The Effect of Motivation on Employee Productivity

Motivated employees tend to be more productive than non-motivated employees. Most businesses make some efforts to motivate workers, but this is often easier said than done. Employees are all individuals with different likes, dislikes, and needs, and different things will motivate each. Therefore, employers need to take a comprehensive "bottom-up" approach to create realistic expectations among all their workers, while at the same time rewarding excellence and encouraging innovation.

Motivated Employees Are More Productive

You can state as fact that motivated employees are more productive, but how to create motivation and how to measure it are complex questions with no full answers to date. We do know that persuasion is a more effective tool than coercion. People react more positively when they feel management hears them. You will not get the most productivity from someone who feels coerced instead of included and rewarded. According to ACELL Team Development, Kockums, a Swedish shipbuilding company, managed to turn a $15 million annual loss into a $100 million annual profit in less than 10 years. This was almost completely due to changes in employee perceptions about the company, resulting in improved motivation and significant increases in productivity.

Decision-making and Realistic Expectations

You can't please everybody all of the time. Trying to do so is a recipe for disaster in running a business. Therefore, it is important to engage employees in the decision-making process, but create realistic expectations in the process. An example includes decisions on whether employees would rather have a 401(k) plan with a 4 percent match established, or a significant improvement to their health insurance benefits.

Job Description, Work Environment and Flexibility

Having an employee doing the right job for his personality and skill set, and performing well at the job dramatically increases employee motivation and satisfaction. Additionally, a pleasant, safe and non-threatening work environment is necessary to maintain a high level of employee motivation. Companies with flexible human resource policies (flex time, work from home, childcare) also tend to have happier and more motivated workers.

Pay and Benefits

Keeping employees motivated with good benefits is straightforward. Where to draw the line at generous benefits that motivate all employees, versus raises and larger salaries to retain and attract the best workers (and keep them happy and motivated to be working for you), are more difficult. It boils down to considerations relating to the specific industry, the current job market, and the total personnel budget of the organization.

Company Culture

Creating a positive and employee-friendly company culture is a great motivational tool. Creating a sense of community and commitment to a larger purpose also helps in motivating workers. Meyer et al in their article "Employee Commitment and Motivation: A Conceptual Analysis and Integrative Mode" discuss how commitment is an important element of motivation. A typical method to increase employee commitment and motivation is an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), and there have been several studies demonstrating significant productivity increases at businesses that started ESOPs.

References

• ACCEL Team Development: Application of Employee Motivation Theory to the Workplace
• Birkbeck and the Work Foundation: Employee Ownership, Motivation, and Productivity
• Journal of Applied Psychology: Employee Commitment and Motivation: A Conceptual Analysis and Integrative Model
• Google: The Google Culture