Motivation Strategies for Employee Performance Improvement

Motivation of the staffs can be improved by various methods and management must apply various strategies so as to motivate their employees. Different theories are proposed by different researchers about the way in which motivation works at any workplace. Learn about different motivation strategies for employee performance improvement. Understand the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and how to use them effectively.

Management

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Motivation
Motivation of the staffs can be improved by various methods and management must apply
various strategies so as to motivate their employees. It depends on the capacity of the
organisation that what methods they select for employee motivation. Different theories are
proposed by different researchers about the way in which motivation works at any workplace.
Some of the companies apply monetary forms as a way to improve motivation. There are
many non-monetary ways in which a person can be motivated. Monetary ways are like
incentives, promotions, appraisal etc. Monetary ways are capable of motivating employees
for the longer period of time (Nujjoo & Meyer, 2012). On the other side the non-monetary
ways are verbal motivations, assigning leadership roles, praising publicly etc. The non-
monetary ways of motivation works for shorter period of time. For higher motivation
company should always choose monetary ways for motivating employees. Sometimes
employees are ready to sacrifice incentives bonuses just when they are praised publicly.
In most of the company bonus has been one of the significant way of motivating staffs at the
workplace. The Maslow’s theory of motivation suggests that there are several layers of needs.
In order to motivate an employee at the highest of levels it is essential that a company fulfils
all his or her need. Since employee need motivation at regular intervals of time and hence it is
essential that a HR department of any company should provide it to their employees. There
must be a mix of motivational tools that a company should use so as to achieve the highest
level of motivation. It is essential that company chooses a series of motivational factors for
motivating their staffs. Apart from this a company can also involve the employees in the
decision making process (Zhu & Leung, 2011). This makes employee to feel that they are
important to the organisation and hence creates a healthy environment at the workplace. One
another way of motivating employee is to give new opportunities to them so that they can feel
their growth which motivates them to work further. The most important thing that a company
needs to consider while setting rewards is that it must be achievable. The criteria for rewards
must be attainable otherwise it would not be so effective.
Managers must understand the demand of the employees so as to take steps for fulfilling
them. This is necessary as giving rewards does not only motivate a person but to understand
what he needs and then giving them rewards is more necessary. The categorisation of the
rewards must be done as per the final goals a firm wants to achieve (Eder, Elliot & Harmon-
Jones, 2013). Providing regular feedbacks to the employees could help in motivating them.

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This is because they would feel that company is also thinking about them and hence they
could grow.
There are two types of motivation namely intrinsic and extrinsic. The extrinsic form of
motivation is an external form of motivation. This is a form of motivation that is done by the
external sources. For example if a manager promotes an employees or say a company gives a
reward to the employee for their work. This form of motivation is called as extrinsic
motivation (Herzberg, 2017). On the other hand intrinsic form of motivation is an internal
form of motivation. This is generated by the employees from within. In this form of
motivation employee strive towards the goal for personal accomplishments or satisfaction.
When an employee makes certain goals for himself and he is able to achieve those goals in a
specified period of time then such kind of motivation is known as intrinsic motivation.
Intrinsic motivation is highly important for the self-development of employee as it fills them
with confidence (Cherry, 2018). Intrinsic motivators are primary motivators and work more
effectively than any other forms of rewards.
Intrinsic motivation is based on the individual’s inclination in the form of the things that are
enjoyable to them. In extrinsic motivation a person will perform certain task because he will
get a paycheck or some other form of rewards. In this case it is not necessary that people
enjoys the work. It might be possible that people may be doing the job as certain need of his
gets fulfilled (Pinder, 2014).
In my life I have seen that when the company used monetary and non-monetary factors, they
are easily able to motivate employees. Once in my life I was not performing well, company
provided me with an opportunity to become the team leader. This boosted my confidence as I
felt that company also thinks for me. In the longer run I was able to perform my entire task in
a much better manner. I have also seen that when the bonus is received by the employees they
get motivated and work harder to gain higher incentives. In our company sometimes a
motivational trips is planned by the organisation. This works in psychological terms as people
feels better with such type of trips.

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REFERENCES
Cherry, K. (2018) Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic Motivation: What's the Difference?. Retrieved from:
https://www.verywellmind.com/differences-between-extrinsic-and-intrinsic-
motivation-2795384
Eder, A. B., Elliot, A. J., & Harmon-Jones, E. (2013). Approach and avoidance motivation:
Issues and advances. Emotion Review, 5(3), 227-229.
Herzberg, F. (2017). Motivation to work. Routledge.
Nujjoo, A., & Meyer, I. (2012). The relative importance of different types of rewards for
employee motivation and commitment in South Africa. SA Journal of Human
Resource Management, 10(2), 10.
Pinder, C. C. (2014). Work motivation in organizational behavior. Psychology Press.
Zhu, Y., & Leung, F. K. (2011). Motivation and achievement: Is there an East Asian
model?. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 9(5), 1189-
1212.