Motivation Plan

Teamwork and Motivation are important traits in any organization. As the CEO of a small manufacturing company, teamwork and motivation have declined over the course of time. The business is mature and has produced the most popular and nationally known widget – the WooWoo. The widget is less expensive and the company has a more expansive distribution network, making our product the most widely available widget on the market. Currently, the company’s financial sales are very high; however, there the quality assurance department has started to notice some additional defects. These defects, of course, create additional costs and if quotas are not met along the production line then delays are expected.

The company is small and has the following departments: sales, assembly, technology, and administration. The CEO has hired a consulting firm to design an organization motivation plan that encourages high job satisfaction, low turnover, high productivity, and higher quality work. In addition, the consulting firm will propose two methods to motivate every employee in the organization and rate those two methods as the best idea and the second-best idea. Lastly, the consulting firm will propose three ways to motivate the minimum wage worker that is supported by a motivational theory.

The consulting firm has developed a comprehensive employee motivation program that has several components designed to address the specific needs of the company’s employees. First, the consulting firm set aside some time to meet with each employee and distributed an anonymous questionnaire in order to first identify where the workers needed help with motivation and second, what organizational activities would motivate them. Lastly, they organized motivational tools by order of importance. For example, young employees agreed that pay was a more important motivator than healthcare (because they are healthy and don’t have kids) while the senior administrators listed paid vacation as more important. The consulting team has seen this many times before – organizations are the sum of people who come to work for a common reason; however, are motivated by different factors in different strengths. The challenge is to motivate everyone and harness an environment that people feel valued and the individuals want to work as a team. Keeping in mind, a happy employee is a productive employee. The underlying reason why the CEO wants to encourage cross-functional teamwork and motivation is to preserve the profitability of the business.

The success of the Widget manufacturer, because the quality is beginning to slip and the competition is high, has to be driven by an employee motivation program. The goal of the following employee motivation program is to harness the ability of the individual to begin to consider other employees as an interest in success. The first portion of the employee motivation plan is to address the concept of recognition. The survey found that the majority of the line workers (who are probably responsible for the quality issue on the manufacturing line) feel as if they are not recognized enough for the work that they do. This line staff is often required to work overtime, have very structured shifts because they work in an assembly plant, and also have very little time to interact on a deep level with their coworkers. In short, they feel isolated and unappreciated. The human resource manager is now being tasked with the implementation of an employee recognition program that continually visits noticing those people who do great things. The consultants have told the CEO that recognition is a very important quality in retaining the best people. According to Fox Lawson and Associates (2013) “Studies have shown that praise, motivational leadership and positive recognition are just as effective in retaining good staff members as monetary incentives…Also, employee recognition must be meaningful.” It has been decided among the CEO and Human Resources department that a monthly staff event will be held in the company’s auditorium that is designed to embrace a component of recognition. The team has called the monthly event the “staff recall” and this event will be led by the CEO. The CEO will discuss the vision of the company, inspire motivation, give an opportunity for all staff to speak with the highest level leadership and engage each other socially. At the end of the staff recall, the CEO will recognize “STAR Staff members” that have been submitted for the award by their coworkers or boss. This action will allow an element of recognition for behaviors that go above and beyond to help the organization succeed. A powerful component of this type of recognition is that it is made in public. The person receiving the award serves as a model for the behaviors of others and also the recognition received in front of many people is a very powerful motivator. Certainly, the top performers who get this recognition will continue the behaviors that helped them receive the award. Recognition will serve as the most important facet of the company’s motivational program.

The second, and second most important, phase of the employee motivation plan is a bonus incentive program for staff that is considered low-wage (including minimum wage) employees. These employees typically work along the production line and have a daily quota to fill. The consultants have argued that the implementation of the incentive program based on work performance has greatly helped the companies they have worked with in the past. This type of program can be a very valuable tool to attract and retain the highest quality employee that is motivated to produce at a high level. This employee understands that the best pay comes with the best performance, and they are willing to perform at very high levels to obtain additional pay. The challenge is that the incentive program still has to be approved by finance as fiscally responsible.

In terms of addressing the issue in the company with the standard of living among its minimum wage workers, the bonus incentive program allows that individual to make additional funds through hard work and dedication. According to Smith (2013) at Forbes showing appreciation during the holiday season can get good results. “Employers should take the time to show appreciation for their workers in the office this season – not just because it’s the nice thing to do, but because it’ll make everyone happier and can also boost the company’s bottom line. The bonus incentive is fairly simple. Since there is a problem with productivity and quality along the assembly line, the workers will be given a bonus if they reach a given quota that is moderately aggressive. In addition, if the quality of those items passes quality assurance inspection at least 99% of the time then they qualify and will receive an incentive pay bonus for their work.” This will be very helpful in improving quality and teamwork and motivation among the assembly line workers.

