I am an HR head of Government Ministry, I\'m very much concern about demotivate of our employees. Please give me a way forward to improve employees motivation.
From Maldives, Male
From Maldives, Male
Hi Hafeeza,
You can hire a motivational speaker for a day or get somebody to conduct a 2 day course on meditation and personal development .
And if they are bored of their routine activities I suggest you organize hi tea along with some stand-up comedy in the evening.
With regards
From India, Bangalore
5You can hire a motivational speaker for a day or get somebody to conduct a 2 day course on meditation and personal development .
And if they are bored of their routine activities I suggest you organize hi tea along with some stand-up comedy in the evening.
With regards
From India, Bangalore
Dear Hafeeza,
This subject of motivation comes up for discussion again and again. This only goes on to show that how this subject is complex and important too. Earlier I have given exhaustive reply on employee motivation depends on what factors. You may click the following link:
https://www.citehr.com/455372-techni...ml#post2040493
In addition to this, motivation of employees also depends on "culture of interdependence and cooperation"
I recommend you doing "Employee Satisfaction Survey" (ESS). But again I doubt whether this method also will work. Click here to read my past comments on ESS.
For Scarletmoon: - My replies are given in italics:
You can hire a motivational speaker for a day or get somebody to conduct a 2 day course on meditation and personal development .
I beg to differ with you. If motivational speakers were to increase the employee motivation then theory motivation would not have taken birth at all. I have not come across with a single example wherein anyone's glib talk has helped in improving motivation. If you have example of ROI on this activity, please provide it. It would be good enlightenment to all the members of this forum. Rather I would say, it is the gullibility of the speakers than their product that is helping them in fostering the business.
And if they are bored of their routine activities I suggest you organize hi tea along with some stand-up comedy in the evening.
While this method may work but its effect could be ephemeral. Give me example wherein because of these activities whether employee attrition was reduced or employees came up with more and more suggestions or intra-departmental or inter-departmental conflict was reduced. If you take a magnet near to the pin or clip, the pin or clip gets attracted towards magnets and it gets attached too. The magnetic power is so strong that even if you remove the magnet, the pin or clip retains magnetic properties and it starts attracting other pins or clips. But this happens for a while. Within minutes the original pin or clip loses the magnetic properties and all the pins become same. This high tea or comedy is something like a magnet. Next day onwards, the things are back to square one.
Thanks,
Dinesh V Divekar
Management & Behavioural Training Consultant
[/QUOTE]
From India, Bangalore
This subject of motivation comes up for discussion again and again. This only goes on to show that how this subject is complex and important too. Earlier I have given exhaustive reply on employee motivation depends on what factors. You may click the following link:
https://www.citehr.com/455372-techni...ml#post2040493
In addition to this, motivation of employees also depends on "culture of interdependence and cooperation"
I recommend you doing "Employee Satisfaction Survey" (ESS). But again I doubt whether this method also will work. Click here to read my past comments on ESS.
For Scarletmoon: - My replies are given in italics:
You can hire a motivational speaker for a day or get somebody to conduct a 2 day course on meditation and personal development .
I beg to differ with you. If motivational speakers were to increase the employee motivation then theory motivation would not have taken birth at all. I have not come across with a single example wherein anyone's glib talk has helped in improving motivation. If you have example of ROI on this activity, please provide it. It would be good enlightenment to all the members of this forum. Rather I would say, it is the gullibility of the speakers than their product that is helping them in fostering the business.
And if they are bored of their routine activities I suggest you organize hi tea along with some stand-up comedy in the evening.
While this method may work but its effect could be ephemeral. Give me example wherein because of these activities whether employee attrition was reduced or employees came up with more and more suggestions or intra-departmental or inter-departmental conflict was reduced. If you take a magnet near to the pin or clip, the pin or clip gets attracted towards magnets and it gets attached too. The magnetic power is so strong that even if you remove the magnet, the pin or clip retains magnetic properties and it starts attracting other pins or clips. But this happens for a while. Within minutes the original pin or clip loses the magnetic properties and all the pins become same. This high tea or comedy is something like a magnet. Next day onwards, the things are back to square one.
