As some of you might know, I am working on my PhD in I/O Psychology and have been for many years. Too many years actually – which is why I think my wife insisted that I attend a five day Dissertation Writers Retreat held by Capella University just outside of Chicago. So for the last five days I’ve been working on Chapter 4 of my dissertation which is the results section. I’ve been having a blast inputting data, crunching numbers, running statistical tests and analyzing the results and what I found out is surprising…at least it was for me.
Tag: Employee Motivation Page 6 of 8
Susan and I just had the wonderful pleasure of spending a day interviewing 11 people at Oak Ridge Hotel & Conference Center to try to uncover their secret – because they have gotten the formula right on employee motivation. Anyone who has ever stepped into their facility outside of Minneapolis can attest to the customer service mentality that every employee exhibits – from the front desk, to housekeeping, to the chefs, groundskeepers, and even in accounting. There is a definite difference in how the majority of these employees “show up” at their job everyday and how they view and take care of their “guests”. They are truly a company that is doing something right. While we haven’t had time to fully analyze the interviews (we will in the upcoming weeks), there are a few things that I can say definitively:
1. Leadership counts – the one overriding conclusion that hit us in the face was how important leadership is in this process – they need to be present, genuine, and focused on the right things.
2. Its not about the money – I was a little surprise to hear (actually to NOT hear) about bonus plans or contests or other recognition that had a big dollar value. It wasn’t important. It didn’t drive their day-to-day activities or play an integral part in their motivation.
3. It is about the team – teamwork was an overriding theme in all of the interviews that we did. It wasn’t ever about “my job” but instead about serving the customer. If that means that top managers have to change sheets, then that is what happens.
4. Genuine recognition rejuvenates – real, honest recognition that is done on a regular basis, in public, helps reinvigorate and help drive the culture. Knowing that their work is important and recognized keeps people engaged.
5. Its about people – employees were seen as people first. Management spent time getting to know them, getting to understand who they were, spending time finding out about their families and interests. They care and it shows.
Over the next few weeks we will let you know more about our findings and get in depth with some analysis. Oak Ridge Hotel & Conference Center has been kind enough to give us access to their people and allow us to share our insights with you. There is something to learn here if you are interested in creating a workforce that is motivated and engaged. Stay tuned!
Kurt
The end of the game
So Amazon is leaving the incentive market which they just entered three years ago. From all reports it isn’t because the venture isn’t profitable, but instead it is about ensuring that their brand and their customer service reputation are not sullied. Paul Hebert in his blog wrote, “the decision was made to drop fulfillment through incentive programs due to customer service issues. Specifically, the recipient, if they had problems with their order, would call Amazon for resolution but Amazon would have to refer them back to the incentive company – who in turn would do the due diligence to fix the problem. From Amazon’s point of view this created a negative impression of their customer service.” In a nutshell, they are taking a hit on millions of $ to make sure there is no negative impact on the billions of $ that they do in their non-incentive business. In my mind, that is a pretty smart move (one that you wouldn’t see a lot of businesses making). Now I’m sure there are other factors (i.e., tax issues, not controlling the customer relationship, etc…). Nothing is ever quite as black and white as it seems.
In the short time that Amazon was in the market, they shook it up. They offered a new way of fulfilling incentive program offerings. With their great number of items, their back end processing and handling, drop ship expertise, and their low price points, Amazon was able to provide even the smallest incentive companies with a very sophisticated e-catalog of incentive goods. No longer did an incentive house need to have the large capital expense of a warehouse and stocking products. Amazon was able to provide the back-end seamlessly for a price that couldn’t be beat.
Playing against Amazon
I was part of a large pitch (as a partner with a traditional incentive house) last fall to a company that loved what we did, trusted our customer service, thought that our creative approach was the best and liked the way we brought behavioral science into the process (i.e., The Lantern Group) – but, ended up going with a different company because they could offer more merchandise at a lower cost point. How did that other company do it – they used Amazon as their fulfillment partner. At that point, I thought I saw the writing on the wall – that the days of making large margins on merchandise were all but over. How could the traditional companies compete, when smaller, more nimble and aggressive firms could come in and under-price while having a larger item selection and great fulfillment services. In the debrief with the company about why we lost the business, the purchasing agent said, “…this is the wave of the future, all [incentive] companies should be doing this.” It was going to be a new world – and I was excited!
