Motivating and Retaining Employees in Challenging Workplaces

This report discusses the importance of employee motivation and retention in organizations and various strategies to increase it. It covers past approaches, proposed solutions, and key solutions. The report emphasizes the importance of creating a positive work environment, offering feedback, and p...Read More

Motivating and or retaining employees in challenging
workplaces

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Body...........................................................................................................................................2
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................4
References..................................................................................................................................5

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Introduction
In an organization motivating employees and increasing the retention rate is an important
component. It will help in improving the productivity and will help in achieving the business
goal. Motivation helps in retaining employees and enhances the overall performance. This
can be achieved by conducting reviews and offering feedback to the employees. The problem
statement states that employees leave an organization or switch job because they are not
satisfied with their job. This issue can be resolved if employees are kept motivated.
Body
Some of the past approaches that were used for motivating employees and retaining them
were offering them regular feedback and also involving the employees at time of decision
making. Some goals were set so that target could be achieved. Additionally, incentives were
offered to the customers so that they get a reason to get motivated (Earl & Taylor, 2015). The
other methods that were followed to offer motivation were showing the direction and
guidance. Managers should make sure that employees do get bonus if their performance is
good.
Some of the other ways through which employee retention and motivation could be achieved
are discussed. Employees can be motivated by keeping the things transparent so that even
employees feel that they are an important asset for an organization. The past approaches
didn’t make employees to remain connected with the policies and procedures of an
organization. The new proposed approaches make sure that open door policy take place. It
allows employees to raise their voice against any action and offer suggestions so that a
positive environment is created at the workplace. Now days, the motive of managers is to
create a friendly and positive work place so that employees remain motivated towards their
work. They also work in a direction to encourage employees to work in a challenging
environment and improve their productivity. A direction is showcased to employees about
their future promotions (Earl & Taylor, 2015). Promotions help in boosting the overall
performance.
It is said that when new employees join an organization supervisors or mangers should take
care of their training so that they can become comfortable with the organization at initial step.
Managers also showcase them the path and future goals they will get while working in an
organization (Sarmad, Ajmal, Shamim, Saleh & Malik, 2016). The employees that are
already working need to be motivated and they can be used to set an example for their
performance for the new joiners. Apart from that, managers assure that their queries and
conflicts are resolved on timely basis so that they get a positive environment to work in. The
incentive plan is also explained to them so that they can improve their productivity. In
addition, helping them understand the purpose of the business will help an employee to
understand how they fit into the big picture (Khan, Mughal & Khattak, 2017).
Some of the other ways through which employee retention could be improved is by having a
better communication so that goals could be met. Communicating is the best way to

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appreciate employees for their work and empower them (Festing & Schäfer, 2014). Apart
from that, opportunities are offered to the employees so that they gain valuable advancement
while working in an organization.
It can be proposed that incentives act as a motivation booster it is low cost way to appreciate
the employees. Cash awards or offering additional benefits to the employees offer a high
amount of turnover (Zameer, Ali, Nisar & Amir, 2014). A very flexible approach is followed
by keeping the things transparent and sharing a positive feedback with the employees so that
they achieve job satisfaction. Feedback is an efficient way so that employees become
encouraged towards their work. Employee’s achievements are recognized and then reported
so that they gain trust and personal attachment with the organization (Sarmad, Ajmal,
Shamim, Saleh & Malik, 2016).
It is suggested that effective rewards policies should be designed so that explicit
communication should take place and mission and objective could be attained easily. It is
researched that linking the reward system with the performance boost up the overall
productivity. Offering rewards help employees share their idea and take part in decision
making steps. It also facilities motivation among employee and also removes the issue of
knowledge sharing. While integrating awards and motivation in an organization it motivates
employees to perform better (Qureshi & Syed, 2014). Employees can be retained in an
organization if a relationship is built between employees and organization (Schabram &
Maitlis, 2017). It is found that rewards system is a way through which employees remain
motivated in facilitating organizational knowledge sharing and transfer. Policies are designed
in a way so that employee’s itself take steps to share their knowledge with their staff. This
can be accomplished easily if there is rewards system. The employees should be motivated
individually rather than motivating the team (Qureshi & Syed, 2014).
From all the research, it was found that employee motivation and retention is an important
factor that helps in improving employee and organizational performance. Several steps are
designed in the proposed solution like offering incentives, perks, cash prizes or other rewards
so that higher productivity is achieved in an organization (Schabram & Maitlis, 2017). Some
of the motivation theories are practiced in an organization so that employee’s behavior gets
improved. Other strategies that are practiced now days are creating transparent work culture
so that goals could be achieved easily. Offering feedback also supports managers to access
the performance and identify the area of improvement. Training employees also allow leaders
to access the domain knowledge (Zameer, Ali, Nisar & Amir, 2014).
Some of the key solutions that can be followed are performance appraisal by appreciating and
recognizing the job, recognizing professional as well as personal events, offering
compensatory monetary benefits, providing incentives, offering workplace conveniences,
organizing events for fun at work that can work as a stress reliever and offering feedback
(Dickson, 2017). These are the low level retention strategies that were used in past but now
some high level retention strategies are used like promoting work effectiveness,
understanding employee’s needs, encouraging them via professional training , providing a
positive environment and providing workplace conveniences and safety measures.

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Conclusion
It can be concluded from this report that employee motivation and retention is an important
component of an organisation. Motivating and retaining employees in challenging
workplaces is important as they face various issues a time of hiring, promotions, negative
attitudes and discouragement from the staff. Thus, in this report various strategies through
which motivation and retention ration could be increased are discussed. The motivation could
be attained by setting up small goals, appreciating the work gone by workers, creating
positive environment, conducting regular meeting and feedbacks. It is found that keeping the
environment of workplace transparent and clear help employees to communicate easily with
the managers regarding their queries or issues. Motivation helps in retaining the employees
and improves the performance of business by developing programs. Motivation can be
achieved if employees are rewarded for their performance ad appreciated for their good work

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References
Dickson. G. (2017). 20 Simple Ways to Increase Motivation in the Workplace. Retrieved
from https://blog.bonus.ly/20-simple-ways-to-increase-motivation-in-the-workplace/.
Earl, C., & Taylor, P. (2015). Is workplace flexibility good policy? Evaluating the efficacy of
age management strategies for older women workers. Work, Aging and
Retirement, 1(2), 214-226.
Festing, M., & Schäfer, L. (2014). Generational challenges to talent management: A
framework for talent retention based on the psychological-contract
perspective. Journal of World Business, 49(2), 262-271.
Khan, M. J., Mughal, Y. H., & Khattak, Z. Z. (2017). Inspirational Motivation and
Employees Performance: Moderating Role of Cognitive Style Indicator. International
Journal of Business Studies Review, 2(1), 78-87.
Qureshi, M. O., & Syed, R. S. (2014). The impact of robotics on employment and motivation
of employees in the service sector, with special reference to health care. Safety and
health at work, 5(4), 198-202.
Sarmad, M., Ajmal, M. M., Shamim, M., Saleh, M., & Malik, A. (2016). Motivation and
Compensation as Predictors of Employees' Retention: Evidence From Public Sector
Oil and Gas Selling Organizations. Journal of Behavioural Sciences, 26(2).
Schabram, K., & Maitlis, S. (2017). Negotiating the challenges of a calling: Emotion and
enacted sensemaking in animal shelter work. Academy of Management
Journal, 60(2), 584-609.
Zameer, H., Ali, S., Nisar, W., & Amir, M. (2014). The impact of the motivation on the
employee’s performance in beverage industry of Pakistan. International Journal of
Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, 4(1), 293-
298.