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motivationretention guides for skilled trades employers

one in a series of three

Retention Guides for Skilled Trades Employers: Motivation

Contents

Aim of the Motivation Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Part 1: Myths and Misconceptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Part 2: The Principles of Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Part 3: Reward and Recognition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Part 4: The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

This retention guide has been created through a collaborative effort of skilled trade employers and stakeholders — community members that lead

and drive the Skilled Trade Alliance™

Copyright © 2004 Skilled Trades Alliance™ All rights reserved. This booklet may not be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated in whole or part without

prior written approval of the Skilled Trades Alliance™



Contact The Skilled Trades Alliance at 905.529.4160 for information on our other guides and posters to use in your workplace.

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4 5Retention Guides for Skilled Trades Employers: Motivation

Aim Of The Motivation Guide

Today’s employees are expecting employers to challenge them and provide ample opportunities to grow professionally. As a result, a good percentage of these employees in today’s fast-paced society don’t see themselves in the same job two years down the road.

Meeting the demands of this new generation of employees is now at the top of the agenda for small and medium-sized businesses, particularly with a Canadian labour shortage on the horizon. As an employer, you’ll have to motivate employees to stay loyal to your business with more satisfying roles, ongoing training and support, and any rewards and recognition tactics that make you stand out from your competitors.

This guide addresses some of the myths or misconceptions around employee motivation, and principles for understanding the essence of motivational strategies. Any belief that motivating employees is a costly venture for small businesses, may be dispelled in Part 3: Reward and Recognition— a section that shows how employee motivation can sometimes involve little or no cost. At the conclusion of the guide, you’ll be able to better understand how important motivation impacts retention and your bottom line in Part 4: The Bottom Line.


Some employees spend less than half their time at work being genuinely productive. For this reason, motivating employees is extremely important to anyone who manages or supervises, and despite good intentions, honest efforts could be misguided — especially among newer business owners. Before you investigate what you can do to support the motivation of your employees, it’s important first to clear up these common myths:

Myth 1“I can motivate people”People can only motivate themselves. You can’t motivate people anymore than you can empower them. Employees have to motivate and empower themselves, and they best do this in an environment that offers flexibility and responsibility. The key here is helping to set up the right environment for each of your employees — part of this equation is understanding your employees soft skills (A skills audit can be found in the Skilled Trades Alliance Recruitment Guide).

Myth 2“Money is the best motivator”Certain things like money, a nice work area and job security can help people from becoming less motivated, but they usually don’t help people to become more motivated over the long term. Individualize each of your employees if possible and understand the motivations of each. Research like the Industry-Education Council’s 2001 Apprentice Retention Study have shown that apprentices do not place money as their top motivator — in fact, money ranks behind simple strategies like teamwork, liking co-workers and employer respect to name a few.

Myth 3“Fear is a good motivator”Fear is a good motivator — if you’re seeking short-term, immediate (but sometimes unpredictable) results. Over the long-term, any fear tactics will lose value and encourage resentment — and this can be shown through increasingly bad work habits or disrespect for you, co-workers or the business. Fear tactics are an outdated approach to dealing with employees.

Myth 4“I know what motivates me, so I know what motivates my employees”As pointed out earlier, people are motivated by different things. An employee may be greatly motivated by earning time away from my job to spend more time my family. Another employee might be motivated much more by recognition of a job well done. Place emphasis on understanding what motivates each of your employees.

Myth 5“Increased job satisfaction means increased job performance”Research shows this isn’t necessarily true at all. Increased job satisfaction does not necessarily mean increased

job performance. If the goals of the organization are not aligned with the goals of employees, then employees aren’t effectively working toward the mission of the organization.

Myth 6“It seems that unless I know my employees, I can’t motivate — it’s a science”By understanding the very basic principles of motivation will go a long way toward supporting your employees to motivate themselves, and increased performance in their jobs. Trial and error applies here — employees will rise to the motivator.

Myth 7“Motivating means I always have to recognize success”Surprising employees with rewards and recognition will pay off in the long term. As is the case in the gamblers fallacy. Why does a gambler continue to feed the one-arm bandit even when they are not rewarded each time? Because the

gambler knows that the eventual payoff could be huge. The gambler is just not sure when…

(McNamera 1999)

Part 1: Myths And Misconceptions

Surprising employees with rewards and recognition will pay off in the long term.