Thanks,
Dinesh V Divekar
Management & Behavioural Training Consultant
[/QUOTE]
From India, Bangalore
"People don't change their behaviour unless it makes a difference for them to do so."
Employee motivation is important and glad to know that the government ministries are also focusing on this.
To be a little honest, gone are the days of "One size fits all".
Today's is the age of tailor-made and custom-made solutions. To the extent that even schemes are now-a-days tailor made to some extent.
One of the simplest and most basic things one can do is -
Tailor make the salary structure for your staff.
Ok, I know it is lengthy and involves too much of work. But what you can do is, list a few company approved allowances or benefits which can be so adjusted to allow the person to have better in-hand and save tax. As is always said by tax advisors that saving tax perse and tax planning is not a crime. For eg: giving a child education allowance of 200 Rs to a person who is not even engaged yet, is not going to motivate him/her. Instead we can re-frame the same allowance as say mobile expense reimbursement or food allowance or something similar.
Since you belong to government ministry, I believe you must be giving something as food allowance. I think you should split your food allowance as --> Fixed money part and some meal vouchers like sodexo. Giving meal vouchers has advantage - they are tax free. But ensure to educate your staff before you bring in this change else they would be demotivated that their food allowance has been reduced. Also whilst choosing a meal voucher, choose for the one that is accepted at many places and even at groceries store. Eg: Sodexo is accepted even by food bazar to buy daily groceries or any food item.
Apart from this, you can also start many engagement activities lilke -
1. A picnic or an o uting
2. Celebrating certain days at office like Holi, Diwali, Dushhera. As simple as celebrating the 9 days of Navratri by asking the staff to dress in the color pattern.
3. Appreciating small small tasks done by them. Say for eg if you find that XYZ has not taken even a single leave in this month, you can appreciate the efforts and give him recognition in front of the staff.
4. If someone is on leave for sick or medical reason or has taken a leave to take care of family member, try to ask if they're well when they resume. It's a basic human nature but not practiced with office colleagues especially when they're not in same department or the one's who are reporting to us. It won't make us look low, but it would make us look better.
5. Try to do some environmental activity together. Eg: recently there was world's health day - 7th april - you could have arranged for a dietician who could have shared the benefits of a healthy life.
6. Check your work-life balance scheme.
7. Do the employee satisfaction survey and try to figure out what is wrong. Or as an hr, engage yourself in a friendly chat with most of the people to know where the shoe is pinching them. (Get some tips from How to Monitor Employee Motivation, Satisfaction & Performance | Chron.com)
8. Most important and often neglected - Appreciate an idea or any suggesstion that is being made by some one. Most often people (either in public or in private sectors) do not make any new suggestion out of the fear that it would either go unheard, or would be mocked off, or simply would get a message - "How much do you know about the industry. I have better experience than you. Please don't bother to teach me" This might not be the literal reply, but your body language and indirect message conveys this. Be open to new ideas.
9. Check on the level of office politics, groupism, etc. Look out for team building activities and encourage inter-departmental team building.
10. Trust them, their capabilities and give them jobs that match not only to the level of their education / qualification / experience but also to their skill sets.
11. The power of acknowledgement is often under-rated. Ensure that you give TRUE acknowledgement / appreciation (Timely, Responsive, Unconditional & Enthusiastic) to people.
12. Check your organizational culture. with changing time, these days we need a culture which is Open, Flexible, Caring as well as Fair.
I checked a similar discussion - pls chk
Head / VP / GM - HR
Hope this helps you solve your query
From India, Mumbai
Employee motivation is important and glad to know that the government ministries are also focusing on this.
To be a little honest, gone are the days of "One size fits all".
Today's is the age of tailor-made and custom-made solutions. To the extent that even schemes are now-a-days tailor made to some extent.
One of the simplest and most basic things one can do is -
Tailor make the salary structure for your staff.
Ok, I know it is lengthy and involves too much of work. But what you can do is, list a few company approved allowances or benefits which can be so adjusted to allow the person to have better in-hand and save tax. As is always said by tax advisors that saving tax perse and tax planning is not a crime. For eg: giving a child education allowance of 200 Rs to a person who is not even engaged yet, is not going to motivate him/her. Instead we can re-frame the same allowance as say mobile expense reimbursement or food allowance or something similar.
