Economic news in the UK continues to be broadly positive and much better than in most European countries. Employment continues to break new highs while unemployment is regularly falling. New business start-ups are increasing and businesses are investing again. The major blot on the landscape is that pay is increasing at half the rate of UK inflation and, as a result, many employees are struggling with their finances. Free movement of labour in the EU has to some extent conditioned ‘job hopping’ for more pay in the UK and employers have not been held back by labour shortages in general, although there are growing shortages in an increasing number of skills. Many believe that this situation will continue for some time to come and that inflation-busting pay rises are a thing of the past. This may well be the case as productivity growth in the UK has been quite poor in recent years.
If this is the case, the need to motivate employees will be great if employers want to maintain engagement to seek improved productivity. So what can senior management do? Well the first thing is to create an environment at work which is supportive to employees becoming motivated and management behaviour should make a valuable contribution to creating that environment. Then senior management can adopt and/or develop behaviours which ensure that staff are treated as valued human beings where trust and respect become endemic; provide clear direction so that staff understand where the organisation is going and how it may affect them; ensure staff know what is expected of them and congratulate them on their achievements or support them if performing below par; regular training is a great motivator which not only makes staff feel good, but has a direct impact on improved performance; and continuously seek views from employees on matters that affect them and, wherever possible, adopt change where it can improve employee and organisational performance.
This business environment may also be developed through a range of activities, many of which require little money to be spent such as sporting competitions, suggestion schemes, events to raise money for charities or other good causes recommended by employees.
Maintaining high levels of motivation will always be a challenge especially where there are factors outside the control of management such as a recession or a disaster, but that challenge is an intrinsic part of leadership and management activities. But remember, whatever actions are taken by management to improve motivation, it is the employees’ choice to display motivated behaviour at work so in a way employees are in charge of motivating themselves and in this case management becomes an important facilitator.
Good and effective leadership and management should go a long way towards creating the environment needed to promote strong levels of motivation.
Dr Hugh Billot
HR GO Group of Recruitment Companies
HR GO Recruitment offers solutions to all your staffing needs, temporary and permanent, please call 0845 130 7000
Comments are closed.