Employee Motivation: Case Study Analysis

This case study analysis explores the issue of employee motivation at Apex Car Rentals and provides recommendations for improving motivation and reducing labor turnover. The analysis reveals that the lack of recognition, poor communication, inadequate training, and lack of teamwork contribute to the low motivation among employees. The recommended solutions include designing an incentive plan, implementing an effective training program, providing flexibility in working hours, and improving communication and feedback.

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Case Study Analysis
Employee Motivation
Student’s Name
6/27/2019

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Executive Summary
The case reflects the poor reviews received by “Apex Car Rentals”. It showcases that the
company suffers the issue of high labour turnover and increase the rate of absenteeism. The
main reason for the problems was the lack of motivation among the employees. The term
motivation refers to the inner state that activates and energises the person to direct or move
towards the behaviour goals (Peters, 2015). Positive motivation allows the employees to be
more committed towards the goals of the organization and helps in enhancing the
productivity of the company (Herzberg, 2017).
From the case study analysis it was examined that the employees at the organization were not
satisfied because they were not being recognised for their good performance and there was
inappropriate designing of the reward system. The employees also faced the challenge of a
lack of communication and feedback from the management. This created dissatisfaction as
the employees were not engaged in the decision making and were not able to able to analyse
the importance of the task. It is also analysed that the employees do not receive adequate
training and were facing the problem of complexity in the understanding of tasks. Another
problem faced by the new employees was the lack of teamwork and poor relationships among
the managers and employees (Malik, Butt and Choi, 2015).
In response to the above problems, it is recommended to design appropriate incentive plan
and the development of an effective training programme. The company must focus on
providing flexibility to the employees by introducing flexible working hours and providing
vacation days to create work-life balance. Designing of attractive incentive plan will help in
retaining the best employees and cover the cost of recruiting the new employees (Malik, Butt
and Choi, 2015).

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Problem Identification and Analysis
From the analysis of the case study, it was examined that the company suffers the problem of
high labour turnover and absenteeism of the employees. This was occurring due to the lack of
motivational factors among the employees. In response to the above issues, it was analysed
that the employees do not receive recognition for their performance and the relationship
between the management and employees was not healthy because all the management was
receiving negative comments from the employees. In accordance with Herzberg two factor
theory, it is analysed that there are two factors i.e. hygiene factors and motivators. If there is a
lack of hygiene factors it becomes difficult to perform by the employees and the motivators
help in enhancing the performance of the employees. It was analysed that poor relationship
was the lack of hygiene factor and the absence of recognition leads to inefficiency in
performance (Miner, 2015).
Another problem faced by the employees was a lack of communication and feedback from
the management. In Accordance with the Hawthorne effect by Henry A. Landsberger, it is
observed that the productivity of the employees increase when they are under observation of
the management. There was a lack of feedback for the employees and was getting difficult to
understand the importance of the task (Menges et al, 2017).
The employees felt that there were no proper consequences for the poor performers and lack
of training expected by the employees. In accordance with the expectancy theory of
motivation the employee behaves in the manner, they expect a result from the company. The
employees expect that if they will put high efforts they will receive better results. They
believed that if they will receive adequate training they will be able to perform better.
(Bradler et al, 2016).

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Identification of the Alternatives
It was analysed that the major problem suffered by the company was a high rate of
absenteeism and labour turnover. In order to reduce the rate of absenteeism, the company
must focus on developing a wellness program and must offer flexible working hours for the
employees. It must also provide vacation offs and paid time offs. Such strategies will reduce
the stress of the employees and will help the employees to create work-life balance. The main
disadvantages of the adoption of such strategies are the increase of laziness and reduction in
the productivity of the employees and the advantage taken by the employees to work at home
and create a disturbing environment at office hours. Designing of wellness programme
increases the cost of the company (Cloutier et al, 2015).
The high rate of labour turnover was due to the absence of motivating factors for the
employees. In order to increase employee motivation, the company must focus on designing
the reward system for the employees and describing the punishments for the mistakes done
by the employees. Designing of the reward system will help in making the employees happier
and will gain more trust of managers. It will also help in increasing the productivity of the
employees. Describing punishments will help in evaluating the person at the fault and will
create fear which in turn will help in reducing the mistakes of the employees. The
disadvantage of the alternative is that it will increase the expectation of the employees and
the competition will increase which in turn will shift the focus to individual goals. It will
lead to an increase in biased decisions (Al Mamun and Hasan, 2017).
The company must focus on making timely communications with the employees and must
design a proper feedback system to help in self-actualisation of employees. It must adopt
continuous change and must engage employees in decision making to make them more
committed in the organization. The advantages of this alternative are that it will provide the