Since you belong to government ministry, I believe you must be giving something as food allowance. I think you should split your food allowance as --> Fixed money part and some meal vouchers like sodexo. Giving meal vouchers has advantage - they are tax free. But ensure to educate your staff before you bring in this change else they would be demotivated that their food allowance has been reduced. Also whilst choosing a meal voucher, choose for the one that is accepted at many places and even at groceries store. Eg: Sodexo is accepted even by food bazar to buy daily groceries or any food item.
Apart from this, you can also start many engagement activities lilke -
1. A picnic or an o uting
2. Celebrating certain days at office like Holi, Diwali, Dushhera. As simple as celebrating the 9 days of Navratri by asking the staff to dress in the color pattern.
3. Appreciating small small tasks done by them. Say for eg if you find that XYZ has not taken even a single leave in this month, you can appreciate the efforts and give him recognition in front of the staff.
4. If someone is on leave for sick or medical reason or has taken a leave to take care of family member, try to ask if they're well when they resume. It's a basic human nature but not practiced with office colleagues especially when they're not in same department or the one's who are reporting to us. It won't make us look low, but it would make us look better.
5. Try to do some environmental activity together. Eg: recently there was world's health day - 7th april - you could have arranged for a dietician who could have shared the benefits of a healthy life.
6. Check your work-life balance scheme.
7. Do the employee satisfaction survey and try to figure out what is wrong. Or as an hr, engage yourself in a friendly chat with most of the people to know where the shoe is pinching them. (Get some tips from How to Monitor Employee Motivation, Satisfaction & Performance | Chron.com)
8. Most important and often neglected - Appreciate an idea or any suggesstion that is being made by some one. Most often people (either in public or in private sectors) do not make any new suggestion out of the fear that it would either go unheard, or would be mocked off, or simply would get a message - "How much do you know about the industry. I have better experience than you. Please don't bother to teach me" This might not be the literal reply, but your body language and indirect message conveys this. Be open to new ideas.
9. Check on the level of office politics, groupism, etc. Look out for team building activities and encourage inter-departmental team building.
10. Trust them, their capabilities and give them jobs that match not only to the level of their education / qualification / experience but also to their skill sets.
11. The power of acknowledgement is often under-rated. Ensure that you give TRUE acknowledgement / appreciation (Timely, Responsive, Unconditional & Enthusiastic) to people.
12. Check your organizational culture. with changing time, these days we need a culture which is Open, Flexible, Caring as well as Fair.
I checked a similar discussion - pls chk
Head / VP / GM - HR
Hope this helps you solve your query
From India, Mumbai
Dear Hafeeza,
Employee motivation is a universal concern,hence at times neglected, at times, fixed with immediate "To Dos" and suggestions.
Diagnosis to focus on the root cause and then initiating curative solutions, incl. preventive actions is an ideal process.
I suggest u to use Extended DISC inventory that offers individual insights, collectively leading to team diagnosis and capturing organizational culture / climate related issues. This insights and awareness can help u leap forward with preventive and curative, immediate and long term, process oriented as well as result focused actions. We have been providing consulting services in this critical HR area using Extended DISC and have a couple of organizations patronizing for our deliverable. pl. write to me :
/ visit us @ <link no longer exists - removed> /speak to me - 09824509399
Best wishes,
Nanda N Dave
Director - The Mentors - Trainers & Mgt Consutants
From India, Vadodara
Employee motivation is a universal concern,hence at times neglected, at times, fixed with immediate "To Dos" and suggestions.
Diagnosis to focus on the root cause and then initiating curative solutions, incl. preventive actions is an ideal process.
I suggest u to use Extended DISC inventory that offers individual insights, collectively leading to team diagnosis and capturing organizational culture / climate related issues. This insights and awareness can help u leap forward with preventive and curative, immediate and long term, process oriented as well as result focused actions. We have been providing consulting services in this critical HR area using Extended DISC and have a couple of organizations patronizing for our deliverable. pl. write to me :
Best wishes,
Nanda N Dave
Director - The Mentors - Trainers & Mgt Consutants
From India, Vadodara
Dear Hafeeza,
My advice is to stop doing what demotivates them. Apparently, management has convinced your employees that they don't really care about employees. Every person has their own motivations for doing what they do and you will never fully understand those. But you can release them to the power of their own motivations or prevent them from doing so.
