Workforce Motivation's Impact on Performance at Waitrose Ltd

This report investigates the impact of workforce motivation on employee performance and business outcomes, focusing on a case study of Waitrose Ltd. It employs a quantitative methodology, gathering data from primary and secondary sources, including interviews with 20 Waitrose managers. The findings indicate a strong awareness of various motivation strategies among respondents and a general belief in the positive impact of these strategies on employee and company performance. The report explores the concept of workforce motivation, differentiating between intrinsic and extrinsic factors, and examines how motivation influences goal attainment, skill development, and employee retention. It also addresses the research questions concerning the concept of workforce motivation, the strategies used at Waitrose, and the impact of motivation on performance, providing a comprehensive analysis of the subject matter.

Workforce Motivation and its
effect on performance of
employees and business

ABSTRACT
Purpose: The current study has aimed at collecting data about the impact of employee
motivation on the productivity of employees. This is completed by different types of motivation
strategies used by company to motivate and encourage their employees.
Methodology: The present research has covered quantitative methodology for the collection of
appropriate information. Primary and secondary sources have been used to attain defined aim
and objectives in the decided time framework. 20 managers have been chosen from Waitrose Ltd
because they have apt information about the motivation strategies.
Findings: The finding of the current investigation give majority of respondents are aware about
the various strategies of motivation. It is also identified that major respondents believe that there
is positive impact of motivation strategies on the performance of employees and the company.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to be thankful to God for making me capable enough to do certain activities and
perform in significant activities. I am very grateful to my supervisors for their continuous advice
and support for conducting my dissertation. I was motivated with my supervisor’s knowledge
regarding my topic.
I am also very grateful to selected respondents that they shown their support by providing
me with required data.
At last I wanted to express my gratitude towards my family and friends as they have
supported me emotionally and providing me sources to gather appropriate data.

Table of Contents
ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................2
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT...............................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................5
Background to Research Topic...................................................................................................5
Background to Research Organisation........................................................................................6
Research rational.........................................................................................................................6
Research Questions.....................................................................................................................7
Research Aims and Objectives....................................................................................................7
Literature Review:...........................................................................................................................8
Briefly explain the concept of workforce motivation in increasing the business performance.. 8
What are the different type of strategies that is used for motivating employees and improving
business performance within Waitrose Ltd?.............................................................................11
What is the impact of employee motivation on performance of employees and business within
Waitrose Ltd?............................................................................................................................13
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...................................................................................................15
FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS......................................................................................................18
Frequency Distribution Table...................................................................................................18
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS..........................................................................28
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................30
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................31

INTRODUCTION
Background to Research Topic
Motivation plays a vital role in the workplace. It helps the employee to be effective and
increases their productivity. Motivated people are more productive than those who are not
motivated. Organisation which has motivated workforce achieves their goals and objective in
very short span of time and in more efficient manner. This helps the organisation to gain success
and grow with maximising the profit. It act as a commitment that drive the energy of the
employee towards their work (Steinbauer, Renn, Chen and Rhew, 2018). It is not any easy
concept in fact boosting the morale of the employee is a continuous process. Workers need to be
feel motivated at each and every stage of their work.
If the motivation is high then the organisation can create a positive workplace for their
employee and invest more in building the infrastructure of the company. Motivated employee is
happier with the workplace and will willingly work for the company’s growth. If organisation
designed their workplace is very innovative way then this would help them directly by improving
the productivity and performance of the workers. It is very important for the business to know
that workplace motivation is a vital source if they want to gain the competitive advantage. Both
internal and external factors of the organisation impact the motivation level of the employees
(Mitchell, Schuster and Jin, 2020). They promote the energetic individual who posses good skills
and knowledge and is always ready to do work in any condition. Workplace motivation not only
helps the employee but also help the business to diversify their activities and operation.
Motivated workplace is more fruitful for engagement of employee towards each other. With the
help of this organisation can earn lots of advantage like they can utilise their resources fully, lack
of employee absenteeism, production process can be increased to the peak. One of the most
important advantage workplace motivation can give is that they can create a good public image
and helps in gaining more market share. With the motivated workplace employees can also
handle their personal and professional life in much better way.
In contradict if the workplace is not good then this could not help the employees by
increasing their motivation. In fact organisation cannot survive for longer period if the working
environment is not good. If the employee feels motivated then they will interact their personal