The application of motivation in a workplace is diffi cult because individual motivational ‘triggers’ vary between employees. We know motivation is based on giving employees an appropriate combination of rewards and recognition that respond to different levels of needs. The most frequently recognized motivational hierarchy of understanding is Maslow’s — a theory that suggest humans have fi ve progressive levels of needs, as illustrated on the chart to the right.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:

Self-Actualization Needsrealizing potential, job satisfaction,

satisfying all other needs, etc.

Esteem Needsbeing recognized, self-respect from work accomplishments, reward, etc.

Social Needs teamwork, workforce integration, workplace events/functions, etc.

Safety and Security Needs job security, safe work practices,

safe workplace, etc.

Physiological Needsessential survival needs

Part 2: The Principles Of Motivation

My Workforce Needs Sample Motivational Tactics My Current Motivators Motivators I Could Have

Physiological • Competitive salary• Competitive benefi ts

Safety and Security • Safety training upgrades• Job promotions

Social • Workplace social functions• Opportunities to help others

Esteem • Reward or point system• Company-wide recognition

Self-Actualization • Hands-off delegation and trust• Increased involvement in business holdings

Employees will organize their own priority levels in relation to the rewards they get from their workplace. They will also be different — what motivates one employee may be of little or no interest to another. Within a skilled trade work environment, safety, social and self-actualization needs are usually of utmost importance to journeypeople and apprentices.

Pulse points: Do you have specific motivational tactics that solve the Hierarchy of Needs? Use the chart

below to list what motivators you implement within your business to improve employee motivation.

Any identified motivators will then need to be further adjusted to ensure they meet most individual needs, not just the needs of a select group within your workforce. Some successful employers have put together remuneration packages that allow employees to pick and choose their benefits package.

(CARS Network, 2000-02-03)


Motivating Employees Starts with Motivating YourselfIf you’re very stressed out, odds are it will affect your employees too. If you’re enthusiastic about your job, it’s much easier for others to be too. Also, if you’re doing a good job of taking care of yourself and your own job, you’ll have much clearer perspective on how your employees are doing in theirs.

A great place to start learning about motivation is to start understanding your own motivations. So what motivates you? Below are factors you may recognize:

• Steady, secure employment• Knowing I will be held

responsible for my performance• Good physical working conditions• Up-to-date technology and

resources• Getting along well with employees• Opportunities to turn out

quality work• Getting a performance rating from employees• Opportunity to do creative and challenging work• Time for community activities

• Knowing what is going on in my business• My company’s interest and

concern for community problems• Formal and informal company

wide communication • Socializing with employees• Respect for me from my

employees• Good pay • Freedom on the job• Confident with delegation

• Success with business objectives• Positive staff meetings • Minimal amounts of pressure• Consistency • Prestige• Time/access to learning programs• Retirement plans

How is your company configured to support your own motivations? What can you do to better motivate yourself ? What is your Emotional Intelligence?

Always work to align goals of the organization with goals of employeesEmployees can love their work and work very hard. But, if the results of their work don’t contribute to

the goals of your company, then your company is not any better off than if your employees were unmotivated. The emphasis is that employers need to identify what they want from their employees. Employees will not be motivated if they do not know what is expected

of them. Identifying the goals that directly benefit your business will support the motivation of your employees and provides them the same chance at success, by aligning their identified goals with the goals of the business.

Employees will not be motivated if they do not know what is expected of them.

What isEmotional Intelligence (EI)?• Knowing your emotions

• Managing those emotions

• Motivating yourself

• Recognizing emotions in your employees

• Handling those emotions and

relationships

Why Do I Need to Know This?A major determining infl uence on

success in life and business appears to

be the quality of your emotional, versus

intellectual, responses. The higher the level

of your business and your authority over

it, the greater the impact your emotional

intelligence will have on outstanding

performance and on the bottom line of

your business.

EI is made up of fi ve personal characteristics1. Self-Awareness: self-confi dence, self

assessment, ability to laugh at yourself

2. Self Regulation: trustworthiness

and integrity, open to change, refl ection

and thoughtfulness

3. Motivation: strong drive to achieve,

optimism — even during setbacks,

commitment to work and responsibilities

4. Empathy: create a positive work

environment, cross-cultural sensitivity,

client/customer service

5. Managing Relationships With

Others: persuasiveness, building and

leading teams, ability to lead change

How?To develop your motivational EI, you must

learn to break old behavioural habits

and build new ones. For motivation

development consider the following:

• Create situations that leverage your

talents and play to your strengths

• Recognize a job well done and celebrate

personal accomplishments

• Be clear about the results you want to

achieve and track progress

• Raise your own personal

performance bar

• Look for ways to learn and grow from

life’s situations

(The Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations)


Key to supporting the motivation of your employees is understanding what motivates each of themHow do you determine what motivates your team? Find this out by asking them, listening to them and observing them. As a basis, employees:

• Need an awareness of the possibilities for them at work and the freedom to choose;

• Need to feel they have responsibility and the power to influence;

• Have their own priorities in relation to the rewards they get from work;

• Need the chance to achieve ambitions as a major motivation

Recognize that supporting employee motivation is a processOne of your ongoing tasks as an employer will be to monitor process and sustain an environment where each employee can strongly motivate themselves. If you look at sustaining employee motivation as an ongoing process, then you’ll be much more fulfilled and motivated yourself.