When they first join an organization, they are motivated or they would not have chosen to join. Then management treats them in such a way to demotivate them by not treating them like they are valued employees. This is done a number of different ways but mostly by not listening to whatever they have to say and not responding to what they say in a very timely and respectful manner. Another way is to have a bureaucracy that makes their job more difficult and is unresponsive to their needs. There are many other ways associated with training, coaching, tools, procedures, direction, discipline, planning, information, and the like.
In short, there are actions which will consistently demotivate employees, other actions which will release some of their motivations, and still others which will consistently create a highly motivated, highly committed, and fully engaged workforce that loves to come to work and is highly productive. And, there are very good reasons why this is true, what I call the science of people.
I am willing to coach yourself and your executives and managers in becoming skillful in the right actions and/or you can learn a lot from my book and the articles and videos at my website. As an executive, I have created several of these workforces and the results go beyond anyone's ability to describe with any other words but simply amazing.
Best regards, Ben Simonton
Leadership is a science and so is engagement
From United States, Tampa
My advice is to stop doing what demotivates them. Apparently, management has convinced your employees that they don't really care about employees. Every person has their own motivations for doing what they do and you will never fully understand those. But you can release them to the power of their own motivations or prevent them from doing so.
When they first join an organization, they are motivated or they would not have chosen to join. Then management treats them in such a way to demotivate them by not treating them like they are valued employees. This is done a number of different ways but mostly by not listening to whatever they have to say and not responding to what they say in a very timely and respectful manner. Another way is to have a bureaucracy that makes their job more difficult and is unresponsive to their needs. There are many other ways associated with training, coaching, tools, procedures, direction, discipline, planning, information, and the like.
In short, there are actions which will consistently demotivate employees, other actions which will release some of their motivations, and still others which will consistently create a highly motivated, highly committed, and fully engaged workforce that loves to come to work and is highly productive. And, there are very good reasons why this is true, what I call the science of people.
I am willing to coach yourself and your executives and managers in becoming skillful in the right actions and/or you can learn a lot from my book and the articles and videos at my website. As an executive, I have created several of these workforces and the results go beyond anyone's ability to describe with any other words but simply amazing.
Best regards, Ben Simonton
Leadership is a science and so is engagement
From United States, Tampa
Hi Hafeeza,
I am a retired HR professional, with over 40 years of industry experience. I have been conducting soft skill training for Arts, Science, Management, Engineering students and also employees of IT, BPO, Automobile, Construction companies and so on.
You are most welcome to utilise my knowledge, skill and experience and for me location is not a constraint at all. I will soon be travelling to some middle east destinations shortly.
My detailed profile is attached herewith.
Best wishes
From India
I am a retired HR professional, with over 40 years of industry experience. I have been conducting soft skill training for Arts, Science, Management, Engineering students and also employees of IT, BPO, Automobile, Construction companies and so on.
You are most welcome to utilise my knowledge, skill and experience and for me location is not a constraint at all. I will soon be travelling to some middle east destinations shortly.
My detailed profile is attached herewith.
Best wishes
From India
Sir
Pl try to give opportunity to understand that they are multi skill talented people but something suppressing their interest
so make them to realise how to modify their behaviour through Behavioural Trainer
Regards
Dr.G.V.Kumar
Behavioural Trainer & Psychologist
9444144510
From India, Madras
Pl try to give opportunity to understand that they are multi skill talented people but something suppressing their interest
so make them to realise how to modify their behaviour through Behavioural Trainer
Regards
Dr.G.V.Kumar
Behavioural Trainer & Psychologist
9444144510
From India, Madras
Dear Hafeeza,
You have received lots of advice and most of it is good. But, only if you were a student of motivation!
