Retaining and Motivating Employee

Introduction

As stated by Baumeister (2001), motivation is set of actions of a person that

make the individual to move towards a desired objective. Employee retention

and motivation is an important factor for any organization's development and

success. Motivation helps people to work well with a specific goal in target. In

order to improve their productivity, profits and services organizations must

have proper approached and methods to motivate employees. Retaining

talent will help in extra cost of hiring and other concerns arise due to walk out

of employee.

As per Murphy (2009), employee motivation has been a prime importance in

human resource. Motivated employees are expected to be determined,

productive and ready to take challenges. Motivating employees with rewards

and recognition give better results in organization's development.

Motivation and Employee retention

Baumeister (2001) says that it is not sure to have employees with the required

talent and skill-sets will be available during recruitment, organizations should

look into modern methods to preserve and retain employees. He further cites

that Employees must be aware that their actions are effecting companies

work and progress and they have responsibility for the growth of organization.

The management should let employees know that how much they value to the

company by giving them rewards and appreciating their work.

He says there are several motives why employees leave a company.

Generally:

Inadequate pay compared to their work

Lack of growth opportunities

Few or absence of Human Resource Policy

Biased or unjust behavior from superiors

Personal reasons

Better Opportunity in other place or company

As per Lawler, (2010) says that finding out what motivates employees is a

challenge for human resource management. Earlier employees used to stay

with a company for long time and retire from it. In today's world employees

change the company if they do not find security and not properly motivated. In

order to have a competitive advantage, it is very much required to know what

motivates employees. In case companies require only fulfillment and

acquiescence from employees, they do it with payment and other allowances.

Every time other bonuses and rewards are not due to performed work alone;

they are allocated by managers to make sure that the job is done timely and

correctly.

George (2011) states that in today's competitive edge it is important to know

what promotes and encourages employees. It is vital to preserve the talent

and performance of workforce. The human resource management should

create trust and motivated surroundings where employees are more

interested to contribute their knowledge, expertise and like to continue and

foster. Awards, incentive and other perks are considered good motivators.

What people look today is job that is in their interest and skill, challenging,

offers growth opportunities, better work environment and supervisors who

helps and promotes.

Reasons for job dissatisfaction and reasons for job satisfaction and motivation

are different. Based on a recent study conducted on as many as 10,000

employees, it is found that incentives, reward and recognition are the prime

factors for motivations and retention of an employee. In today's workplace

manager's face to face interaction with employees, acknowledgment and

appreciation are major source of motivation. Motivation is key factor in

employees success. According to an article by Society for Human resource

Management major companies are focusing on team leaders and managers

to be good motivators. Additionally companies are focusing on employee

training and development in order to position them for future.

Also it’s been observed that most employees take warnings and memos as

negative feedback and get de. It is required for human resource management

to explain reasons and motivate them to avoid further issues.

It is important to have long term success plan for a company. In order to

achieve this series planning can help that. In situations like increased

uncertainties and turmoil management has to deal with a tough task of

motivating and retaining employees. Managers use different sophisticated

analysis methods to spot employees who have the potential to be promoted.

They also plan out the employee’s course to promotion. Long time retention of

employees gives a company a dependable talent and organizational strength.

The walk out of a skilled and experienced employee is causes a talent and

experience gap. That will be difficult to find replacement of similar

competence.

It is crucial that employee and the company should know what they expect

from each other. The human resource management should take care that

skillful employee should work with the company for a long time. Positive

feedback on a regular basis does more to propel success in an individual than

any other performance related tactic. There are several factors that

emphasize on importance of employee retention. Employee retention will

reduce the hiring cost which may add more expenses to the company's

budget. This includes loss of productivity, recruitment costs, training expenses

and extra salary for new hired employee.

As per Buckingham and Coffman, (1999) in order to retain employees,

superiors must be in touch with employees; measure their talent to take on in

different programs, give upright performance feedback; help developing their

potential; know their weaknesses; motivate and give importance to each

employee’s unique style and abilities. Regular interaction with employees

about their performance is important to increase their confidence and

performance. Positive interaction and exchange of ideas can motivate and

strengthen exceptional work. In order to retain employees several approaches

can be made. Like managers need to set expectation to employees so that

they will have goals to reach out. Employee’s performance can also be

measured against these goals. Setting goals like attendance, punctuality, time

utilization and management satisfaction. The other way is to give employees

the necessary space and tools to complete given tasks. Employees want

proper means to get do the work as per given schedule. When employees

sense that required equipments are readily available to perform the job they

feel job satisfaction. . Moral support from supervisors is equally important.

Employee Retention Program is useful and a systematic approach to make

and promote surroundings that persuades and supports employees to remain

employed. This is achieved by keeping up plans and approaches in such a

way that deals with their diverse needs.

Conclusion

Motivation is key factor in organization's success. In today's workplace it is

required human resource management should demonstrate own motivation

through behavior and attitude. In today's workplace human resource

management should adopt certain approaches like employee engagement,

rewards, and appreciation and future benefits to keep employees motivated.

Identifying and giving out measurable goals with employees give a

transparent and justifiable way to retain employees.

.

Reference

Baumeister, R.F.; (2001),  "Motivation: Research, theory, and applications",

New York: Aston Press

Coffman, (1999), Facts of Organizational Behavior. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Buckingham and Coffman, (1999), Matching individual and organizational needs. Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley

Lawler (2010), "A motivated workplace", San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons,

Inc

Murphy, Jim (2009), Inner Excellence, London, McGraw-Hill

George Lamb (2011), " How to build motivation in today's workplace";

Retrieved from http://www.csmonitor.com

Doyle,(2012). Intrinsic Motivation and the Process of Learning retrieved from

http://www.csmonitor.com