Introduction
As technology penetrates all areas of business operations, companies are gradually replacing tens of workers with single unit systems (Ambrose and Kulik, 1999). However, with a reduction in the number of workers, the motivation levels of the remaining employees go down. This in turn affects their level of output and the quality of work done.
For a company to continue making an impact as a business establishment, it needs to come up with a committed motivational plan, which will ensure that production is not negatively affected by a destruction of the organizational culture and employee de-motivation.
This essay seeks to develop a motivation plan for Woowooo Inc., a small company that produces widgets. The motivation plan that will be developed is aimed at ascertaining job satisfaction among the employees, reducing turnover, increasing productivity and ensuring that the quality of work done is high.
Background
Woowoo Inc. is a manufacturing company that manufactures a commodity, widgets. In a bid to keep the operation costs low, the company maintains a lean workforce of only 50, working across the all the four departments-sales, assembly, technology and administration. Assembly, being at the core of production has the biggest chunk of workers, 35, while the other departments have three workers each.
Because of the increasing demand, the workers in the production department have been forced to work longer hours, with their workload having gone up significantly. This is the primary reason as to why the number of defective products exiting the production chain is going up.
Motivational plan
In order to ensure that the initial high quality of production is reclaimed, a number of things need to be done. First, as the proprietor of the company, it is imperative that I accept that the amount of work being done has gone up significantly and that the current number of employees cannot sustain the desired production levels (Outram and Gilbert, 2003).
Therefore, the main first step of action will be to recruit more workers, particularly in the production department. With the entry of new workers, the next part of the motivation plan is to create a working schedule that will see the workers give the best output throughout the production and marketing process. Currently, the employees work up to 12 hours per day in order to sustain the increased demand for our product.
However, most of them work at their optimum levels of concentration for the first six hours and then slow off for the remaining time. Getting new workers on board will see the number of hours individuals work per day go down, while increasing the quality and quantity of produced widgets.
Another key change that needs to be instituted in the company is the socialization space. As things are currently, employees across the departments rarely meet to socialize. To counter this, monthly parties will be introduced, but they will be dependent on performance. This being an idea that will require some considerable expenditure will start of slow, with the employees sharing pizza and soft drinks.
Later, with more targets being met, the entertainment can be ramped up. These parties will enable the employees know each other at a personal level, something that will help them work more effectively, because they will regard each other as friends, rather than co-working strangers. It is worth noting that this motivation plan does not involve increasing the salaries of existing employees.
This stems from the premise that money is not always the primary motivating factor in the success of a company. Employees need to feel more comfortable and appreciated in order to give their optimum levels of performance.
Motivating employees
On way of motivating all employees in a company is through offering payments that are in tandem with the qualifications of the employees and the amount of work done. Employees will offer more when they do not have to worry of how they are going to make ends meet.
Workers who can clearly tell that what they are paid is not commensurate to their input eventually lose motivation and start putting in the least effort they need to get paid (Mudrack, 1992).
Members of staff also need to feel powerful in order to give their best output. This can be achieved by allowing them to make some decisions regarding their line of work and inviting their suggestions when making critical decisions affecting the administration of the company.
For instance, in Woowoo Inc., individuals from the sales department can be allowed to make independent contact with potential clients, as opposed to having their head tasked with the unilateral role initiate deals.
Of the two methods of employee motivation, offering better payments is bound to achieve more results than giving the employees power. This is because a bigger section of the working population takes up jobs in order to earn livelihoods compared to those who work for personal gratification.
It is only after individuals are convinced that they can pay rent and meet their other needs that they can start focusing on the other rewards they can get from the job.
Motivating minimum-wage service workers
One of the key methods for increasing the motivation of minimum-wage employees is to ensure that the communication channels between them and senior members of staff are kept open (Luthans and Stajkovic, 1999). Employees value being aware of the things happening in the company and letting them in on changes makes them feel appreciated, further increasing their output.
This is in line with McClleland’s Human Motivation Theory, which holds affiliation as one of the three motivators that everybody has (Robbins, 2001). Minimum-wage workers who feel that they have a positive relationship with their bosses, through positive communication, tend to give their best in any takes that they take on.
Recognizing the contribution of employees to the attainment of a company’s objectives is another method that can be effectively used to motivate minimum-wage service workers. A simple certificate can substantially increase a worker’s commitment to the fulfillment of his duties. McClleland’s theory lists achievement as a motivator and by making workers feel like they have attained a major goal makes them desire to do more.
Another way of motivating minimum-wage service workers is through allowing them some freedom in scheduling. Letting the minimum-wage workers design their work schedule will let them set working hours that they are most comfortable with, further making them more productive in their respective departments.
Relevance of the individual worker in today’s organizational context
Organizations run on the principle of meeting particular objectives. These objectives, when attained, are received to be the function of a collective effort (Robbins, 2001). However, when looked from a critical perspective, each individual in the company contributes to the successful achievement of the laid-down goals.
For instance in order for the company Woowoo Inc. to produce enough widgets to meet the market demand, each of its four departments have to ensure that they fulfill their roles well. The administration department has to ensure that all the materials and requirements necessary for production are availed on time and are in the right quantities.
The technology department then ensures that the systems work well before the assembly group starts their work. The sales team then picks up and gets the product in the market for consumers to buy. In this process, the different departments involved in the production and distribution of the product are regarded as singular entities, each comprising a number of workers. Going lower in the chain, we find the individual worker.
In Woowoo Inc. the assembly department has a total of 35 workers. Each of these workers has his/her role in the process and when at work, if one of them does not play his role well, then the output is affected.
This may present in the form of a defective product, or a reduction in the rate at which the widgets are produced. In this regard, the individual worker is the main engine of any institution, even though the contribution of peers, seniors and juniors is required to make the company run.
References
Ambrose, M. L. & Kulik, C. T. (1999). Old Friends, New Faces: Motivation Research in the 1990s. Journal of Management, 25(3), 231-292.
Luthans, F. & Stajkovic, A. D. (1999). Reinforce for performance: The need to go beyond pay and even rewards. Academy of Management Executive, 13(2), 79-57.
Mudrack, P.E. (1992). Work or leisure? The protestant work ethic and participation in an employee fitness program. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 13, 81-88.
Outram, J. & Gilbert, T. (2003). Six key practices to link rewards to long-term financial success. Workspan, 46(1), 32-36.
Robbins, S. P. (2001). Organizational Behavior. New Jersey: Pearson Custom Publishing.