So, if u want a solution to your problem ,you will have to define it first.Merely saying they are demotivated will not be enough.If you do that and follow all the advice it will be like a doctor prescribing whole lot of medicines merely on the basis of a complaint of body pain and hoping something will work.
As a starter you can have a discussion with all the concerned deptt. heads and take their feedback.Second step is to either have an open forum with the concerned employees and have their feedback too.This can be done by various ways-by online survey, by a meeting, or by even inviting suggestions and feedback either on mails or personally or through suggestions box.Other option on this is hiring some outsider to do the analysis.Choice is yours.
Now, once you have gathered your data then you can move on.Analyze,understand what the data is telling you and then take corrective actions.On a general front,the biggest motivator is money and then recognition & reward, professional growth, sharing of good practices etc.There are -ve motivators also ranging from bad appraisal,a red mark in file,demotion and forced separation.
And finally, generally the most common & unrecognized(knowingly) problem of demotivation is a bad boss( it is a tragedy normally.Whenever something goes wrong,it is poor employees who become the problem.Nobody talks to the boss)
From India, Delhi
You have received lots of advice and most of it is good. But, only if you were a student of motivation!
So, if u want a solution to your problem ,you will have to define it first.Merely saying they are demotivated will not be enough.If you do that and follow all the advice it will be like a doctor prescribing whole lot of medicines merely on the basis of a complaint of body pain and hoping something will work.
As a starter you can have a discussion with all the concerned deptt. heads and take their feedback.Second step is to either have an open forum with the concerned employees and have their feedback too.This can be done by various ways-by online survey, by a meeting, or by even inviting suggestions and feedback either on mails or personally or through suggestions box.Other option on this is hiring some outsider to do the analysis.Choice is yours.
Now, once you have gathered your data then you can move on.Analyze,understand what the data is telling you and then take corrective actions.On a general front,the biggest motivator is money and then recognition & reward, professional growth, sharing of good practices etc.There are -ve motivators also ranging from bad appraisal,a red mark in file,demotion and forced separation.
And finally, generally the most common & unrecognized(knowingly) problem of demotivation is a bad boss( it is a tragedy normally.Whenever something goes wrong,it is poor employees who become the problem.Nobody talks to the boss)
From India, Delhi
I happen to read this article on line. Have put in some important lines from the article and have also shared the source so that you can read it on whole if it interests and suits your requirement.
Why “Workplace Change” Is a Dreaded Phrase
Next to “You’re fired,” the phrase “workplace change” seems to be the most dreaded word combination many employees can hear. Staff reaction to change continues to mystify management.
However, there is a simple—natural—reason for traditional employee resistance. It’s all about comfortability and human comfort zones. It's also acceptable to call it "fear of the unknown."
How to Minimize the Pain of Change
1) Explain employee options and consequences
2) Discard the “carrot and stick” approach; just do what’s right.
3) Clearly analyze staff buy in tendencies—or lack thereof.
4) Create shared vision with staff.
5) Listen carefully and intently. Listening properly is a vital necessity for all executives.
6) Value employee ideas and feelings.
Realizing that your employees can suffer pain equal to your own when implementing workplace changes helps you increase your empathy for their feelings. In so doing, you can better create a buy in plan that works.
Source:
How to Institute Organizational Changes without Employee Pain
From India, Mumbai
Why “Workplace Change” Is a Dreaded Phrase
Next to “You’re fired,” the phrase “workplace change” seems to be the most dreaded word combination many employees can hear. Staff reaction to change continues to mystify management.
However, there is a simple—natural—reason for traditional employee resistance. It’s all about comfortability and human comfort zones. It's also acceptable to call it "fear of the unknown."
How to Minimize the Pain of Change
1) Explain employee options and consequences
2) Discard the “carrot and stick” approach; just do what’s right.
3) Clearly analyze staff buy in tendencies—or lack thereof.
4) Create shared vision with staff.
5) Listen carefully and intently. Listening properly is a vital necessity for all executives.
6) Value employee ideas and feelings.
Realizing that your employees can suffer pain equal to your own when implementing workplace changes helps you increase your empathy for their feelings. In so doing, you can better create a buy in plan that works.
Source:
How to Institute Organizational Changes without Employee Pain
From India, Mumbai
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