Motivating and Satisfying Employees

Abstract

People are the key resource, not only in the information technology (IT) industry but also in other organizations or businesses. Entrepreneurs and managers are expected to know how to motivate employees effectively. Motivating and rewarding employees is one of the most important and challenging activity that managers undertake. Managers who successfully motivate their employees and associates are rewarded with high performance. It requires an understanding of the forces that motivate the behaviour of individual employees. This is a big challenge for all managers. Following the recent economic crisis in the global economy, Mckinsey Quarterly 1 conducted a survey to identify how companies around the world are motivating and retaining their employees. They found that several companies are cutting back on their financial incentive programmes, but a few have used other ways of inspiring talent. Past studies have shown that, for people with satisfactory salaries, some non-financial motivators are more effective than extra cash for building long-term employee engagement in most sectors. During the economic crisis, the focus of most of the companies was to reduce costs and to balance short- and long-term performance effectively. This provided such companies a great opportunity to reassess the combination of financial and non-financial incentives that could serve them best through and beyond the downturn. The study confirmed that three non-cash motivators—praise from immediate managers, leadership attention (e.g., one-on-one conversations) and a chance to lead projects or task forces—are equally or more effective motivators than the three highest-rated financial incentives: cash bonuses, increased base pay and stock or stock options. The survey’s top three nonfinancial motivators play critical roles in making employees feel that their companies value them, take their well-being seriously and strive to create opportunities for career growth.