Human Motivation in the Workplace: A Case Study

Introduction: Employee Background and Organizational Context

A recently hired customer service representative — referred to here as the employee — has begun working at Cancer Call Center, a national call center for one of the nation's foremost specialized cancer organizations. One of Cancer Call Center's key selling points is that it is highly supportive of cancer survivors, actively seeking to staff its call center with survivors wherever possible and providing them with exceptional health insurance benefits. The employee is a ten-year breast cancer survivor, and Cancer Call Center's positive attitude toward cancer survivors was one of the primary reasons she sought employment there. However, she is one of the few cancer survivors working in the organization's actual call center, which is predominantly staffed by young, recent college graduates.

The employee differs from her coworkers in several other ways as well. She is in her mid-forties — approximately twenty years older than the majority of her colleagues. She has recently returned to the workforce after twelve years as a stay-at-home mother. Prior to that decision, she had worked as a supervisor at a similar call center, but she was unable to obtain a supervisor-level position at Cancer Call Center due to the gap in her résumé. Although she is not experiencing any difficulty learning the material presented in training, she does not appear to be socializing with the rest of her training class. Because Cancer Call Center has previously observed its highest turnover rate among capable employees who fail to integrate socially in the work environment, its primary concern is motivating employees like her so that they can thrive in the workplace.

Cancer Call Center's Training Program and Its Goals

Cancer Call Center's extensive training program serves multiple purposes. The first is to familiarize new employees with the various databases and computer applications used on the job. The second is to equip employees with the skills needed to handle cancer-related calls, which are often highly emotional and sometimes volatile. The third purpose, however, is to foster a sense of camaraderie among each new training class, which has helped cultivate a notably friendly work environment. This friendliness has contributed to a significantly lower turnover rate than is typical in most customer service call centers.

In addition, the call center maintains a policy of promoting supervisors and managers from within its own call center staff. The organization believes that the friendly atmosphere has produced a management team that is more responsive to individual employee needs — a direct result of those managers having come up through the same environment they now oversee.

Personalized Motivation and Management Alignment

One way that Cancer Call Center's management has become responsive to individual employee needs is through the practice of personalized motivation. Part of the orientation process involves distributing "a survey to employees asking them how they would like to be rewarded and recognized" (Sullivan, 2006). Beyond this basic approach, Cancer Call Center goes further by asking new employees what they enjoyed most in previous jobs, what they enjoyed least, how they prefer to be managed, and why they left their last few positions (Sullivan, 2006). These questions are designed to help managers discover the most effective approach for each individual employee.

The employee responded to these questions by indicating that she most enjoyed having full access to the complete range of solutions at her previous jobs, that she least liked nitpicking evaluations that focused on style over substance, that she prefers a manager who quickly identifies and points out mistakes, and that she left her last job because she had a child. Cancer Call Center was encouraged by her answers, as they appeared to align well with the organization's existing management approach.

For example, all customer service representatives are granted full authority to resolve customer complaints without needing to escalate to a manager for approval. Furthermore, Cancer Call Center uses a two-level approach to call scoring. The first level involves recorded calls and measures how many standard call benchmarks — such as a correct greeting — the representative fulfilled. The second level involves follow-up calls to customers conducted by an independent agency, measuring overall customer satisfaction. In addition, supervisors review performance on a weekly basis, offering both positive and negative feedback to representatives. This structure closely matched the employee's stated preferences, suggesting a strong initial fit between her expectations and the company's culture.

Conclusion

Combining all of the elements of training — personalized motivation surveys, targeted social integration, and direct communication of corporate values — the organization found that the employee reported a greater feeling of belonging, as well as a greater sense of confidence in her future success at Cancer Call Center. The case illustrates how thoughtful application of employee motivation strategies can address the unique challenges faced by nontraditional workers re-entering the workforce, ultimately benefiting both the individual and the organization.

References

Franken, R. E. (2007). Human motivation (6th ed.). Wadsworth.

Mauro, T. (2002, February). Helping organizations build community: A sense of community at work can make all the difference. T&D, 56(2), 52–57.

McNerney, D. (1996, August). Employee motivation: Creating a motivated workforce. HR Focus, 73(8), 1–4.

Sullivan, J. (2006, March 27). Personalizing motivation: Human resources professionals must accept the responsibility of providing managers with a list of what motivates and frustrates a new or recently transferred employee. Workforce Management, 85(6), 50.