other hand,
employee engagement is the extent to which an employee is committed to his job and feels
passionate about his work and organisation (Mone & London, 2018).
Employee motivation and employee engagement are some of the most important core
functions in human resource management. Contemporary business organizations are trying
their best to keep their employees motivated and to ensure high levels of job engagement
amongst them as it leads to an overall increase in the performance levels in the market
(Mikkelsen, et al., 2017). Further, employee motivation and engagement can also have a
positive impact on other job attributes, such as job satisfaction, intention to quit,
organizational commitment, psychological contract, etc. Therefore, keeping the employees
motivated and engaged is of utmost importance to the contemporary business organisation.
Role of Line Managers in Motivating and Engaging Employees
A basic difference between a line manager and a leader in an organizational setup is that a
leader has people following him while a manager has people who are working for him. For
the success of a business organisation, it is important that the company has strong line
managers as well as leaders in their team. For an organisation to keep its employees
motivated and engaged, the line managers as well the leaders have to work hand-in-hand.
While a manager plans, organized and controls the policies and procedures, a leader sets a
direction for the employees and united them for a cause.
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The chart given above discusses the differences in the roles of a manager and a leader along
with the areas that are common to both type of people in an organisational setup (JANIA,
2016). The role that a line manager plays in motivation and engaging the employees is
discussed below:
Communication:
The first and the most important role of a line manager in motivating and engaging the
employees is to act as a channel of communication between the employers and the
employees. A manager should ensure that he remains accessible for his juniors at all points of
time so that they can easily bring their problems to him. To achieve this, a manager can also
take up an open-door policy, which required a manager to keep his office door open at all
points of time.
It is also important for managers to communicate relevant information to the employees and
to the team members as effectively as possible. Timely sharing of information with the
employees can play a huge role in keeping them motivated and engaged in their jobs (Son,
2017). Line managers can also keep their employees engaged by clearly communicating their
expectations and performance objectives. Line managers can communicate the way in which
the employees can add value to an organisation by achieving performance objectives set for
them, which will increase the level of motivation and engagement amongst the employees.
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Employee Motivation and Engagement
Communication is not just limited to the flow of information from top level of the
organisation to the lower levels. Line managers also have act as mediators and make the
employees feel valuable. They have to listen to the problems of the employees and be a voice
for them by sharing their problems with the senior level management and finding solutions to
them. A line manager who can foster an open communication channel within the organisation
will always be able to ensure employee well-being, which would ultimately lead to higher
motivation and engagement amongst the employees (Paul, 2017).
Establishing a personal link with the employees:
Modern business organizations have already implemented a lot of strategies and techniques
that can help them in keeping their employees motivated and engaged but presence of a line
manager between the employers and the employees can act as a catalyst to the process of
motivation and engagement. Line managers have to play a vital role in employee motivation
and retention by establishing a personal link with the employees.
Colin Hodgson, sales director at Edenred, says: “Good managers should have an insight into
their team, their roles, motivations and hobbies, so the recognition event and reward can be
tailored and personalized. A motivation procedure that is specific to the target staff will
deliver more impact.” (Paterson, 2011)
By establishing personal links with the employees, it can become easier for the line managers
to identify the need set of individual employees. Identifying employees’ needs is a concept
that became popular after Maslow introduced his theory of Need Hierarchy in which he
suggested that different employees have different sets of needs, such as social needs, security
needs, physiological needs, self-esteem needs, self-actualization needs, etc. (Cherry, 2018).
Maslow suggested that the achievement or fulfilment of one set of needs can motivate an
individual to work harder for the achievement of the next set of needs (Sparrow, 2012). When
a line manager is able to establish a personal link with his employees, it becomes easier for
him to identify the needs of the employee. Based on the needs of the employee, a line
manager can design compensation and reward systems for him, which will increase the
motivation level of the employee and would also keep him engaged in the workplace.