goal with the organisation objective and will work for the development of the both (Ljungblad
and et. al, 2014).
Background to Research Organisation
In the current research report Waitrose Company has been chosen to conduct the study.
Waitrose is a British supermarket. It is founded in 1904 by the Wait rose and Taylor. It’s
headquarter is located on Bracknell and Victoria, London. They provide services of supermarket
and online shopping and sale food products. The company hold eight position in retail sector of
the UK. Waitrose is such a big organisation that more than 50000 employees work over there. Its
parent company is John Lewis partnership. The company also sales organic product. This
company is been chosen for the study is because Waitrose is growing a much more. So to know
that work place motivation is the key for their success or not (Kattman and et. al, 2012). As the
employment engagement is more in the supermarket so to know is the business performance is
good.
In the recent time to motivate their employee Waitrose start working through mobile
phones and try to enhance their productivity within changing their workplace. They also provide
flexible workplace to their employee where all the necessary facility are being provided to them.
With the adoption of digital technology the main objective of the company is to maximise their
productivity and minimising the risk. They also try to increase their productivity by transforming
the work environment in much modern way. In the organisation large number of employee are
working so that they can achieve their long term objectives.. There are various ways used by
Waitrose for increasing employee motivation such as rewords, compensation, job rotation, role
design etc. All these are important ways for Waitrose because these helped them in increasing of
their brand image in marketplace (Kapp, Valtchanov and Pastore, 2020).
Research rational
The main reason behind selecting this research topic is to analyse the impact of
motivating workplace plays in enhancing the productivity of both employee and organisation.
This foremost reason is to find that how workplace motivation help th employee to increase their
performance towards their work. This research is important for various people such as investor,
business, industry and as an individual. As an individual knowledge could be gained that on what
are the factors that help an employee as single to boost their motivation and work for the
upliftment of the performance and productivity. This research also helps in developing of both

personal and professional knowledge (Kapp, Valtchanov and Pastore, 2020). As a personal it
help in Acquiring those skills and knowledge through which motivation can be boost and know
the various methods of motivation. Professional skills are developed as it help both the
organisation and the industry to know that hoe effective an workplace motivation is on the
productivity. This research also helps in providing the detail study of about the topic and can
help in developing the research skills that can be used in other research.
Research Questions
 What is the concept of workforce motivation for increasing the performance of business?
 What are the different type of strategies that is used for motivating employees and
improving business performance within Waitrose Ltd?
 What is the impact of employee motivation on performance of employees and business
within Waitrose Ltd?
Research Aims and Objectives
Research aim
Main aim of this research is “To analyse the importance of employee motivation in
increasing business as well as workforce performance within a workplace”: A study on Waitrose
Ltd
Research objectives
 To understand the concept of workforce motivation for increasing the performance of
business
 To determine the different type of strategies that is used for motivating employees and
improving business performance within Waitrose Ltd
 To identify the impact of employee motivation on performance of employees and
business within Waitrose Ltd

