Managing And Motivating In Business

Managing and motivating. Thousands of employees were interviewed about what they considered to be a great place to work. The answers they gave were different from what the managers expected.

First. As mentioned above, the first ingredient of a good job is challenging, interesting work. This is work that kept the employee busy and involved all day long.

Second. The second ingredient was a feeling of being in the know. A good job was defined as one where the employee felt that he or she was fully informed of what was happening in the company. The employee felt like an insider, like an important part of a larger group.

Third. The third ingredient of a great place to work is a high trust environment. This was defined as a job where a person could feel free to do his or her best and to make mistakes without being criticized or fired. When employees felt free to make mistakes with no punishment or hostility, they enjoyed their work much more, became more creative, and worked more effectively with other people.

Fourth. The fourth ingredient of a great place to work in a good job is a caring boss and friendly coworkers. Often, the human environment was more important than anything else. People like to work in a place where they get along well with everyone. The happier they felt with their work relationships, the better they worked, the lower the level of absenteeism was, and the more productive they were.

Fifth. The fifth ingredient for a good job turned out to be good pay and opportunities for promotion and advancement. To the surprise of many managers, the issue of pay was number five among factors that constituted a good job or a great place to work.

Psychologists have found that a certain pay level is essential for people to feel comfortable with their jobs. But above that level, it does not have much motivational impact. To test this idea, one company doubled the pay of all the workers and then checked to see what happened to their level of productivity. As expected, the workers’ productivity increased dramatically when their income was doubled. But to their surprise, it fell back to normal within one hour.

After that, there was no discernable impact on work performance from the doubling of pay. It\’s only when pay is substandard or below what would normally be expected for such a job that it becomes a demotivating influence. If companies pay too little for any reason, their most talented people, the ones with the most skill and experience, will be the first to leave. If business owners try to save money by underpaying their staff, they will soon end up with only those willing to stay and accept lower pay levels. These are not usually the best people.