Support employee motivation by using organizational systems The very nature of relationships between employers and employees can change quickly. Don’t just count

on cultivating strong interpersonal relationships with employees to help motivate them. Instead, use reliable and comprehensive systems in the workplace to help motivate employees. Consider your current motivators and those you could instill in your workforce (outlined earlier) and work to establish those systems to support employee motivation. Establishing various systems and structures helps ensure clear understanding and equitable treatment of employees.

(McNamera 1999)

Now that you’re psyched about the possibility of having a revitalized and determined workforce, this section will provide a few actual programs or tactics that you can work on implementing, keeping in mind cost and time investments. To proportion this appropriately, each program or tactic will have a rating scale out of five in dollars and clocks, providing a sense of your investment required.

Thinking Like an OwnerLet’s start off with a tough one. Getting your people to think like you can be difficult. After all, if they really thought like you, they wouldn’t be working for you — they’d be starting their own businesses. Set clear performance expectations — if possible, provide competitive apprentice pay rates and link pay to job performance for your journeypeople. Regardless, involve all your employees in decision-making, strategy, cost-cutting and so on so they can have a real connection between their work and reward. Also consider rewards or recognition for exceeding any specific targets.

Motivational Need Addressed: Self-Actualization. Simple ownership strategies include:

• Bonuses linked to company profits — promotes teamwork

• Flex-work opportunities — reduces external stresses on employees

• Promote almost exclusively from within your own workforce

• Monthly strategy planning meetings

• Promotes ownership of ideasand suggestions

Employee SatisfactionEmployees are more motivated when they know that by staying with the company they will have an opportunity to grow. When business is slow, employees can feel redundant. Many apprentices feel they are not being fully utilized. It is important to employees that they feel as though they are fully using their valued skills and abilities on their job. If they are not, they will quickly lose interest in their work and you’ll risk losing talented employees. To fully utilize the skills of employees, ask them what else they would like to do and provide them with opportunities to use these skills. Four of the more common employee satisfaction principles are “It doesn’t feel good around here”, “They

Part 3: Reward And Recognition

If you look at sustaining employee motivation as an ongoing process, then you’ll be much more fulfilled and motivated yourself.


1. How many employees will be positively reinforced by this program?

2. How many will feel as though they are being punished by it?

Reward systems are constantly adapting and changing to reinforce new skills as workplaces innovate and adapt to competition.

Motivational Needs Addressed: Social, Esteem. Simple reward strategies include:

• A simple thank-you goes a long way — don’t underestimate the impact of positive enforcement

• Recognition and team building events — company retreats, social gatherings, etc.

• Creative financial incentives — skill based pay increases, annual incentives, performance-based lump-sum increases, goal-sharing incentives for teams that increase productivity, and cash-equivalent recognition measures

• Analyze your current work and reward systems and how they support the mission of your business. Adjust reward systems that support, and reward, your business goals

A simple thank-you goes a long way — don’t underestimate the impact of positive enforcement

wouldn’t miss me if I were gone”, “I don’t get the support I need to get my job done”, and “There’s no opportunity for advancement”.

Motivational Need Addressed: Esteem, Self-Actualization. Simple satisfaction strategies include:

• Identifying which employees have the capacity to learn new skills

• Ask them what you could do to make their jobs more rewarding

• Increase the variety of tasks to stimulate work

• Swap roles — create diversity and an appreciation for other job functions

Employee Reward ProgramsOne of the easiest reward programs to set-up is one that recognizes an employee as an individual. Perceived as a reward of good faith by an employer towards one of his/her employees, focusing on one individual over a course of time contradicts the overall effectiveness for the whole of a workforce. The arguable problem with recognition of this type is that one person’s success creates another person’s failure, and if the award is truly desirable, it creates destructive internal competition. The principle here is, before starting a reward program, ask yourself two questions:

Laughing With, Not At, RetentionSome skilled trades businesses confront

uncertainty on a regular basis, whether

it’s infl uenced throughout the industry or

within its own local economy. Employees

can begin to feel that the rules keep

changing in terms of what they’re

supposed to do, how they’re supposed to

do it, and whether they should do it at all.

