Deck 12: Motivation

Question 1

What actions should be taken in order to increase the morale and motivation level of the clerical staff at the Rutledge Company?
2. What actions can be taken to motivate those employees who are not using the new technology required of their job?
3. What criteria should be used to determine which clerical employees should be retained?
4. Should the firm attempt to solve its motivational problems by conducting further training?

Answer 1

1.It is very difficult for the manager to motivate employees, when they are aware about their services would be required for only 12 more months. In that case, in order to motivate clerical staff, managers can attract them by offering higher monetary incentives. For instance, offering higher wages to employees in comparison of other businesses in the industry. Managers can also motivate their clerical staff by providing them long term commitment such as lifelong accident insurance for each employee which will be continued even after the expiry of the service period.
2.R Company should take the following actions in order to motivate the employees:
• Training: The foremost step taken by the management is to organize a proper employee friendly training program. Training of new software provides employees a reasonable opportunity to understand the benefits of new technology which further helps in boosting morale of employees.
• Incentive: The management of R Company should announce various incentives such as cash prize and discounted coupons for those employees who take initiatives in learning new software.
3.R Company desires to retain its clerical staff until completion of the modernization program. Several employees at clerical post are long term employees who are adapted to the operation of the company since beginning. These are those employees who accomplish only those responsibilities that existed before the introduction of new software. Those employees who are interested in adapting new software are required to retain first. Therefore, categorization of employees on the basis of adaptation of new technology is required to know the accurate estimation of employees needs to be retained.
4.In order to motivate employees to adapt new technology, the Company should not only organize proper training programs, but also provide several financial and non-financial incentives to the employees such as cash prizes, social recognition and discounted coupon. Only training programs are not sufficient in boosting morale of employees. If an employee resists in adapting new technology and not willing to learn new things, then training program does not produce any favorable outcome. On the other hand, if numerous incentives are offered along with the training program, number of employees will attract towards the change.

Question 2

Should the awards banquet be held as scheduled or should it be canceled or postponed?
2. Assuming that Radio, Inc. is bought, what can the firm do to retain desirable employees and to enhance employee motivation and morale?

Answer 2

1.The awards committee is established to promote continuous improvement and reward individuals for excellence performance by organizing quarterly events. These kinds of events plays significant role in motivating employees of the company. As committee is fully prepared for the event that is all necessary arrangement are done, therefore postponing or cancelling the award banquet is not logically sound.
Distribution of awards motivates employees to work better and also helps in solving the problem of retention of employees. After the completion award ceremony, the acquisition formalities can be done easily. Interrupting the awards ceremony may de-motivate employees and would further lead to leak of confidential information.
2.After acquisition of R Inc., the firm in order to retain desirable employees and enhancing their morale can adopt following methods:
1. Unit-based incentive plan: To retain the key employees, the firm should offer individual incentives to each employee. Individual incentive plan helps in identifying the needs of each employee which further help in motivating process and reduce the chances of employee turnover rate.
2. Common goal: In order to boost the morale of existing employees, new firm should formulate objectives or goals of the firm by discussing with the employees. If concern or problems of existing employees remain unheard, the firm will not be able to achieve their targets successfully.
3. Profit Sharing: Majority of the firms offer several type of financial incentives to retain the efficient employees in the firm. Profit sharing is one of the incentives commonly used to inspire employees. Under this, apart from salary, an employee is entitled to specific percentage of profit earned by the company during the year.