Motivation Extensive Research Strongly Supports

Motivation Extensive research strongly supports the evidence that employee motivational programs can significantly increase the quality and quantity of performance. Motivation can improve a number of different performance problems including those employees who are: unwilling to accept change, distracted and not able to remain focused on their work, not working at their level of potential, and making mistakes without assuming responsibility taking responsibility. Motivational programs can also enhance the abilities of interested and involved workers to further increase productivity and quality.

There are a number of suggested ways to motivate employees, and the challenge is to find the one that will best support the employees' variety of different individual and cultural beliefs and what makes them effective in their work. There are also universal strategies that appear to motivate all individuals, regardless of their different value systems. Ben & Jerry's ice cream company has long been known as one of the best organizations for employment due to employee support.

Ben and Jerry recognized there is an important relationship between compensation and employee self-concept and the corporate mission (Schrag, 2009). Individuals who a company values most are compensated most and a person can determine his or her relative importance to the organizational mission by comparing salary to those in the "higher pay grades." Ben and Jerry stated that the highest paid person was not able to make any more than seven times the salary of the lowest paid person.

In addition, the company has a wide variety of financial and nonfinancial incentive programs including the well-known Ben & Jerry's Joy Gang, which was begun in 1987 as a response to increasing demands on employees. The first Joy Gang activity consisted of pizza and 15-minute massages for those manufacturing employees working 12-hour marathon shifts.

Jerry suggested that employees should make fun an official part of the company mission of "To infuse joy into everything we do." The Joy Grants are cash grants of up to $500.00 to accommodate ideas that bring more joy to a particular department. Joy Events are organized activities usually including food, fun and prizes. Joy Guerilla Tactics are secretive activities that are intended to surprise employees. Increasing number of companies allow their employees to establish their own reward programs.

Ben and Jerry's employee committee reviews co-workers' ideas to make the workplace a better environment and develops employee contests and social events. Inflexible incentive systems that do not recognize individual differences waste thousands of dollars for not working effectively. Knowing personnel well enough to provide them with an appropriate reward is essential. "An effective, structured reward program is planned in advance and operates according to established guidelines" (Gatlin, 1997). In the 1980s and 1990s, financial incentive programs were used often to motivate employees.

In fact, numerous companies continue to relate improved employee morale with compensation. The belief that money is a primary motivator is often the case in corporate culture. In most cases, these programs may result in a short-lived boost of productivity, but if there are any motivational problems as those noted above nothing is resolved. Therefore, organizations find incentive programs, such as Ben & Jerry's, which overcome the disadvantages of this approach.

For example, in an optometrist's practice, the ever-increasing cost of technology, in addition to declining unit revenue from managed care and inflationary concerns, often makes it difficult to increase revenues (Nolan, 2010). It is even more imperative, therefore, to keep employees motivated, productive and able to provide meaningful patient service. According to Nolan (2010), the right incentive program can help with this process. Nolan (2010) reports that a motivated and goal-oriented staff is essential to any optometric practice, since staff / patient interaction accounts for about 70% of the patient's total time in the office.

If the staff is not content, patients will not be treated appropriately and will look for eye-care services someplace else. Also, the cost of finding and training new staff members is much more costly than ongoing training and retaining activities. In addition, staff productivity significantly influences a practice's volume. Nolan (2010) therefore recommends a three-part incentive process: The first is to set annual financial goals for the practice, or else the staff will not be motivated to achieve them.

In the fourth quarter, establish specific goals in attracting new patients and retaining present ones, revenue-per-patient, eye-wear sales and cash receipts. Second is to schedule a staff meeting before the beginning of the fiscal year to cover the budget, goals and projections. People will always support what they help create. Third, implement a financial incentive or bonus that 1) grows practice-collected cash receipts, 2) grows net income or 3) compensates staff to a percent of revenue.

Nolan's practice used this approach and turned his practice into a five-day operation, with revenues increasing from $356,000 in 2003 to $432,000 in 2004. Nolan concludes that all staff incentive programs should be based on overall team performance. Instead of pitting one person or group against another, it is important to recognize the overall accomplishments and importance of all staff members (Nolan, 2010). Opperman (2007) recommends a production-based compensation for associates in a veterinary practice. He says the higher earning potential almost always results in better performance.

By combining a guaranteed base salary with a percentage of production, it's a "win-win" situation: The associate cannot be paid any less than the established base, but is strongly motivated to offer a full-service approach -- bringing in increased income and.