And since not everyone will have little or no

control over the making of these rules, the

result is often a sense of powerlessness

that translates into increased stress,

decreased wellness, demoralization,

absenteeism, and lower productivity, all of

which affect rates of employee retention.

So, what is one little, but powerful way

to keep up spirits, continue to work

effectively, and maintain health and

sanity in times of uncertainty or stress?

How about humour? Laugh in replace of

despair, cynicism, bitterness, or negativity.

Because laughter is a ‘feel good’ motivator,

it is diffi cult to structure job interactions

and professional relationships around it.

So any benefi ts of laughter need to be

more tangible and focused on addressing

positive morale, a major factor contributing

to the retention of valued employees.

So take the time and energy to share

humour. And remember, humor is a coping

mechanism to aid in employee retention,

not a cure-all for all other problems

affecting your business.

(Granirer, D)


Employee SuggestionProgramsThese programs take many forms, but all have the general premise of rewarding employees for their innovative and creative ways to improving matters of business or relationships within the workplace. A carefully constructed employee suggestion program requires your commitment to ongoing communication that will positively impact your bottom line and your employee motivation and enthusiasm. An undefined employee suggestion program can turn people

off and generate ill will, cynicism and misunderstanding.

Motivational Needs Addressed: Social, Esteem, Self-Actualization. Simple suggestion strategies include:

• Brainstorming sessions/meetings — have employees submit ideas consistently

• Designate a ‘suggestion review team’ to see changes through

• Set guidelines — make sure suggestions answer what, where, why and how

• Recognize, reward and provide feedback for suggestions that benefit your business

Invest right from the start — hire the right people for a culture that nurtures positive attitudes and cooperation

Training and DevelopmentTraining can be initiated for a variety of reasons within a trade environment. Some of the more common reasons are to improve employee performance, professional development, preparation for a new performance management system, or to train for a specific change in technology.

Benefi ts of training programs include:

• Increased job satisfaction and morale among employees

• Increased employee motivation• Increased effi ciencies in processes,

resulting in fi nancial gain• Increased capacity to adopt new

technologies and methods• Increased innovation in strategies

and products• Reduced employee turnover.

Motivational Needs Addressed: Safetyand Security Needs, Self-Actualization.Simple training strategies include:

• Provide clear, concise instruction that lets employees understand what skills they need to perform successfully

• Coaching helps build skillsand confidence

• Make training programs available — and accessible — to all

• Monitor change in business and industry. Adapt before competition does

TeamworkTeambuilding exercises can get a bad name if the concept is not supported sufficiently. Teambuilding can have negative consequences if a team becomes out of touch with the rest of the organization, causing a disconnect from standard work practice. What may be perceived as fun exercises and simulations may not create sustainable change inside organizations.

Motivational Needs Addressed: Social Needs. Simple teamwork strategies include:

• Invest right from the start — hire the right people for a culture that nurtures positive attitudes and cooperation

Does Anybody Read These Suggestions?Successful suggestion programs all have one thing in common: quick, thoughtful

responses. Suggestions should be acknowledged within 24 hours. According to

the National Association of Suggestion Systems (NASS), employee suggestion

programs have saved organizations more than $2 billion. Additionally NASS

reports that the adoption rate of employee suggestions is 37%, reflecting that

“ ... employees are submitting very high-quality suggestions that can impact major

bottom-line efficiencies”.


A successfully motivated workforce will show an increase in productivity and retaining these employees will positively impact your bottom line. Low-employee turnover allows small business to focus more on revenues and productivity.

The costs associated with turnover may include lost customers, lost business, damaged morale, and then the hard costs of time spent in screening, verifying credentials, references, interviewing, hiring and training the new employee just to get back to where you started. This expenditure of time and money does nothing for your competitive edge. Using basic motivational strategies outlined in this booklet is a good starting point to creating a high-retention culture or a reduction in employee turnover.

Employee retention and talent management is integral to sustaining leadership and growth in the trades. Attracting, hiring, motivating and retaining high-caliber employees in today’s weakened labor market challenges business owners like you to manage your talent equally well as your product or service.

• Be a role model — interact with employees and teams

• Go with work units or teams that perform well together

Health and Safety — with an employee and customer focusEmployees can feel rushed or pressured to meet deadlines or product launches. This may place the employee in a dangerous predicament, possibly taking shortcuts regarding health or safety to get the job done quicker. If the employee isn’t knowledgeable about the risks involved or rewarded for these pursuits, resentfulness will be the result. Your product may also slip by quality control and negatively affect the end consumer.

