FREE online courses on Building a Winning Team - The Growth Phase - Enrich
Jobs
Only in comic books do we find characters like Wimpy (Popeye's pal), who live on hamburgers all their
lives. Us
mortals need variety in our diets.
So with jobs. People
who are today's cantankerous, or rebellious ones may have had special talents,
relevant for today if not for the time when their services were first hired,
victim of some tyrant's victimization or the boss's neglect.
Everyone works to earn money, but it's been proved
time and again that beyond a certain level of
security for each person, pay rates are not a major factor in motivation and
development of performance, provided other rewards are available.
What tends to motivate and develop subordinates in a lasting
and sustaining manner is whatever enriches their working lives. (Enrichment means giving scope for a higher
quality of working life). Job descriptions should be
flexible, not straitjackets which prevent change and constrain people's
potential. Some tips are given below:
- Show trust: remove petty controls, give more discretion on petty
expenditure, let them sign their own letters
- Communicate: Don't tell, solve problems jointly, give appraisal
and feedback, seek their opinions, inform about company progress
-
Increase responsibility
and authority: Delegate larger jobs,
increase their participation at meetings, reduce frequency of checks, allow
more self-regulation
- Better motivation, job satisfaction
- Increased output, better performance (more kms. / litre)
- Commitment to Co. goals
- Better, more skills
- Assess potential more easily
- Better job/ person match emerges
- Desire created for self-development
It' s a wonder (and also a mystery )
why managers don't pay more attention to staff development.
QUESTIONS:
- Which motivator is more powerful, money or job enrichment? Explain with concrete examples.
- How would you motivate an employee who is already at the end of his
scale, yet has years of service left?