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Employee Motivation and Engagement
Performance feedbacks:
Another important role that line managers can play in motivating and engaging employees is
to provide performance feedbacks to the employees. Performance feedback is a process that
is used by business organizations to monitor and document the progress of the employees
towards the achievement of organizational goals and objectives.
Successful line managers make it a point to continuously share performance feedbacks with
the employees. Not only do they offer their expert opinion on how an employee has been
performing in his duties and responsibilities but they also take individual performance
feedbacks from the employees themselves (Brady, 2013). They can offer their employees a
chance to share important feedback related to their own performance levels. They can
conduct surveys that have performance feedback questions, such as:
 Do you think you have achieved your performance objectives?
 If not, what barriers did you experience in reaching your performance objectives?
 Do you require any kind of help from the organisation in improving your
performance?
 Do you experience a skill gap while working? Etc.
Performance feedbacks might not sound important to some of the human resource managers
but they can be of a great help to line managers in keeping their employees motivated and
engaged. Through performance feedback systems, line managers can identify barriers that are
preventing the employees from achieving their performance objectives. Once these objectives
are identified, line managers can work upon their removal and can increase the level of
motivation and engagement amongst the employees.
Training and development
All employees have their own needs but one need that every employee has in common is the
need for training and development. Training and development allow the employees of a
company to learn new skills and competencies, which opens up new career opportunities for
them. Undergoing training and development programs makes them more efficient in their job
roles and makes it possible for them to achieve the performance objectives set up by the
organisation (Nelson & Economy, n.d.).
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Employee Motivation and Engagement
Line managers can motivate and engage their employees by analyzing the training needs of
their employees and implementing the right programs that can help the employees in bridging
their skill gaps. Line managers can use the information obtained from performance
feedbacks, as discussed above, and can utilize it to assess whether the employees need to
undergo training and development in order to become more competitive. This information
can then be shared by the line manager with the senior level management and necessary
programs can be arranged for the employees. Such programs make the employees perceive
that their company values them and they become motivated to perform better for their
organisation in return (Heathfield, 2019). Further, when the employees experience an
increase in their skills and competencies, they become more likely to take higher challenges
and remain engaged in their jobs.
Rewarding and recognizing:
Rewarding and recognizing the efforts of the employees, without a doubt, is one of the best
ways that a line manager can keep the employees motivated and engaged. For a line manager
to be able to keep his employees motivated and engaged through reward programs, it is
important for him to identify the needs of his employees. As discussed above, a line manager
can only identify the needs of his employees if he is able to develop a personal link with the
employees.
In 2009, the Institute of Employment Studies published a report – The Engaging Manager –
in which a detailed discussion on the qualities of 25 successful line managers was given.
These line managers took a lot of interest in their staff members and their life outside the
workplace as well. The managers identified in the report used informal rewards as a tool to
motivate and engaged their employees. For example, if a team of employees had been
working very hard, a line manager would buy them chocolates or flowers, which acted as an
informal reward and meant a lot to the team members (Robinson & Hayday, 2009). Such
gestures of line managers can play a huge role in keeping the employees motivated and
engaged in their jobs.
Line managers can use their personal links with the employees to gain a detailed insight into
the factors that would motivate an employee to work harder for the company. For example,
an employee in the beginning of his career would feel more motivated if he is recognized in
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Employee Motivation and Engagement
the workplace or if his name comes up as the performer of the month on the notice board of
the company. On the other hand, another employee working in the same company at the same
job position for 3 years would be motivated if he or she is given a promotion as a reward for
his or her efforts and performance (Pozin, 2015). Therefore, line managers play an important
role in deciding appropriate rewards for the employees, which can ensure higher level of
motivation and job engagement amongst them.
Employee empowerment
Employee empowerment is a relatively newer concept that aims at awarding a certain degree
of autonomy to the employees in the decision-making process of the company. Line
managers have a huge role to play in empowering the employees to take their own decisions,
without having a requirement of someone supervising them (Gyu Park, et al., 2017).
