Joe Here Is the Report

¶ … Joe

Here is the report that you requested last week on how to more effectively motivate the employees at XYZ Corporation in Las Vegas, Nevada. I appreciate you giving me this time to compile the information requested. One of the key elements to motivation is understanding those you want to motivate. We needed time to gather information about your employee base before we could put this report together.

We found that embracing and encouraging diversity, as well as setting up attendance and performance bonuses would provide the best motivation factors for your employees at this time. We turned to several research studies to determine the recommendations that are contained in this report.

We want to acknowledge the people who were instrumental in the gathering of information for this report. Sally Brown, your human resources manager was very helpful in providing information about your employees. John Smith, who supervises your assembly line, spent several hours talking with us about things the employees desire as perks for a job well done.

We also want to thank the manufacturing employees who willingly opened up to us during the conducted interviews and helped us formulate a motivation plan tailored to your specific company and your specific needs.

Thank you for entrusting us with this important task. We enjoyed working with your management and employees to put this report together and hope that you will consider us for future examination needs.

EMPLOYEE MOTIVATIONAL PLAN FOR XYZ CORPORATION

This report about motivating employees for XYZ Corporation was commissioned by Joe Hinkley, CEO of XYZ. It was prepared by ABC Research Inc. using the team of Smith, Harlan and Webb.

The report was completed on July 25, 2006.

ABSTRACT

This report contains a literature review regarding the motivation of employees for XYZ Corporation in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was commissioned by the company after revenue began to decline over the past three quarters. The management of XYZ believed the morale and the personal motivation of the employees had begun to decline. This report examines historic efforts to motivate employees in general and then provides specific suggestions that are tailored for the employees of XYZ to motivate their performance.

The research includes an examination of methods being currently used in other companies as well as interviews with XYZ employees on what they believe will motivate them. Overall it has been determined that implementing an attendance and performance incentive program as well as a diversity awareness program will help motivate XYZ employees to improve and maintain a high standard of performance.

INTRODUCTION

XYZ has been in business for 10 years. Until three quarters ago it enjoyed a consistent high standard of performance with its production outranking the local competition on an annual basis. Three quarters ago the production began to fall and management decided to look into what might motivate employees to begin reaching to improve the standard again.

Through the initial meeting with the management team of XYZ it was discovered that two changes have recently taken place. The first change is the fact that the company has begun hiring many more immigrants than it has in the past.

The language barriers and cultural differences may be creating a barrier which can contribute to lowered employee morale and productivity.

The second thing that has happened is the former attendance bonus package was removed. Once this happened the attendance problems began. Attendance issues XYZ Corporation asked ABC Research to discover methods to increase production and motivate the employees.

The method of research used was an interview method. The employees of XYZ were interviewed to determine the cause of reduced motivation and productivity. The choice of interview methods was due to believing the employees would have the best answers for that particular company.

REPORT OF FINDINGS

The findings indicate that several things need to change to motivate the employees. The employees reported not feeling appreciated when the attendance and performance incentive program was removed. It had been in existence for nine years and it motivated the workers to exceed previous production standards and benchmarks as they earned money for increased performance and reduced absences.

Once the program was removed the employees stopped trying as hard. As one employee said "Why work extra hard when working at a medium pace gets you the same pay, If we could earn bonuses for working harder we would do it."

The motivation of employees has always been a point of interest for employers (Nickels).

Experts agree that the motivation of employees need to be goal based. To that end the following list of relevant elements to achieving goals has been compiled using the acronym SMART (Robertson, 2002).

Specific - Every goal must be specific. It is not enough to state, "I want to improve my communication skills." Instead, set a goal such as, "I will learn one new word a day for the next three months." The more specific and detailed a target is, the more you can visualize its outcome.

Motivating - Is the goal important to the person who is responsible for achieving it? If not, they may lose interest, particularly if it is a longer term objective. Once again, this reinforces the concept of involving the employee in the goal setting process.

Achievable -- Goals should have a 75% chance of accomplishment while still challenging the individual to push themselves beyond their existing comfort zone.

Relevant -- Each goal must be relevant to the main objective of the corporation.

Time Bound -- Set a time frame and deadline for each goal. Ensure the deadline is realistic but, at the same time, challenging (Robertson, 2002)."

The second issue for XYZ employees involves diversity. The company has hired many immigrants in the past 12 months and the cultural and language barriers are having a negative impact on production according to the employees interviewed. Diversity is a growing element of business today (Meeting, 2005).

To help change the company needs to implement a diversity awareness program. In this program social events once a month that feature food and music from different nations should be held during an extended companywide lunch period. This will encourage the employees to embrace the differences of others and to find a common ground that they can use to work together with.

A study conducted a decade ago found that employees today are much less loyal than they have been in the past (Pecen, 1996). This may be due to the nationwide downsizing that millions of workers suffered through during the 1970's, and their loyalty shifted from their companies to themselves. Today, motivation has to offer something that is tangible and immediate if the company wants the employees to work hard and stay focused on production.

Business owners across the United States are looking for ways to keep high-quality workers loyal and motivated. On average, American companies lose half of their employees every four years, according to Frederick Reichheld, author of The Loyalty Effect: The Hidden Force Behind Growth, Profits and Lasting Value. U.S. companies also lose half their customers in five years, he adds, which suggests that employee attrition may have a significant impact on customer loyalty.