Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs

Stated before was that offering an animal a treat, will make the animal perform all sorts of tricks, because that’s all the motivations they need. Comparing humans to animals, it can easily be said that food is a basic need for humans but they still aren’t motivated enough to do as much tricks (work) as animals. Money is one of the primary motivator (basic) that business offer people to motivate and of course people are motivated a bit but as they get used to it, they expect to be motivated with alternatives. Maslow a psychologist believed that there are certain needs that people want to achieve and after that need is fulfilled they seek for the next motivation to fulfil and so on. Maslow created the hierarchy of needs. It was divided into five sections psychological, safety, love/belonging, esteem and self-actualization.

 (http://www.integratedsociopsychology.net/3_stage_theories-development.html)

Psychological – To put this into a business perspective it can be easily said that the money would be in this section as it’s a basic need for every employee. An employee’s expects to be paid for their hard work. Money in today’s world can be compared to food and water, it is needed to survive.

Safety – Job security is very important motivator. Mostly employee work every day in fear of losing their employments. The second sections is where employees want to be motivated with the fact that they will not be losing their position at the company that they have worked for many years.

Love/Belonging – The third section in this reflects to employees being treated as friend by their managers and leaders, as this can motivate them to work harder because they have the feeling of being accepted.

Esteem –As the amount of time spent at a company increases, people want more respect at work place. They want to be acknowledged by managers and others. They want to be admired for their hard work and achievements.   

Self-actualization – Everyone has different skills, some people have creative skills, some has problem solving skills etc. People get satisfaction when they work according to the skills they naturally have. Recognizing their skills and giving them task according to these skills will increase their productivity and give them satisfaction and motivate them. 

 (http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html)

(http://salveopartners.com/motivation-4-0-a-sustainable-way-of-eliciting-change/)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERm0YlWT03I&sns=em

Ways Leaders motivate Employees beyond Money

Where ever you may work, whatever you may do, always there has to be a leader behind you, who has the power to motivate you in whatever you do at work. Whiter it’s by financial incentives or non-financial incentives. There are many ways that these leaders can motivate you.

Top Ways Leaders Motivate people

Energize your team – Be the leader who brings positive energy and passion to its team every day. After all your team is who helps you achieve gaols within in the company. Don’t be the leader who sucks the energy out of your team by over load of work and treating them unfairly.

Put your people first – Businesses spend thousands of dollars on hiring, training and managing workers who deliver services and products. People who run the organization are the people who make the organization. Be the leader who motivates its employees because if people are your success they need to be motivated with more than just financial incentives.

Act with integrity - Don’t be the leader who goes against its employee’s best interest, as it can de-motivate them to do better work. It can decrease their productivity which goes against the success of the business.

Be a great commutator- Communicating with employing is an important aspect of motivating them. If you’re having difficulties communicating with employees, they might get the wrong idea that you do not wish to deal with issues they are having at work. Be a leader who can communicate with employees and understand what they are trying to say.

Be a great listener – It’s important for leaders to listen to its team members. Even though leaders listen to them during the good time, they should also listen to their employees during their bad time as they just want someone to listen to them.

Be a problem solver – Don’t be the leader who say “bring me solutions, not problems”. Work with your team members and find a solution together rather than set target for them for something that they don’t know the answer.

Lead with experience – Be the leader who would lead its team with experience rather than a leader who would lead a team with their title and position in the company. Mentor and guide your team member all the possible ways, they might also have a dream to be in your position at some time in their life.

(http://www.forbes.com/sites/martinzwilling/2012/01/10/8-ways-leaders-can-motivate-employees-beyond-money/)

(http://thesykesgrp.com/onpoint/tag/leadership)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gn2pkyEL308

Alternative Motivation Methods

Other than money businesses use a lot of different methods to motivate its employees because over time money isn’t a strong enough motivator and people need more motivation. The list below has a few alternatives that business may use:

Flexibility – Businesses generally offer paid holidays to its employees to give them flexibility during the year. In additions to this businesses should also offer time flexibility for its employees during the period they need it. Of course this is because time doesn’t have price.

Acknowledgement – Employees want a place a to fit in, they want to be acknowledged in the workplace to make a name for themselves which can help them in the future when the person wants to grow within the company.

The Environment – Businesses should create working environments that the employees will enjoy and want to come happily. The environment should reflect the employee’s skills and personality. Offices should offer relaxing and comfortable areas, where employees can take breaks and get positives energy.

Encourage Health – While many offices are not able to install gyms, they can offer their employee who wish to maintain a healthy lifestyle with discounted gym memberships as they are highly valued by many people. To build physical team skills, businesses can offer events such as bowling and soccer leagues, this can help create more social activities among employees and can be alternative to the usual happy hour at any given night.

(http://venturebeat.com/2011/09/06/5-ways-to-motivate-employees-beyond-stocks-and-salary/)

Training and Development- Many employees are interested in growing in the company, businesses should support these individuals to motivate them by giving them more training and by helping them with any skills needed to develop. They should also help fiancé higher education to the individuals if the job position require something specific. Working with senior figures can also help motivating them as they will be learning the skills and responsibilities the senior figure has.

(http://www.twentyrecruitment.com/blog/?p=1283)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA54HWLZ2e4

Is Money a good motivator?

Generally money isn’t a good motivator for many employees because they consider money a primary motivator. However it depends on the type of need the employee has and their personality. For example someone would have a better use for money rather than being recognized for their work but the same person doing the same job would rather be recognized than have more money. Other non-financial incentives such as rewards, promotions and employee recognitions will usually have more impact on employees because a lot of employees are interested in getting higher potion at their work place.