Line managers can make the employees feel trusted and can hold them accountable for
certain tasks. This would empower the employees to take important decisions in the work
assigned to them and they also take up responsibility for the successful completion of a task
allocated to them. Employee empowerment not only leads to motivation amongst the
employees but also ensures high levels of engagement as the employees feel valued and an
important part of the business (Zhang & Bartol, 2010).
Role of Leaders in Motivating and Engaging Employees
Most of the times, leaders and managers are thought to be the same people in an organisation
but there are a large number of differences between the two types of people. A manager has a
control over the procedures, policies and strategies of a workplace whereas a leader controls
the employees through his leadership style. Further, it is not important for a person to hold a
managerial position in order to lead the people. A person can become a leader over a period
of time by attaining leadership qualities and by making others follow (Arruda, 2016).
Therefore, the role that the leaders and the managers play in motivating and engaging the
employees of a company are also different. The role of a leader in motivating and engaging
employees is discussed below:
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Employee Motivation and Engagement
First of all, leaders can play a huge role in improving the culture and the environment of a
workplace. Leaders have the power to instill positivity in the workplace even when the things
get tough. Organizational leaders can foster positive energy and passion amongst their
employees every day, which keeps the employees motivated and engaged in their jobs
(Zwilling, 2012).
Secondly, leaders can act as mediators between line managers and employees. It can
sometimes be possible that a leader in a department is an employee in the department himself
i.e. it is not necessary for a person to be a manager in order to lead a group of people. In such
scenarios, leaders can act as mediators between employees and line managers and can
facilitate the flow of information between the two (Naile & Selesho, 2014). Leaders can
report employee grievances to the line managers and can help the line managers in dealing
with employee well-being related issues. Ultimately, with the support of the leader, an
organisation can foster a better workplace culture and offer a better environment to the
employees to work in, which increases their motivation and engagement levels.
Thirdly, leaders can be great at coaching and mentoring the employees. Employees can
experience a lot of problems and barriers, which can prevent them from reaching their
performance goals. In such cases, leaders can act as mentors and coaches to help the
employees in overcoming their barriers and problems. Leaders have a lot of physical,
spiritual and emotional energy as well as work experience, which they can share with the
employees who are facing difficult situations in their career paths. Through efficient coaching
and mentoring, leaders can keep the employees motivated and engaged in their jobs.
Fourthly, leaders can keep their followers motivated and engaged by rewarding them for their
achievement. Leaders are not required to offer handsome compensation or benefits to their
followers. In fact, kind gestures like ‘Thankyou’, ‘Excellent Job’, ‘Keep It Up’, etc. can act
as a source of motivation for employees and can also have a positive impact on their job
engagement levels.
Lastly, leaders are very closely related to the employees of a department and have a strong
bond with them. They are in constant touch with each other. As a result, it becomes easier for
a leader to observe their daily routine and report it to the manager. By observing the work of
the employees, leaders can ask their line managers to make amendments, if required, and
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make the job more purposeful for the employees (Schwantes, 2017). For example, a hard-
working employee can be referred for a special assignment to a manager by a leader.
Therefore, by making the work more purposeful and interesting, leaders can assure that the
employees remain motivated and are constantly engaged in their jobs.
Conclusion
The information discussed above can be really helpful for ABC Company in increasing its
employee motivation and engagement levels. As discussed above, line managers as well as
leaders have an important role to play in an organisation that give priority to employee
motivation and engagement. Line managers play a vital role in formulation of policies and
strategies whereas leaders can act as a source of information for the line managers and can
facilitate the process. Even though an organisation leader might have little powers or say in
the formulation of policies and strategies, a leader plays a vital role in keeping the employees
full of positivity, energy and passion. For an organisation to ensure high levels of engagement
and motivation amongst its employees, it is important to have a good bonding between line
managers and leaders so that efficient human resource policies can be designed. Therefore,
ABC Company should identify effective line managers and leaders form within the
organisation and should empower them to bring about an increase in the motivation and
engagement levels of its workforce.
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