The organization’s CEO is also concerned with the condition of the employees who are working for minimum wage. While the CEO knows that the company cannot simply throw money at the problem because the organization will go bankrupt, the CEO knows that the consultants can help come up with ideas to help improve their motivation as employees and maybe even how they feel as people while they work. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2009), “there are more than 3.6 million U.S. adults earning at or below the prevailing minimum wage. These employees constitute a large segment of the working population – more than 4.9 percent of the nation’s total hourly worker population is working today for minimum wage.” This means that every business leader, including the CEO, has an obligation to do other activities and behaviors for the minimum wage worker. First, it is important to let these workers know that you are concerned.

One very powerful tactic that can be used by a CEO is to know everybody’s name. That shows that the CEO is taking an interest in the person on a daily basis. A tactic of Managing by Walking Around gives executives the opportunity to engage minimum wage workers with a brief conversation that can change their day and how they feel about work. While speaking with the line staff, the executive can allow employees to actively discuss key decisions that may affect them and at least give the impression of being a participant in the decision making. Arguably, the people who actually do the work are the best to make decisions about the direction of the company. At the very least, their input is invaluable. Leaders can also use positive praise as a motivational reinforcement for good behaviors. It’s simple, when an executive wants their employees to perform in a given way, they should be sure to praise them assertively and in front of others in order to enhance the probability of that behavior being repeated, especially if it is repeated by the group.

The consultants then pulled the CEO to an individual meeting where they were coached on using participative leadership. The consulting firm advised the CEO that the entire program’s success really lay directly on his/her shoulders. The vision, mission, and new motivational plan have to be driven hard from the top – the CEO. They stated that the best form of leadership to reinforce positive culture is the participative style. This means that the CEO has to become very involved at every level of the business and be willing to leave the office in s suit, change into jeans, and get their hands dirty when a new machine arrives to try out on the assembly line. This illustrates a leader that is just a regular person like everyone else and isn’t a high society socialite that doesn’t care about the “little person.” Lastly, the consultants recommended installing a mentoring program into the workforce that is designed to partner the best employees with the newest or the ones that needed additional support, in an effort to share skills.

This approach creates a learning environment where the mentor is equal but also has a skill-set that is slightly more advanced. Mentors should understand that they are informal leaders and shouldn’t let the “position” go to their heads and get on a power trip. Minimum wage workers would then be prime candidates to be a part of the mentoring program where they would be allowed to advance their skills and gain precious human capital from learning from others. As such, these workers could one day become the CEO if they were motivated enough. Unfortunately, many minimum wage workers just got out of high school are college students, immigrants, and they have talents that could be a great value but are hidden in a stagnant culture that doesn’t seek out the qualities of the staff. Mentoring would encourage these workers to work hard and engage in behaviors that may get them a raise or a higher paying job in another section of the company. Lastly, minimum wage workers have to be able to feel respected. Unfortunately, because of how they were raised, their socio-economic status, or other factors, have led them to live lives where they feel very little respect. Arguably the most important value that can be added to the minimum wage employee’s life is the feeling of being respected.

In closing, the new organization’s motivational plan addresses several key concerns and will work to improve quality and the culture. After completing the employee questionnaire, it was found that the motivational plan should encourage job satisfaction, turnover, productivity, and high-quality work. The CEO requested for two methods to improve motivation. They were the implementation of a “staff recall” to encourage exposure to executive-level staff and also recognize those employees who exemplify company values. Secondly, the bonus incentive program was devised to improve the quality assurance issue while also providing positive enforcement for meeting quotas and paying attention to quality on every widget. Lastly, several methods to motivate the minimum wage service worker were presented to the CEO.

References

Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2009). Minimum Wage Employees in the Nation. Retrieved on November 17, 2013 from, http://www.bls.gov/cps/minwage2009.pdf

Fox Lawson & Associates. (2013). “Employee Recognition.” Retrieved on November 17, 2013from, http://www.foxlawson.com/employee-recognition.cfm

Smith. (2013). “How to Show Appreciation and Get Better Results From Your Employees ThisHoliday Season.” Retrieved on November 17, 2013 from,

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/11/13/how-to-show-appreciation-and-get-better-results-from-your-employees-this-holiday-season/