DIFFERENT MOTIVATIONAL TECHNIQUES ADOPTED BY ORGANIZATIONS TO RETAIN EMPLOYEES

Retention management is a highly topical subject and an important dilemma many organizations might face in the future, if not facing it already. We believe that the leader plays a key role in employee retention and retention management. The concept of retention management can both have a narrow, and a broader significance. Both parts of its significance are generally included in this thesis. The background of the thesis presents a few articles that discuss issues that makes it important for the organization, and the leaders, to work hard with retention management. The research is based on the leaders in the service sectors. Following key questions are intended to be answered: What are the consequences between leaders actions and employees retention? Which is the leader’s role when it comes to retaining employees? Purpose statement: The purpose of the thesis is to investigate and analyze how company leaders today can retain their key employees. How can the provision of key human resources develop a long-term relationship that makes top employees stay in the company? The study aims to establish the procedure leaders apply to retain employees. The purpose is to compare the qualitative study, made at the case company, with findings from the thesis theoretical framework.

ABOUT MOTIVATION

Motivation in these organizations at this early stage is driven in part by the experimental atmosphere that prevails. New entrepreneurial leaders often emerge, and there is a feeling that almost anything is possible. However, as these organizations mature, they begin to develop structures and rules. People are no longer free to make up their own ways of doing things. Roles and responsibilities are set. The excitement of newness fades and other motivational patterns emerge. As the context of the organization changes, it becomes imperative for the organization to change. We talk about organizational renewal or rebirth. If organizations do not renew themselves they become ill, and in the private sector, at least, they die.

While the metaphor of the organizational life cycle does not strictly hold true, understanding the history of an organization gives insight into what the organization is. The organization’s raison d’être, the characteristics of its founders, an understanding of its major milestones and organizational changes—all play an important role in shaping the personality of an organization and how it performs.

The second concept of motivation focuses on the role or purpose of the organization: its mission. Every organization has a distinct role or purpose that is manifested in its goals and objectives. In most definitions of the concept of “ organization,” there is an explicit goal orientation. Each organization creates, either implicitly or explicitly, a forward looking direction of what it wants to accomplish, a vision of where it wants to go, or what it wants to be (Allen, 1995). Some organizations are motivated by the opportunity to do good works or to provide services to citizens. Many NGOs are motivated by helping those in need. Other organizations, such as research centers, may be driven by prestige—the desire to be regarded as the best in their field. In the private sector, motivation might mean having a bigger market share. Organizational analysts recognize the important role mission plays in shaping and creating an organization’s personality, and as such consider it an important diagnostic consideration. Analyzing the mission of an organization offers insights into the organization itself.

Culture, the third concept, also provides a window to view organizational motivation. Organizational culture relates to the shared assumptions, values and beliefs held by organizational members These factors are at work, however subliminally, within the organization’s boundaries. The culture of an organization is rarely written

WHY MOTIVATION

How to Motivate and Inspire:
How do you increase the business value of the people who
work for you?

Above all, remember that they are people, each one an important part of your business family-not just a cog in a human machine that goes through certain muscular motions every day with time out for refueling and maintenance.

                  Remember that your staff has heart and brains, feelings and ideas-and is made of the same raw materials as you. Their energies are there to be used for their own good and for yours.

Some ways of harnessing these energies:

1. Seeking and using your employee's own ideas.

2. Keeping employees informed.

3. Expressing personal interest in employees.

4. Instilling pride in work well done.

5. Providing effective supervision

What Makes Employee Leave

Employees do not leave an organization without any significant reason. There are certain circumstances that lead to their leaving the organization. The most

Common reasons can be:

Ø  Job is not what the employee expected to be: Sometimes the job responsibilities don’t come out to be same as expected by the candidates. Unexpected job responsibilities lead to job dissatisfaction.

Ø  Job and person mismatch: A candidate may be fit to do a certain type of job, which matches his personality. If he is given a job, which mismatches his personality, then he won’t be able to perform it well and will try to find out reasons to leave the job.

Ø  No growth opportunities: No or less learning and growth opportunities in the current job will make candidate’s job and career stagnant. Lack of appreciation: If the supervisor does not appreciate the work, the employee feels de-motivated and loses interest in job.

Ø  Lack of trust and support in coworkers, seniors and management: Trust is the most important factor that is required for an individual to stay in the job. Non-supportive coworkers, seniors and management can make office environment unfriendly and difficult to work in.

Can a person ever be motivated by someone else?

Motivation is concerned with getting someone to do something you want or, on an individual basis, wanting to do something for yourself for a particular reason. For many businesses, the most expensive asset they possess is their human resources. These resources are hired for the value that they add to a business - as a result it makes sense to ensure that the business gets the best out of those resources. The question that has exercised managers for many years is how? There are a number of key theories you should know in relation to motivation. The Motivation Mind Map identifies the main ones. Before you look in more detail at these, let's look a little further into the nature of motivation. Imagine yourself as a business manager. You want your staff to do certain things in order to help achieve key business objectives. It might be simple things like being polite and attentive to customers. How do you get them to do this? Herzberg identified a very simple approach, which he termed the 'KITA approach' - politely translated from the American as 'Kick InThe Pants'. Once the employee has done this action then repeating the KITA approach may mean that they also repeat the behavior. But, Herzberg questioned, who was motivated - the manager or the employee? With such an approach, how long term would the behavior be? It may well be that in many business scenarios; the leader or manager is the one motivated, not the employee. This has a significant impact on how we motivate in the workplace. Many businesses would like their staff to internalize the behavior and act and think in the desirable manner each and every time.

Conclusion

Retention is an important concept that has been receiving considerable attention

from academicians, researchers and practicing HR managers. In its essence, Retention comprises important elements such as the need or content, search and choice of strategies, goal-directed behavior, social comparison of rewards reinforcement, and performance-satisfaction. The increasing attention paid towards Retention is justified because of several reasons. Motivated employees come out with new ways of doing jobs. They are quality oriented. They are more productive. Any technology needs motivated employees to adopt it successfully. Several approaches to Retention are available. Early theories are too simplistic in their approach towards Retention. For example, advocates of scientific Management believe that money is the motivating factor. The Human Relations Movement posits that social contacts will motivate workers. Mere knowledge about the theories of Retention will not help manager their subordinates. They need to have certain techniques that help them change the behavior of employees. One such technique is reward. Reward, particularly money, is a motivator according to need-based and process theories of Retention. For the behavioral scientists, however, money is not important as a motivator. Whatever may be the arguments, it can be stated that money can influence some people in certain circumstance. Being an outgrowth of Herzberg’s, two factor theory of Retention, job enrichment is considered to be a powerful motivator. An enriched job has added responsibilities. The makes the job interesting and rewarding. Job enlargement refers to adding a few more task elements horizontally. Task variety helps motivate job holders. Job rotation involves shifting an incumbent from one job to another.