How to Engage and Motivate Employees Effectively

Employee motivation and commitment

Employee motivation and commitment have emerged as big topics that have been portrayed for decades. Currently, studies are being conducted to connect the ideas of employee involvement and motivation and how they affect employee perspective.

It was important to investigate the effects of engaging and empowering workers, as well as to expand on the differences in workforce management and motivation, since administrators and executives are aware of and concerned about employee engagement and motivation, but no changes were seen. To fulfill the sole purposes of my study, thorough literature research was conducted, with affirmation from other researchers and peer-reviewed articles to support the findings and expound on them. The findings were effectively synthesized in the analysis and discussions segment from which conclusions were drawn.

From the findings, I was able to conclude that it is important to engage and motivate employees to achieve high-level performance and high-level productivity. However, this is not the case in many organizations because the managers and the executive do not realize the importance and they do not practice motivation and engagement of employees in their organizations.

Theoretical framework contribution

Since first researchers had explored the impacts and existing gaps in employee management and engagement, the theoretical framework contribution formed a basis on the importance of employee motivation and engagement. This research could be used by organizations to adopt and effectively enhance employee motivation and engagement.

Table of Contents

Introduction4

Research Questions5

Research Question One: Impacts of employee engagement and motivation6

Research Question Two: Existing gaps in employee engagement and motivation7

Theory……………..9

Research Design…….11

Analysis and Discussion……..12

Conclusions13

References

How to Engage and Motivate Employees

Employees are an important part of any organization, and for that reason, they need to be at their best if the firms can expect to a relatively high output. Employee engagement refers to the commitment an employee has emotionally to an organization and its goals. The emotional commitment refers to how an engaged employee cares about their organization’s performance and work. Employee motivation refers to a combination of factors that fulfill the needs of an employee and work’s expectations that pursue the employee to pursue and achieve the organization’s goals or work related tasks.

Motivating and engaging workers is one major role of the human resource manager that ensures the employees are satisfied and willing to work (Pinder, 2014). Engaging them is critical because it helps incorporate them into the larger dream that the firm aspires to achieve. Motivation, on the other hand, gives employees the push to want to work harder because of them being satisfied with the working conditions and the treatment they receive at the workplace (Crawford, Rich, Buckman, & Bergeron, 2014).

Organizations require three main components to continue with its activities efficiently. The three components include capital, assets and human personnel. All the three components require proper management for the organization to survive in any market sector. Despite the importance of human personnel, many organizations have failed to motivate and engage employees fully in their operations. These firms forget that human personnel are the sole drivers of every organization. They often tend to disregard how important employees are. The habit of ignoring the needs and welfares of employees has affected the performance of many organizations. The motivation of employee is essential in determining the rate at which the company retains its employees. It is crucial for firms to know how to motivate and retain their employees.

It is worth noting that there are some ways through which a firm can motivate and engage its workers. Defining a company’s vision is an important aspect of this process. Making it known to the employees that the firm wants to achieve targets and effectively relaying every detail of the plans makes the workers have a sense of direction (Lazaroiu, 2015). When employees are working on a project that they know its potential and have all the briefings they require the push to work harder enhances and that similarly increases their productivity. Fully engaging the workers means that they have to be informed of the details that concern the plans to achieve targeted goals (Mishra, Boynton, & Mishra, 2014).

Research Questions

A lot of studies have proven that there is a big relationship between motivation and engagement, and employee productivity. This study looks to outline the effect of motivating workers and engaging them in the firm’s activities to a greater extent, on their levels of output, turnover rates and productivity in general. Employee engagement and motivation is important for any organization to stick to the goals of the firm as retaining the employees keeps the aspirations of a company on track (Mone London, 2014). Another crucial factor that this research aims at uncovering is whether there exist gaps in the motivation and employee engagement. This study will answer these two research questions:

1. What are the impacts of employee engagement and motivation on productivity?

2. What are the existing gaps in employee engagement motivation?

A research question is a statement that pinpoints the phenomenon to be studied. These research questions will help to navigate the issue under investigation fully.

Research Question One: Impacts of Employee Engagement and Motivation

Forbes defined employee engagement as the emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals (Ferreira & Real de Oliveira, 2014). Employee engagement deals with the commitment that employees have towards the organizational goals, meaning that the employee should be mentally and emotionally fit. Therefore, employees should not work because of the pay, but they should be motivated to work in a way to prosper the company into the next level. An engaged employee is always ready to work whenever called upon to the company to help on a certain issue. Employee engagement requires every aspect of the employee ranging from physical, cognitive and emotional aspect (Stewart, 2011).Enhancement of employee engagement involves communicating to the employees the job’s expectations. Employees should have a clear guideline on what is required of them. It also specifies the role and responsibilities of the employee and prepares the employee mentally and physically (Richard, 2010).