Changing the game
For years the pricing model used by incentive companies has been margin based. While there is nothing wrong with this conceptually, it does create an interesting dynamic. Merchandise is the cash cow for these companies. Without this, many of the companies will fail. There is an underlying need to get people “into the warehouse.” When I started my career (many eons ago) I was naive enough to think that when I was hired on at one of these incentive companies that I was going to work for a consulting firm that was trying to find the best way to motivate and engage employees. What I found out was they were all for that – as long as the way to do motivate and engage led through the warehouse (I’m exaggerating a little here for emphasis, but there was an underlying culture of this).
While that culture has shifted slightly over the years, it is still present in the industry. If Amazon was going to be able to undercut prices because of their buying power – then incentive companies were going to be forced to change their model. This would mean finding other ways to make money – which would lead them to finding other ways to increase motivation. The benefit would have been that these companies would have created a larger toolbox with more tools and thus not fall to the old idiom “when you only have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.” This would mean better solutions to motivation problems.
The next competitor
While Amazon might be leaving, they showed that there was a desire in the marketplace for something like this. I don’t think there is another company right now that could fill that role, but that doesn’t mean in the future there couldn’t be. So, with that in mind, it is important to think about the next game. What will this mean for the traditional incentive houses, for the mid or small sized performance improvement firms? Will someone take that bold step to change the game and bring in a different set of plays and players or will they exhale a deep breathe, thankful the other team forfeited, and go back to their old ways of playing? Right now, we’ll just have to wait and see…
Please share your thoughts and rants on this…would love to get a nice dialogue going.
Kurt
If you know someone that might benefit from this article pay it forward and pass it along.
Some days the words just do not come, they do not flow like you would like them to so you sit and wait. Waiting for some of us can be agony as we are used to moving things forward and making things happen.
The cursor continues to blink back at me, taunting me with its steady rhythm daring me to start typing even if I have no clue where to start. I take the challenge and start to type. This is what comes out,
“What motivates you today?”
There is something to be said with keeping it simple.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We would love to hear what motivates you today – leave a comment below.
Susan
If you know someone that might benefit from this article pay it forward and pass it along.
A few weeks ago during the Motivation Webinar, Kurt Nelson reviewed some practical everyday things you can do to increase employee motivation in each of the Four Drives. Regardless if you attended or reviewed the webinar slides, the following tips are good reminders and may spark further ideas for you today on how to increase your employee’s motivation!
Drive to Achieve & Acquire:
- Recognize or provide incentives for your employees in a customized manner (one size does not fit all)
- Ensure recognition is timely and focuses on achievements
- Reward your employees with appropriate and individualized tools, (i.e. a $20 gas card would not be a motivator for someone that telecommutes)
- Make recognition a priority utilizing formal and informal methods – ensure you do this on a regular basis
- Get creative, some of the best recognition is low cost but high in creativity
Creative Resource: 1001 Ways to Reward Employees, Bob Nelson PhD
Drive to Bond & Belong:
- Create and support opportunities for employees to connect on a personal level, i.e. potluck lunches, business book clubs, work softball teams, bowling leagues, etc.
- Develop formal job sharing/rotation where peers learn other jobs on the team
- Understand that there is a human need to connect with others, remember to balance the perspective of employees ‘goofing off’
- Organize a share and tell day, where employees get together and share what they do within the company and how their job fits into the bigger picture
Resource: http://www.thiagi.com
Drive to Comprehend & Challenge:
- Provide challenging work assignments that allow your employees to grow
- Create opportunities for your employees to cross train into other areas of the company that they might be interested in learning
- Share fun/interesting magazines or journals with your employees, highlight interesting articles and then have them pass along to the next person
- Set achievable but realistic stretch goals – have a goal setting meeting with employees
Resource: Work Motivation: History, Theory, Research and Practice by Gary Lathum
Drive to Define & Defend:
- Provide time off /company time for charitable work
- Ensure you have a clear Mission
- Be transparent with information, this will foster an environment of trust and pride
- Actions speak louder than words, have your employees back, believe in them
- Ask for testimonials from customers have them share their experience with your company and then share those with your employees
Resource: Driven HBR Article: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/2543.html
What tips do you have to increase employee motivation in each of the Four Drives? We would love to hear your ideas, leave a comment below.
Susan
If you know someone that might benefit from this article pay it forward and pass it along.
