Motivating Employees When it comes to human resources and general management of employees, one of the major concerns that employers have always had is making and keeping employees motivated. However, there has been a major shift started in the workplace over the last five to ten years. As the world has become more and more wired and interconnected, the workplace has been shifting as well. Many of the jobs that have previously been done only or at least mostly in offices are now down remotely. Whether it be employees on the road or employees that work from home or other alternate locations, the paradigm of most to all employees working in a singular or small network of locations is fading away in many industries and has been replaced with virtual teams as well as outsourcing of common business tasks to exterior firms, both domestic and international. While there are many obvious and fruitful upsides to this paradigm shift, there are also many challenges involved and one of those challenges is the motivation of employees.

Analysis

As noted in the introduction, there are huge potential upsides to having employees work from home or have them being able to work remotely while on the road. However, there are some challenges as well. One matter is the issue of whether an employee will remain as productive at home as they would if they were in an office and thus subject to direct supervision. Of course, the activity that a user engages in when they use company computers is not all that hard to monitor. However, that is just a fraction of the environment. There could be noisy kids in the house that are distracting the user. The user could be watching television more than they are working. There is also the much higher possibility that company equipment will be misused, lost, stolen or otherwise mishandled. To be sure, there are many productivity gains that can be had from having employees work remotely. However, a lot of productivity can be lost as well. Not all employees are cut out for working from home, just as an easy example. Some employees are not able to remain on task if they are in their home environment, for whatever reason. Some employers have reacted to this in rather harsh ways due to this exact reason, either perceived or actual. Current Yahoo Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer took a lot of heat for effectively ending the practice of allowing employees to work from home. This was exacerbated by the fact that she herself had an in-office nursery for her young child. However, Mayer might not have been wrong. The United States patent office had much the same program in place and found that a lot of their employees were actively fudging the number of hours they actually worked and that the overall oversight of the teleworker program was an abject failure (Novak, 2014). Some may point to the fact that it is a government agency and such organizations are often ineffectual and inept in many ways. Even so, it is at least one example of how employees are not only motivated, they can be effectively stealing wages as they are not working as much as they say they are. Without proof to the contrary, businesses are in a pickle because they have to page the wages if the employee is on the clock and they cannot punish the employee without evidence. Short of using tools or metrics like quotas or other measure, which can be intrusive, it can be hard to strike a balance between being a micromanager and protecting the budget performance of a company as it relates to home workers (Omnia, 2016).

Another major dilemma that employers face is that there are many tasks that are outsourced, either domestically or across the seas, so as to save money. This can create a number of problems including employees being in fear of having their tasks outsourced, grumbling about farming out jobs (especially if it is overseas) and so forth. Examples of jobs that are often outsourced include simple office tasks like easy clerical work (e.g. scanning, data entry, etc.), payroll/human resources processing and administration (e.g. third party payroll providers like Paychex) and customer service. When more and more tasks are leaving the immediate locus of control of the employer, employees (virtual ones in particular) can react in ways that are not positive. Some will be nervous and protective about their job while others will become somewhat hostile, rebellious or they'll just leave for another employer. Cost is an obvious concern when it comes to outsourcing versus not...

The impact and perceptions of the client are important as well. However, it is the employees that do the work day-to-day and having a virtual team that is not productive and cohesive defeats the purpose of having them work remotely in the first place (Gallup, 2007).
When it comes to motivating employees and keeping them as such, there are a few things an employer could and should do so as to keep things running in a fluid and productive way. The first thing is to be careful who is chosen for virtual teams. It is vitally important that there is a person to organization fit in terms of work quality, work habits and work experience. Just as one example, an applicant with stellar prior experience working from home or otherwise remote is a huge asset for that employee to have. Another example is employees that are experienced with working with remote people even if they themselves were working in a regular office when it happened. So many businesses have disparate locations, either within the United States alone or around the world, and anyone that can adjust to and remain productive despite this will most likely be an asset to the company. A third thing to keep in mind is that there needs to be a balance between assuming employees are bilking the company and letting them do whatever they want in fear of them getting angry if they are accused of not being productive. Indeed, neither Theory X or Theory Y, the organizational behavior theory that aligns with the above, is going to be accurate or indicative of reality (MindTools, 2016). Indeed, some people are very attentive to their job and productive whether or not they are actively being monitored. At the same time, giving people too much slack can end up with some people taking advantage of that grace. So long as there are not provable or telltale signs that a person is falling behind, they should generally be left alone. If someone is starting to slip, though, they should be talked in a practical and constructive way. It could be that they are indeed falling behind but it could be because there is a legitimate problem such as corrupted software or malfunctioning hardware. It could also be true that a process is incomplete or simply wrongminded in general. Managers should be visible and present to the virtual employees but they should not be harassing or micromanaging them. The good employees in particular will resent this as they will feel there is no cause for such needling. However, managers need to assert themselves in case there are employees who are somewhat or blatantly milking overtime, not getting work done or something else that is deviant as compared to what should be going on (WSJ, 2016).

Obviously, if someone is approved to work overtime and they get stuff done when they do, that person should be lauded ... not bugged. However, if a similar person is on the clock and getting time and a half and his instant messenger shows him offline or idle for any large amount of time, that is a huge red flag. Monitoring of emails and phone calls can be useful but it is important that the employees know that it is happening. Even though an employer can generally get away with not giving such a warning, it is done to allay concerns about privacy. Even so, employees must be made to understand that the employer can and must control what happens on their systems and that employees will usually not get a pass if they make a big mistake using company property. After all, private phones and email accounts exist for a reason (WSJ, 2016).

Conclusion

In the end, motivating employees is about making it clear to the employees that a symbiotic relationship is desired and expected. While the employee certainly does (and should) benefit from these more flexible work styles, the employer should get a benefit as well. Just like the employee can find greener pastures if they do not like the terms and conditions of their employment, employers can do much the same thing if the increased freedom of working from home is abused or misused.

References

Gallup. (2007). Beware: Your Customers Oppose Outsourcing. Gallup.com. Retrieved 20 March 2016, from http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/28309/beware-your-customers-oppose-outsourcing.aspx

MindTools. (2016). Theory X and Theory Y: Understanding Team Member Motivation. Mindtools.com. Retrieved 20 March 2016, from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_74.htm

Novak, J. (2014). You see?…