The other way of enhancing employee engagement is promoting a good working relationship between the employer and employees. Communication is one of the aspects that create a good relationship between senior employees and their juniors in any organization and helps employees to communicate issues affecting them in their day to day activities. Building relationships help employees to feel free to their seniors (Garg, 2015). Effective communications enable employees to contribute towards decision making in the organization. It also promotion cordial working relationship because employees feel that they are involved in the decision making process.

Engagement bears its foundation in good communication within an institution. Effectively passing information to the workers puts them up to speed on matters that pertain development and productivity, and everything else that may be of importance to them (Anitha, 2014). Good communication, especially in difficult times, can keep a company on track. Fair treatment of the employees coupled with respect is a major factor that motivates them. When a worker feels that they are getting a fair share of the credit that is attributed to an institution, then they are motivated to work thus the output increases (Lazaroiu, 2015). Providing what employees want when they need it is also a motivation booster because this makes employees comfortable in carrying out their duties (Cunningham, 2016).

Motivation can be defined as the reason for doing something (Armstrong, 20014). It deals with the factors that influence people to act in a certain way. Research has shown that motivation is essential in enhancing employee performance. Motivated workers are not productive because they expect something in return, but because they feel that their effort is appreciated by their employer. Motivating employees help in changing their behavior to hence affecting their productivity.

Motivation can be of two types, either positive or negative. Positive motivation deals with rewards for a job well done (Stewart, 2011). It aims at improving the productivity of the employees. Negative motivation involves threats and sanctions which are aimed at discouraging certain behaviors. The goal of many organizations is to motivate their employee positively to increase their productivity.

Research Question Two: Existing Gaps in Employee Engagement and Motivation

Many executives do not understand the impact of employee engagement. Many employees do not feel engaged per say in their places of work. This disconnection concealed in plain sight is what is referred to as the employee engagement gap. The disconnection has led to the loss of useful talent and also lots of money in productivity. The gap between executives and employees has become a critical rising issue. For some reason, there is an underestimation of the effectiveness of employee engagement, which is very crucial in cultivating a productive and desirable culture in the workplace. Surprisingly, employers have superseding knowledge on success brought about by employee engagement. However, they do little in implementing what they believe.

The purpose is linked to engagement, and it brings both the executives and the employees together around a common cause (Kular, Gatenby, Rees, and Soane & Truss 2008).There is an existing gap, especially in wage motivation. The underpayment of employees disengaged the flow labor pool leaving employers with insufficient workforce and supply of highly-skilled well trained and well-educated workers. Those employees earning less, perform more poorly than those employees that are highly paid.

If an organization’s system of pay pays incentives for performance and has clear objective metrics, retention and morale can be improved as well as reduced turnover and absenteeism. In some countries, there is real and perceived gender discrimination, where women earn less than men (Cohen & Huffman 2007). Gender discrimination has led to poor performance in an organization. Most women feel unappreciated in their places of work thus lack intrinsic motivation which is more important than the extrinsic motivation, and this will greatly influence their behavior and attitude towards completing work related tasks.

Theory. Motivation is broadly divided into extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation refers to the external forces within an individual that drive him or her to achieve goals while an intrinsic motivation refers to factors that are internal for example people who are intrinsically motivated seek enjoyment, satisfaction, interest, self-expression and personal challenge. Intrinsic motivation gives them a sense of achievement, accomplishment and satisfaction. Intrinsic motivation plays a major role in explaining employee behavior. Extrinsic motivation refers to when an individual expects to benefit from an action. Rewards in an organization are used for employees who are extrinsically motivated. Several theories of motivation continue to give a better understanding and meaning to the impact and reason for motivation.

Abraham Maslow’s needs Theory:

The Maslow needs theory of motivation suggests that human needs can be classified in order of importance. They start with the most basic needs. The theory argues that, once a need has been fulfilled it ceases to motivate an individual, and he or she aims at other needs which are at the higher level (Madsen, & Susan, 2008). Maslow classified this needs into five classes namely: physiological, security, social needs, esteem, and self-actualization. An individual start with basic needs and finishes with self-actualization.