Here are the slides from our webinar
Why do Some People Climb Mountains, While Others Run?
Simple Tips to Help You Increase Employee Motivation
When: March 16, 2010
Time: 11:00 am CST
Duration: 60 minutes
Pre-Registration: Not required
To Attend: Click the URL below on 3/16/10 at 11:00 am CST to join the special presenter’s mode for the meeting.
UPDATED Link: http://proclaim.netbriefings.com/v/?rf=239tj&mid=100062
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In this 60 minute webinar, Kurt Nelson, will share insights from working with motivation for the past 18 years. You will learn practical ideas on what you can do as a manager to overcome motivation challenges, increase productivity, and learn about a cool new tool that has everyone a buzz, the Four Drive Model. The Webinar is FREE and open to the public.
What’s the buzz all about? Join us on 3/16/10 at 11:00 am CST to find out!
To Attend: Please click the URL below on 3/16/10 at 11:00 am CST to join the special presenter’s mode for the meeting. Pre-registration is not required.
UPDATED LINK: http://proclaim.netbriefings.com/v/?rf=239tj&mid=100062
Join us for this look into motivating employees and increasing productivity!
If you know someone that might benefit from this Webinar please share this with them.
Harvard Business Review discusses a study that looked at what really drives employee motivation. While the study is really looking at emotions and what satisfies employees and makes them happy (and not really “motivation” per se), it does reveal some interesting findings. The most important is that employees having a sense of progress is a key driver in this aspect.
.
Of course this ties right into two of the four drives: Acquire & Achieve and Challenge & Comprehend. As employees, we need to feel like we are Achieving something – i.e., making progress. When we feel we are stuck or not moving forward, we are not satisfying our drive to Achieve. We also are motivated to be challenged – but we need to see progress in this arena in order to stay motivated by it.
While the study shed light on how progress motivates, it did not dig in deep to how this works. For instance the HBR study did not explore what type of progress was greater motivator — progress on everyday simple tasks or those tasks that are challenging. I would theorize that progress on the challenging goals has a higher impact. Nor did it look at the effect of proximity to the end goal. In other words, is it more motivating to achieve progress towards a goal at the very beginning or closer to the end (e.g., example of getting the first 1,000 miles towards your frequent flyer free trip or getting the 24,000 mile (when you need 25,000 to earn the free trip))?
Overall the HBR article brought up some key insights that will help us all in understanding what motivates us. Read the HBR article here
I had a question poised to me in a group that I’m in regarding which is more effective/important, recognition or incentives? It got me to thinking about how we tend to try to simplify things into easily digestible answers (i.e., make the world black and white). It isn’t so simple. In reality, a truly effective motivational program needs to include both. It also needs to include a focus on intrinsic motivators (i.e., the three other aspects of the 4-Drive model: Bonding & Belonging, Challenge & Comprehend, and Define & Defend). When we look at motivation holistically, we have a number of levers that we are able to pull as leaders. The fact of the matter is, there is no one silver bullet. Everyone has a plethora of motivators that drive them everyday.
That being said, it is important to understand what those key motivators are. Asking people is obviously a key component of that, but I’ve found that often what people ask for, isn’t really what motivates them the most. It is important to get beyond the surface to the underlying motivators that people have. For instance, research that I’ve been part of shows that the majority of sales people will ask for cash if given the choice for an incentive reward (roughly 74% of the time), yet, we typically see a larger increase in sales performance for non-cash awards (on average about 15 – 25% better). Because of human nature, we don’t always know what really motivates us or we have been conditioned to respond in a particular manner to these types of questions. The difficulty is being able to identify what those real motivators are.
My belief is that incentive programs have to get more individualistic. That companies need to provide managers with more tools to be able to determine real motivators and set up individual programs for their teams. Of course, this is easier stated than done. The first step however is asking them. The second step is identifying peoples underlying drives. The third aspect is to ask them again after assessing their motivational profile, using probing questions to get at peoples real motivation.
Would love to hear people’s thoughts on this topic. What have you seen in your own business on recognition or incentives? How do you optimize them?
Let us know what you think will be your biggest motivator in 2010?
For me I think it will be the Drive to Achieve. We’ve been working at this motivation thing at The Lantern Group for a number of years but I have a sense that this needs to be the big break out year. I am motivated to see the ideas, the concepts, the results raised up to that next level.
What about you – what’s your motivation for 2010?
