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Mojo on Motivation
By Ron | July 31, 2008
Why is the topic of motivation so important to anyone in Human Resources?
If we don’t understand employee motivation, we will be designing the wrong HR programs, benefits and reward systems. If don’t get it, we will also be providing the wrong counsel to our managers.
Most of us learned in Mangement 101 that people are motivated by intrinsic rewards more than the external ones, but many companies provide programs which focus on the extrinisic.
My father taught me more about motivation than any textbook.
He was a teacher, a lowly paid teacher, but he loved what he did. Dad bounded out of bed everyday to get to his job. It wasn’t about the benefits, the pay, the HR policies, the surroundings (he was a drama teacher with the smallest stage you have ever seen), the non-existent bonuses, etc., etc. It was the job.
Most of my time in Human Resources has, therefore, been focused on matching people with the jobs they will love and helping managers shape jobs accordingly. Pay, benefits and other external factors were then secondary to the employee. Yes, I made sure that these externals were competitive and equitable, but I didn’t rely on them to be motivators. The result was that productivity and morale were high and turnover was low.
Topics: HR, Leadership, Management |