Douglas MC Gregor Theory X and Y:

Douglas based his argument on assumptions made by managers about their employees. He classified workers into two groups, theory X and Y. He described theory X as people who disliked their work and who wish to avoid or escape their responsibilities. According to him, these people should be directed, coerced, and threatened with punishment to work. Theory Y viewed people as people who are willing to work and do not need to be pushed around. They work without being directed, and they help in achieving the organizational goals. These types of employee derive satisfaction from work. These employees can be very productive under proper working conditions. They are always ready to accept new responsibilities given to them (John, 2011).

There are various drivers of employee engagement (Bedarkar & Pandita, 2014). Firstly, the work environment for example relationships, support and the level of involvement in decision making influences employee engagement. Secondly, Career development and training opportunities influence engagements of the employees. Rewards and recognition to employees incur a return from the employees because of the investment put on their behalf. Employee well-being and organization structures and systems. Not overwhelming employees with work and also ensuring work-life balance influences employee engagement. There should be a balance between emotional and physical energy. The norms in an organization will influence how the workers will perform their duties. Various theories help understand the importance of employee engagement.

Theory of social exchange

When an individual does a favor for another, it creates an expectation of a return in future. Reciprocating means that the outcome depends on the effort put by the other party. In this context, when managers and executives supply resources and benefits, the executives and managers expect benefits in return and the employee is obligated to repay the organization by putting more effort into fulfilling the objectives of the organization. This repayment can be through greater involvement of the employee through focusing and going deeper in their task performance (Rothmann 2017).

Perceived organizational support theory

Organizations not only require management that can align visions and goals of the organization but also one that creates a relationship with its employees by focusing on the day to day interactions between employees and the management. These relationships built create an environment that is supportive and provides satisfaction within an organization. In turn, the employees’ attitudes and behavior towards their work will be influenced to increase performance. Interactions between the management foster trust and loyalty, values that are crucial for high performance and therefore enhancing more voluntary responses from employees (Mayes, Finney, Johnson, Shen & Yi, 2017).

Research design. These refer to the overall strategies one chooses to integrate different study components logically and coherently to ensure effectiveness when addressing the research problem and may sometimes be known as research designs. These two research designs are quantitative and qualitative research why by quantitative deals with information that provides numerical data while qualitative research puts more emphasis on words or may be described as research that focuses on the world from a participant’s point of view (Brannen, 2017).

Literature search

To conduct my research, I looked into important studies that would help exhaust the research issues, through identifying highly relevant articles that were frequently cited. The academic articles were mainly peer-reviewed from google scholar. Peer-reviewed articles refer to those that have been reviewed by academic peers and this enabled reliability and ensured the quality of the research through secondary referencing (Brannen, 2017).

Analysis and discussion. The first theme identified in this study is how to effectively engage and motivate employees. Motivation and engagement go hand in hand as the existence of these two provide an environment that employees are encouraged to work in and also feel that they are a part. Engagement and motivation influence the will and the attitudes employees have towards their organizations (Zhang & Bartol, 2010). As seen in the findings, organizations need to learn the importance of engaging and motivating their employees. There are various factors for employee motivation and engagement. Building a relationship between the executives and the employees is one of those factors and is a major driver for employee engagement and also fosters a feeling of belonging and trust. Employees are more engaged when they feel at ease at their places of work.

The well-being of an employee is another factor. Well-being explains the balance between the work-life and personal life. The psychological presence of the employee depends on the balance between work and personal life (Bedarkar & Pandita 2014). The managers should be able to adjust the employee’s work –life balance to ensure the well-being of the employee’s physical and mental states for higher levels of engagement and productivity. Work environment stands out as another factor for employee engagement and motivation. When employees feel safe, they can work effectively. Considering the evolvement of technology, the improvement of the working space regarding technology will also be a source of motivation to the workers (Bedarkar & Pandita, 2014).

Provision of tools and benefits will instill an obligatory feeling inside of the employees, and they would be obliged to repay through active engagement. Organizational policies is another factor. A common communication environment instills the feeling of fair and equal treatment and also fosters personal relationships. This is key to ensuring that employees more productive is to ensure managers explore flexibility in the working hours and this takes the employers to get to know their employees well. These are the factors that explain how to motivate and engage employees effectively (Bedarkar & Pandita, 2014).

Conclusion

Motivation and engagement are, therefore, critical to a company because these factors impact on employee performance. However, they bear a slight difference in the sense that an employee can engage in a firm’s activities but not absorbed in them. Motivation is all about being absorbed into the goals and objectives of an institution and performing to one’s utmost best. The main issue, however, is that motivation goes hand in hand with employee engagement in ensuring the workers of a firm get a conducive environment in which to perform their duties. Productivity is directly proportional to motivation and employee engagement because it increases whenever these two factors exist.

References

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