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opportunity to alter the loopholes in the performance and take the corrective actions.
Effective communication will allow improving the productivity by taking timely decisions
and in turns increases the motivation of the employees. The disadvantages are that negative
feedback creates discouragement among the employees and creates high interference of the
management levels (Aguenza and Som, 2018).
Designing of the different training programmes will be the best alternative to enhance the
skills of the employees and the development of the competencies to perform higher job roles.
It will also help in quickly performing the task by developing a proper understanding of it.
The disadvantages of the training programmes in the involvement of a lot of theory decrease
the interest of the employees and require huge time (Aguenza and Som, 2018).
Recommendation
In accordance to my views, designing of rewards and recognition of the employees is the best
motivating factor because when the employees will be praised in front of all the team
members it will help in boosting the morale of the employees and will make them more
committed towards the goal of the organization. This, in turn, will reduce the rework and will
increase the productivity of the employees.
In accordance with the Maslow’s need hierarchy, theory recognition and rewards fulfil the
psychological and the self-esteem needs of the employees. The power of recognition is high
to make the employees happier and dedicated to the company. It will help in reducing the rate
of labour turnover by retaining the employees and would also help in attracting potential
employees for the company (Osabiya, 2015).
The company must also focus on providing flexible working hours to the employees and
vacations day to reduce the stress and helps in creating work-life balance. Flexibility allows

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the employees to concentrate more on the job without much stress and reducing the rate of
absenteeism. It will allow making the employees more responsible for the work and in turn,
increases the productivity of the company. The company will be able to deliver efficient
services to its customers. The company must also focus on training the employees for
performing complex job roles (Wang and Hou, 2015).
Implementation plan:
Goals Who will perform How it will be done Expenses
involved
Reduction in the
rate of absenteeism
Higher level
managers
Designing of the roster in
such a manner that it
allows for 2 vacation
days in a month.
Flexible working hours
and paying for overtime.
5% increment
plus a base salary
of per day for
over timing.
To motivate
employees and
increase in the
productivity
Department heads -Performance-based
incentives.
-Bonuses
-Life insurance coverage
-Project completion
incentive
-Vacation trips with
families
-Verbal praise in front of
team members
20 % of the
investment in the
business.
Designing of the
training
programme
Experts hired through
Outsourcing
Training based upon
departments and the
development of new
projects.
10% of the
investment.
The above implementation plan is based upon the recommendations suggested for improving
the morale of the employees. This motivational plan will provide the opportunity to enhance
the skills of the employees and will also reduce the rate of labour turnover. Reduction in

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employee turnover will allow retaining the best employees and saving the cost of recruiting
fresh talents. This plan describes the cost involved in the adoption of strategies to increase the
motivation of the employees (Wang and Hou, 2015)

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References
Aguenza, B.B. and Som, A.P.M. (2018) Motivational factors of employee retention and
engagement in organizations. IJAME
Al Mamun, C.A. and Hasan, M.N. (2017) Factors affecting employee turnover and sound
retention strategies in business organization: A conceptual view. Problems and Perspectives
in Management, 15(1), pp.63-71
Bradler, C., Dur, R., Neckermann, S. and Non, A. (2016) Employee recognition and
performance: A field experiment. Management Science, 62(11), pp.3085-3099.
Cloutier, O., Felusiak, L., Hill, C. and Pemberton-Jones, E.J. (2015) The Importance of
Developing Strategies for Employee Retention. Journal of Leadership, Accountability &
Ethics, 12(2)
Herzberg, F. (2017) Motivation to work. London: Routledge.
Malik, M.A.R., Butt, A.N. and Choi, J.N. (2015) Rewards and employee creative
performance: Moderating effects of creative self‐efficacy, reward importance, and locus of
control. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36(1), pp.59-74
Menges, J.I., Tussing, D.V., Wihler, A. and Grant, A.M. (2017) When job performance is all
relative: how family motivation energizes effort and compensates for intrinsic
motivation. Academy of Management Journal, 60(2), pp.695-719
Miner, J.B. (2015) Organizational behavior 1: Essential theories of motivation and
leadership. London: Routledge.
Osabiya, B.J. (2015) The effect of employees motivation on organizational
performance. Journal of public administration and policy research, 7(4), pp.62-75.

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Peters, R.S. (2015) The concept of motivation. London: Routledge.
Wang, W.T. and Hou, Y.P., (2015) Motivations of employees’ knowledge sharing behaviors:
A self-determination perspective. Information and Organization, 25(1), pp.1-26.