Safety Programs often produce a flurry of activities — there is a high degree of participation by most employees. How do you sustain interest in a program? Without continued interest, employee response will gradually taper off, and after six months motivation will suffer.

To maintain interest, you should direct and control health and safety activities so that the employees will benefit directly. Interest will be aroused by safety initiatives that

appeal to them personally. Not everyone will perceive health and safety in the same manner. Activities that encompass several motivating factors will gain more overall participation. The key motivating factors are: Self-Preservation: Fear of personal injury; Personal Or Material Gain: Desire for reward; Loyalty:Desire to cooperate; Responsibility:Recognition of obligations; Pride:Self-satisfaction and desire for praise; Conformity: Fear of being different; Rivalry: Desire to compete; Leadership: Desire to be outstanding; Logic: Special ability to reason, Humanity: Desire to help others.

When you participate in a health and safety program, it communicates to all employees that health and safety is a company effort. Employees in turn must be motivated to reach the health and safety goals established by you — and be rewarded for doing so.

Motivational Needs Addressed: Social Needs. Simple health and safety strategies include:

• Annual health and wellness month

• Access to fitness programs or family activity outings

• Loss-time tracking and rewards

Using basic motivational strategies outlined in this booklet is a good starting point to creating a high-retention culture or a reduction in employee turnover.

Part Four: The Bottom Line — The Impact Of Motivation


department suggested an alternate supplier who could provide recycled paper at an estimated savings of $500,000 per year. The organization provided the employee with a cheque for $3,000, and corporate recognition. The community also appreciated their environmentally conscious neighbour.

(Turner Ph.D, F)

As you can see, your employees may have untapped potential that when motivated, not only improve personal performance, productivity and safety, but also add to your bottom line.

Consider this for your bottom line:

• Business studies have shown that companies that enhance employee satisfaction by 20% can improve financial performance by more than 42%.

• An employee once suggested repairing a leak in a cooling system. The system had leaked for years without anyone thinking much about it. One day the

employee submitted a repair proposal that resulted in an annual cost savings of $200,000.

• A manufacturing plant credits employee participation with keeping the plant open. They have had no layoffs since 1994 and have a turnover rate of only 1.6%. In one year, the plant doubled in size growing the workforce from 70 to 187 employees. In 1999, employees generated an average of 8.5 suggestions each, saving $741,761 in one year. The

management team encouraged and rewarded innovation.

• An employee suggestion led to the recycling of approximately 280,000 pounds of methanol during the production of an intermediate product. This saved approximately $31,000 per year in methanol costs and an estimated $40,000 per year in sewer bills.

• A manufacturer solicited employee suggestions to address worker strain problems. The organization was able to reduce back injuries by 40 percent within one year.

• A boat manufacturer usedpaper in their laminationdepartment to prevent buildupof fiberglass on the floor.Before each shift the floor wascovered with paper, then thepaper would be discarded at theend of the shift. An employeein the materials management

...your employees may have untapped potential that when motivated, not only improve personal performance, productivity and safety, but also add to your bottom line.


ReferencesMcNamara, C. 1999. Basics About Employee Motivation (Including Steps You Can Take), The Management Assistance Program for Nonprofits, http://www.mapnp.org/library/guiding/motivate/basics.htm

CARS Network, 2000, 2002, 2003. 2.2 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in Applied Human Relations Techniques (WMC 7.0), CARS Network 2000, 2002, 2003

The Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, http://www.eiconsortium.org/

Granier, D, “Fun and the Bottom Line: Using Humor to Retain Employees”, About.com, http://humanre-sources.about.com/od/employeeretention/l/aahumor_retain.htm

Turner Ph.D, F, “Employee Suggestions Contribute to the Bottom Line”, The CEO Refresher, http://www.

refresher.com/!suggestion3.html

For additional resources to help you with retention, please refer to the Skilled Trades Alliance’s Guides on Teamwork and Performance for some more tools to help integrate, and retain, your employee(s).

For additional information about this booklet or other matters of recruitment and retention in skilled trades, contact:

The Skilled Trades Alliance75 Hunter Street West, 2nd FloorHamilton, ON L8P 1P9Phone: 905.529.4160Fax: 905.529.5525

[email protected]

75 Hunter Street West, 2nd Floor, Hamilton, ON, L8P 1P9Phone: 905.529.4160 • Fax: 905.529.5525

www.skilledtrades.ca

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