Literature Review
Literature review is that chapter of the research that is used to show the overview of past
public study of the given topic. Literature review shoe the publish data of various secondary
sources that are books, journal, magazine, online article etc. It is also been used by the
investigator to gain the detail understanding of the chosen topic.
Briefly explain the concept of workforce motivation in increasing the business performance.
According to Islami, Mulolli. and Mustafa (2018), workforce means the pool of person
who are working in the organisation as an employee to attain their personal objective. Motivation
means an act or action that helps the employee to boost their morale and work to enhance the
productivity. It is simple a process that initiate a positive attitude in the employee towards their
career. So workforce motivation means using those tool and techniques which help the employee
to boost their morale in positive way so that productivity and performance can be increased
within the organisation.
Motivation is an important function that is done by each and every manger of different
companies so that they can earn higher profit. Workforce motivation is not an external state in
fact it is the inner part of the employee so that they can energize their work and behaviour toward
achieving the goals. It is also play an important role because if the employee is happy then they
will likely to do a good job otherwise the willingness to do the work is zero.
There are two types of workforce motivation which helps in increasing the business performance
(Mone,. and London, 2018).
Extrinsic motivation: when the organisation uses the external factors like paying reward, perks,
bonus, higher salary etc. To motivate their employee then this is known as extrinsic motivation.
Intrinsic motivation: When the employee is motivated internal without any other party is
known as intrinsic motivation. They type of motivation comes within the employee personal
desire.
If there is strong workforce motivation in the organisation then the company can gain
competitive advantage from the competitor. Motivated workforce also helps the organisation to
enhance their performance while increasing the productivity and cutting the other cost. To
inspire their employee and to build the confidence among them then mangers can use motivation

as an instrument. These are some of the results that motivation plays in increasing the
performance are:
Effectively attainment of goals: If the manpower of the organisation has increased morale then
they will work toward achieving the objective of the organisation in more effective and
efficient manner. They will work willingly and contribute as much as they can which overall
help the companies to achieve their goals in shorter time period and can diversify their
activity and business in more countries. The Manpower will contribute more towards the
attainment of the objective (Dogar, 2020).
Learning of new skills and knowledge: Workforce motivation also helps the employee to gain
more new knowledge and skills which help both the individual as well as the company.
They will acquire more advance technology in their organisation and the employee will
always be ready to learn which help the companies to cut their cost of production. This will
also help the individual as there career will be develop by learning board new concept and
techniques. This will helps the business to increase their performance as the production is
getting done in cheaper amount with the help of the employee.
Decrease in labour turnover rate: If the business holds a strong motivated workforce then the
rate of employee turnover will be less. Employee will likely to work in the organisation
without any excuse. In fact worker will be less absent in the company. This will help the
business as there is no need for them to invest their time and money in hiring and recruiting
new employee and provide all the necessary training. So this will indirectly helps the
organisation to increase their overall performance. Not only this it will also help in retaining
the employee for longer time period. (Muduli. and Pandya, , 2018).
Effective communication: Organisation performance is most likely to depend upon hoe
effectively the communication take place in the company. There will e good industrial
relation if the company are sharing their information in more better way. Because if the
information is not getting proper the there may arise the problem like delay in decision
making, poor infrastructure development, lack of clarity etc. So it is necessary for the
companies to motivate their employee so that data can be transfer easily without any
misleading and this would help the organisation to take appropriate decision according to the
data and achieve the particular task. This also help in maintain a proper relation with each

other and the employee engagement will also increase. Communication gap between the
employee and the manger will also be less.
Less conflicts and grievance: Motivated employee will fight less and try to solve the problem
as less time. So if the organisation has motivated workforce then this will help in decreasing
the compliance and grievance which helps the organisation worker to pay more attention
towards their job. Motivated employee will solve their problem by their own so managers
are not needed to solve their problem and concentrate more on other job which help the
company to enhance their performance. The complaints rate will fall down and there is less
chance of getting injured or accident happening (Mani and Mishra, 2020).
Motivated workforce will also help the organisation to improved the worker performance as
employee will be much focused on their duties which help them to increase the productive level.
This will help in enhancing the overall output of the companies. Other benefit that business can
get and enhance their performance are that this will help the organisation to product more quality
and quantitative goods which help then to gain market share. If the employee can gain market
share then this will help to enhance their performance as employee will produce more goods
which they can sale in the international market. Workforce motivation also help the employee to
solve the query of the customer nn more peaceful manner which help then to improve customer
care service (Mani and Mishra, 2020).
Alzahrani, Johnson and Altamimi (2018), states that when employees are provided
monetary benefits there are more chances to motivate and encourage them towards the objectives
and targets of the business. The monetary benefits assist in increasing the well-being of
employees and this improves the standard of employees and they become more motivated
towards the company's objectives so that they can get more monetary benefits in future.
Alnowaiser (2017), states that non-monetary benefits play important role in motivating
employees. There are employees in the organisation who need flexibility in their working
environment. This motivates employees that their employers are giving opportunity to work
according to their requirements.

