Introduction
Management of the employees is one of the key fields in ensuring the profitability of a company. If the management is poor, then the company will suffer in terms of the returns it receives. Companies depend on the income they generate in order to sustain their presence in the market.
The development and profitability of a company are also dependent on its taskforce. The employees are the ones who carry out the daily activities for the company and ensuring that they are satisfied at all times is important.
Managers should therefore ensure that they establish the needs of their employees and make efforts to ensure that these needs are met. Bruce in his book says that “the individual needs as well as the collective needs of the employees are established and efforts are made to take care of them”1.
Employees
Victor Michaels, 26, is a young employee whose interest is working in a vibrant environment. This environment should offer challenges and provide room for advancement in a person’s carrier path. He has just been employed and is categorized as an entry level employee.
He sees employees in other departments rising through the ranks in the organization to become more influential people in their fields. His desire is to be able to advance in the field that he is currently placed.
The fact that it will take him a minimum of two years in the company appears to reduce his enthusiasm in the working environment. His desire to advance in his field is enormous. His view is that this should be initiated by the input he puts daily in his work at the company.
Paul Lambert, 34, is an employee who is always ready to learn. He enjoys getting to know the technological changes that take place in his field. He works in the department of electrical and electronics and mainly focuses on electronics.
This field experiences adverse changes each day as a result of the advancement in technology. Paul’s desire is to be able to understand the new technologies. He therefore would wish to attend workshops that explain these new technologies so that he may cope with them whenever the company changes its system to incorporate these technologies.
Stephen Terry, 30, considers the compensation he gets for his work to be very important. He demands to be paid well for the services he offers.
He is one of the company’s technicians. Sometimes, he works overtime or may be called to perform inspection in case there is an emergency in the company that may require his attention. He would prefer to have incentives for overtime and emergencies in order to feel that the extra work he does for the company is appreciated.
Kelvin Walters, 36, is an employee who always wants to work in his field of study. He has adequate skills in this field and always desires to work exclusively in the field. He considers that by doing this, he will be able to deliver his best for the company.
He also likes working on what’s important. This makes him feel that he is an important part of the organization. Currently, the company tasks him with different kinds of tasks some of which are not in his field. This makes him uncomfortable and reduces his desire to work.
Motivation techniques
The manager should ensure that proper working conditions are accorded to every employee. This is the initial step in motivating Victor. From the theory of understanding what others need, Dayle, Taylor and Arthur claim that “managers can understand their employees’ needs only by listening to them”2.
They also say that the managers should “emphasize high hopes for each employee’s professional growth” (121). The manager should therefore listen to Victor.
Since he wants to be able to advance in his career field, the manager should devise ways in which the entry level will have different stages. This will be coupled by increased incentives when one moves from one level to another. The manager must ensure that proper working conditions are also provided to ensure that the employee is kept happy.
Paul requires some time away from the working environment to be able to undergo training in his field. To ensure that he remains motivated, it is advisable that the manager creates a schedule that gives isolates time for some of the employees to attend workshops and training to further update them on the technologies available in the market.
The manager should ensure that the company organizes workshops to teach the workers. This will ensure that Paul gets the motivation to continue working for the company.
Stephen requires that he is paid enough for the work he does. Pritchard in his book says that “a manager should ensure that additional incentives are given for overtime, emergencies and other calls of duty that may be out of the normal working hours”3.
This will ensure that he is satisfied with the working conditions and the returns he gets from the services he accords the company.
Kelvin does not require additional incentives. He only considers working in his field of study his priority. , Dayle, Taylor and Arthur say that “dissatisfying work conditions can restrict the capacity of workers to perform and their motivation to do so” (115).
The manager should ensure that Kelvin works only in his field. This will ensure that Kelvin is not given tasks that he may not be qualified to perform. By doing so, the manager will ensure that Kelvin has the motivation to give his best in his field.
Conclusion
It is always difficult to apply customized motivational techniques to individual employees. This is because different employees have different desires and satisfying all of them is difficult.
However, it is important to try and apply the technique since it increases the productivity of each employee and ultimately this is beneficial to the company. The number of employees a manager deals with may also act as a barrier to effective man management. The fewer the number of employees managed, the better the results.
Works Cited
Arthur, Bell H, Maureen Taylor and Smith M Dayle. Why Should I? New York: Lexingford Publishing, 2010. Print.
Bruce, Anne. How to Motivate every Employee. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006. Print.
Pritchard, Robert. Managing Motivation. New York: Psychology Press, 2008. Print.
Footnotes
1 Anne Bruce, How to Motivate Every Employee (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006), 122.
2 Bell H. Arthur, et al., Why Should I? (New York: Lexingford Publishing, 2010), 111.
3 Pritchard Robert, Managing Motivation (New York: Psychology Press, 2008), 101.