HOW TO MOTIVATE EMPLOYEES

Chris Byrnes

I recently had a call from a general manager who wanted to talk about some challenges he was facing. He had a profitable radio station, but as we talked more about what was going on at the station it became obvious that a lot of his problems were from a lack of staff motivation.

Simple solutions to motivate employees have always been elusive. I don’t think there are any quick fixes. “Motivational” speakers, films, tapes and the many books that fill the shelves in the business section may be inspirational, but at best they tend to have a short term effect. Often what managers want when they talk about “motivation” is a way to raise the employees’ level of energy, enthusiasm, and work efficiency. Here are some suggestions I passed along and I hope they may be of interest to you as well:

Equity

People want to be treated fairly. They are motivated to secure justice for themselves. But what is perceived to be equitable treatment for one person is often based on comparing his or her situation with another’s. Take for example the person who feels he is working hard and doing a good job. He looks around and sees others who arrive late, leave early and spend too much time making personal calls from the office. Yet they are treated the same and receive the same financial rewards. This can result in the hard working person slacking off and starting to develop the poor work habits of the lazy employee. The tragedy here is that the hard working employee changes his work habits based on his perceived injustice in the work place. Sometimes excessive employee absenteeism, abuse of sick days, and generally annoying tardiness are symptoms of an employee who feels cheated by his employer.

Here are three things you can do to prevent this from happening:

1. Make sure that each employee knows how you feel about his performance. On-going performance feedback is important. If an employee has a distorted view of how he is performing and feels it is better than it really is, it can result in a deterioration of work. You need to be honest and fair in your assessment.

2. Ensure that all compensation and rewards are directly related to actual performance. Any incentive needs to be simple to understand, and easy to execute. I have seen a number of “ratings incentive” programs that are just so complicated that the air talent simply does not understand it, cannot visualize it and therefore, it fails to motivate them to extend their performance. If you talk to a sports coach he will tell you about the importance of the athlete’s ability to visualize crossing the finish line first. Any incentive also needs to be realistic and, ideally, have more than one trigger point. If, for example, you’re only prepared to reward an announcer for a number one position when he is currently at number four, he may view this as an impossible objective.

3. Be aware that equity is relative. Staff talk to each other, and unless you treat them all the same way it can come back to haunt you.

Appropriate Consequences

I always operate from the premise that most employees get up in the morning with the best intentions to work hard and do their best for the company that gives them a paycheque every two weeks. But as employers, how often do you inadvertently punish good work and reward poor work? For example, when there is a lot of production that needs to be voiced, does the person with the best voice and the fastest read get asked to do it all, while the announcer who takes longer to read the spot is not asked to stay late and help? If the best workers learn that good performance results in extra work being dumped on them, and the less talented or mediocre staff are not asked to help, then the outcome is rather predictable.

Here are two suggestions to avoid this:

1. It’s easier to motivate staff if you have an understanding of what they do in a day. It starts with a detailed job description and having good monitoring systems so you can track both good and poor performance. Ideally have some benchmarks against which to compare performance.

2. Do everything possible to only reward good behavior or actions. Make sure that good performance in not penalized.

Expectation of Success

I’ve always found that an employee’s motivation to perform is influenced by his belief that he can actually do the job. A low expectation of success usually results in low motivation.

There are a number of things that can impact this, including:

1. Does this person have the resources to perform the task? If the computer crashes every time the producer loads a large sound file it’s going to be difficult for him to get all the material dubbed in a reasonable timeframe.

2. Does he also have the required training and skills? If not, can you send him on a training course? I am amazed by the number of music directors we come across who have little or no knowledge of how to operate Selector beyond pressing the F10 button to scheduling the day’s music log. Yet ByrnesMedia offers training courses right at your station.

3. Does he have enough time to perform the expected tasks? If he feels he is being rushed or has too much work pushed onto him, this can result in the person becoming ‘de-motivated’ as he knows he is doomed to failure.

4. Does he actually understand what is expected of him? I have seen staff at radio stations that coast because they do not have a clear understanding of what they are expected to do. They develop the ability to look busy all day long, but don’t get anything done. The larger the company, the easier it is for this type of person to hide.

5. Self confidence and self esteem are also important. Often the person who can have the most impact on a individual is his direct boss. Too often, managers are blind to the impact they have, for better or in some cases worse, on their subordinate’s feelings of self-worth. I have always tried to “catch people doing it right.” Too often consultants tell people what they are doing wrong, but fail to give them actionable steps to improve. Hopefully, no one can say that of our consultants.

So what can you do to help your staff?

1. Make it as easy as possible for your staff to actually do their jobs. It’s the person in the big chair that needs to ensure that staff has the skills, resources, and time to perform.

2. Go out of your way to build self confidence in your staff. One sarcastic comment or inappropriate glare can cause an avalanche of low self esteem.

3. Try and be face-to-face with your staff as much as possible. Avoid e-mails, especially if it’s a reprimand. I know of one CEO who can put more hurt and venom into a one line email than any person I have ever met. I’m sure he does not mean to do that, he’s just a busy guy and e-mail seems to be an efficient and fast way to communicate. I’m on the road a lot, but I talk to my staff either via phone or in person as much as possible, as I know sometimes the written word can be misconstrued.

4. Review performance in a consistent and timely manner. Sometimes employers want to avoid performance reviews because it might mean they have to hand out a pay raise.

Expect Recognition

Sometimes it’s not the money that motivates an employee. While recognition or rewards are important, sometimes it’s just as important that the employee feels that if he performs as well, or better than expected, then recognition will be given. A recent study conducted for a large head-hunting company found that having a happy working environment and feeling appreciated for the work they do ranked higher than money among most employees. When asked what ‘de-motivated’ employees the most, the answer was broken promises made by their boss.

So here are a couple traps to avoid:

1. Never promise anything you cannot deliver. Never imply that you can make things happen if it is beyond your control. Promise only what you can give, and then if it’s earned, make sure you deliver. As a PD, it was a great feeling to hand out the ratings bonus cheques the day after ratings came out. I know it changed some people’s lives and I know it was well earned. In a small way I also got to share in their success.

2. Give recognition publicly where possible. Have an employee of the month plaque or recognize great performance at a monthly staff meeting. Handing out a thank-you letter and a restaurant voucher to someone who has performed above and beyond your expectations can both motivate that person to an even better performance and motivate those around him or her.

Conclusion

Motivation is more than giving pep talks and dangling carrots in front of your staff. It is based to a great extent on trust and the relationship between the boss and the employee. This can take time to cultivate and it can be easily destroyed in a few minutes. The boss needs to be consistent and fair in his dealings with staff. If the employees are too afraid to knock on your door, or if you’re never seen in the trenches chatting with the staff or you are always frantically running around and are just too busy to see staff, you have little chance of winning no matter how many carrots you dangle in front of people. There is a direct link between motivation and performance.

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