What are the different type of strategies that is used for motivating employees and improving
business performance within Waitrose Ltd?
According to Babii (2020), motivation is determined as that process that helps in
motivating and engaging employees. This is very significant for Waitrose to form various
strategies so that they can motivate and encourage employees at right time. Some of the common
strategies that are considered by Waitrose Ltd are explained below in detailed manner.
Recognising great work: Recognising great work of employees is one of the best
strategies that is considered by Waitrose Ltd to motivate employees. Basically, it is the strategy
in which every great work of the employee is appreciated in front of their teams as well as
colleagues so that their self-esteem could be satisfied. Praising workforce to achieve their
objectives is quite significant to maintain enjoyable work environment. Appreciation is generally
provided in the form of positive feedback or small tokens and rewards. This policy inspires
workforce to operate toward achievements. This way Waitrose Ltd help in building mindset
among employees that their work is being valued and company is also confident about
capabilities of workforce.
Taking regular breaks: Another strategy adopted by Waitrose Ltd to motivate and
encourage their human resource is allowing them to take regular breaks during their work. This
helps employees to give rest to their mind so that they can continue their work with fresh mind.
Basically, this assists in increasing the productivity of employees as breaks are very necessary
and, in this break, employees are allowed to communicate with their colleagues other than their
work. This encourages employees that company is giving value and giving appropriate time to
take rest so that they could their work with more efficiency.
Rewards and benefits: Rewards and benefits are explained as the other strategy to motivate
employees by Waitrose Ltd. This is considered as one of the greatest strategies to increase the
productivity of employees and increasing the performance because in this they are provided with
financial and non-financial incentives. In financial incentives employees get bonus, share in
earned profits etc. The financial incentives help employees to improve their well-being and
increase their standard in the society they live (Al-Madi and et. al., 2017).
Prioritising work-life balance: Another strategy to motivate employees is prioritising work-
life balance. Waitrose Ltd provides flexibility working hours to its employees so that they do not

work with any type of pressure. Basically, in this company make sure that employee make
balance between personal and professional lives.
Be transparent: The other motivating strategy for implemented by Waitrose Ltd is being
transparent with employees. The company focuses at being open with workforce about what is
happening in the company so there is no surprise. This gives chance to every employee to put up
question and provide any suggestion or feedback (Ragab and Arisha, 2018). The managers of
company make sure that their employees are included in every type of decision and remain
committed to the direction organisation takes. This has assisted to sustain motivation and
increase loyalty and pride of the company.
Motivating and encouraging individuals rather than team: This is the other strategy
adopted by Waitrose Ltd it is very well known by the company that aligned incentives is the
great way for ensuring everyone in the team is working towards common objectives and goals.
Framing strategies in multiple ways ensures that every stakeholder has personal understanding of
how operating together benefits individual and the team. Basically, this technique helps company
to encourage team for accomplishing amazing things.
Radiating positivity: Managers of Waitrose Ltd motivate employees by pumping energy
among employees. The managers of company make sure that they are enthusiastic while working
so that workforce could feed off that same positive energy. For this they arrange fun activities
like games, music etc. This is the best way to lift the excitement of employee towards their work
(De Sousa Sabbagha and et. al., 2018).
According to Rovan-Stajduhar and Hasselgren (2018), recognising great work of the
employees holds major importance in improving the business performance. When work of
employees are appreciated in the organisation they get encouraged to attain objectives of the
company. This ultimately benefits the organisation as their productivity increases so the profit
level.
As per the opinion of Durksen and et. al., (2017), the other strategy that is most beneficial
for motivating employees is prioritising work life balance. In this when employees get flexible
hours they attain their objectives in effective and efficient manner.