(http://www.academia.edu/4631951/Is_money_the_primary_motivator_for_employees)

Money is considered a primary motivator because, people do good work in order to get paid a fair wage but if they worked harder and longer the wage would eventually increase. This type of motivations is said to be the full circle where:

Money = Motivation, Motivation = Work, Work = Money

But the truth is that money isn’t the most powerful motivator, it may be a major factor in the employee’s choice of work, but other motivators have a higher impact on the performance by the employees.

(http://wallstreetinsanity.com/is-money-the-strongest-motivator/)

5 Reasons Why Money isn’t the best Motivator

1-      Industry Standard Salaries

When employees compare their salaries to the average industry salary and find out that they are earning blow average can be de-motivated. Even if the person finds out they are earning a little more than the average it’s not going to make them work harder than they already are.

2-      Other Peoples’ Salaries

Salaries for employees are usually calculated according to the experiences, skills set etc. Now if the same job position has two different employees with different salaries, it’s going to de-motivate the employee who has the lower pay.

3-      Paid Overtime

Overtime can be really good for employees every once in a while, but if it’s a regular occurrence for employees they can overwork themselves leading poor concentration and low energy levels. It can also distant the employee from family and friend making them unhappy. Doing this could have a negative impact and can de-motivate the employee than to motivate.

4-      Salary grading

Most companies tend to pay employees with the same position roughly the same amount. However if someone works harder and they get paid the same as some else who doesn’t, it de-motivate them.

5-      Postponed or cancelled raises

When applying for a job in a big company such as Walmart people expect to get a pay increase every year, but as time passes people stop getting motivated by it, because it has already been achieved many times. However the biggest de-motivator is finding out that you will not be getting a pay increase because the company hasn’t reached its targets for the year.

(https://devmanagement.wordpress.com/2007/09/26/7-reasons-why-money-is-not-the-best-motivator/)

(http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hCtLhdOX7jY/maxresdefault.jpg)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up2PP_ah4-k&sns=em

Why motivation is important in businesses

All businesses have goals and objects set, that they must achieve, whether they are small or big. Businesses hire employees to help achieve those goals by motivating them with money, incentives and other alternatives. Motivation is a psychological form of catalysis which both the employees and the owners require to achieve and meet their goals and objectives. This helps in guiding the company and the employees towards the goals. Motivation is an important part of business strategy because it helps with saving costs, increasing revenue and also increasing productivity. Employees that are highly motivated have a greater willingness to get the jobs done effectively and efficiently. Employees who have lower motivation work slower costing the business more money.

(http://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-motivation-goal-setting-businesses-2506.html)

(https://www.pinterest.com/slaterfd/motivation-zig-ziglar/)

5 Reasons why Motivation is important

Improves Performance level - As stated before employees are more willing to work if they are motivated, therefore it leads to an increase in productivity and the decrease in cost because employees work more effectively and efficiency.

Helps to change negative or indifferent attitudes of employees - People think that by working more at their job would not benefit them because they will not be recognized or be credited more. Many businesses offer annual pay increase to their employees to motivate them by changing the negative way of thinking they may have.

Reduction in Employee Turnover – A lot of businesses spend thousands on hiring new employees and giving them training and education. While business can save that money by motivating its employees with financial incentives such as salaries/wage increase, bonus, paid holidays and trips, etc... With this type of motivations the companies would be increasing their productions and saving their recruitment costs. Companies will also have satisfied and motivated employees.

Help to reduce absenteeism in the organization – Due to many businesses having poor working conditions, many employees tend to take a lot of days off from work leading to a higher absenteeism rate. Another cause for this can also be that the employees do not have work relationships with their colleagues and supervisors. Businesses need to motivate employees by offering rewards, appreciation etc… this would make the workplace more enjoyable for its employees and would motivate them to come to work more.

Reduction in resistance to change- Many employees are not prepared or willing to accept the changes in the organization. Businesses need to motivated it employees because motivated employees can improve their work performance and have more flexibility to accept changes.

(http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/motivation/5-importance-of-motivation-in-business/992/)

(http://morningswithmegan.blogspot.ca/2012/07/what-is-importance-of-motivation-when.html)

Hence the reasons why it’s important for businesses to motivate its employees

What is motivation?

“Motivation can be define as a psychological force that stimulate an individual to act independently in a focused and persistent manner” (George A. Morgan, Robert J. Harmon & Christine A. Maslin-Cole, 2010). There are many ways with which someone can motivate themselves and others to do or say particular things. Motivations initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behavior. In other words motivations is the tool which makes us and others act efficiently. It is not as easy to motivate humans as it is to motivate animals. For example you can offer an animal a treat to perform all sort of tricks but if you offer food to a person, they’re not going to perform as much or as good as animal. 

(http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15566935eed0105_1#.VRbaDPnF8uc)

(http://www.sparknotes.com/psychology/psych101/motivation/context.html)

(http://psychology.about.com/od/mindex/g/motivation-definition.htm) 

(https://innogise.wordpress.com/2012/10/26/why-staff-motivation-doesnt-work-employees-are-not-robots-that-must-be-wound-up-every-day/)

Types of motivation

There are many types of motivations that can motivate people. Each person has a different type of need. Something which motivates one person may not appeal to another person. Examples can include things such as:

Incentives – Being rewarded for what people do.

Fear – This type of motivation involves consequences.

Achievement – Where goals are set to be achieved.

Growth – Type of internal motivation that includes self-improvement.

Power - When there’s independency and freedom involved or the desire to control others around you is involved.

Social - Where someone wants to belong or be accepted into a peer group.

These are just a few examples of different types of motivation. There are many more such as money and other alternatives that businesses would use to motivate its employees.  This will be discussed in future posts.

(http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/6-types-of-motivation-explained.html)

(http://www.unh.edu/connect/motivation)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHACD8iIKz8https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHACD8iIKz8