A520.4.3_RB_Motivation Beyond Money_Wathen_Sandra

A520.4.3_RB_Motivation Beyond Money_Wathen_Sandra

Sure we like to be paid, but money is not always the most important.   As identified by Andy Mulholland’s (2010) four minute citation in The Three Things We Work For (Money Isn’t One of Them) he mentions that money is not among the three most important things we work for.

Our bosses and our work environment affect our work behaviors and attitudes.  He mentions that good Human Relations (HR) develops a good working attitude, which in turn develops good leadership.  In addition as leaders/managers we are responsible for HR; we need to be the human manager.

One of the areas that Mulholland emphasizes is that the greatest salary does not necessarily equal the greatest job.  Income and job satisfaction are not equal.  He stresses that motivators are not necessarily for the money - in fact, he described the real motivators below:

The three reasons people really work for are these:

·         Give me interesting work

·         Help to expand skill sets

·         Recognize me, to be valued. Value you me for what I can do.

Also, to realize that if someone isn’t happy, you can’t pay them more money to stay – that is not the answer.

Additional areas to foster additional motivators:

One of the things I can do is to conduct a brief survey that reveals job satisfaction and attitudes towards work and the work environment.  I can use the survey to identify areas of concern and to also address the top several concerns immediately and then focus on the remaining (less priority) concerns throughout the remainder of the year.  This will give me an opportunity to get first hand insight of what the workforce attitudes are with respect to the work environment.  In addition, it will also provide me an opportunity to focus on the areas that will have most impact for improving motivation in the workforce.

I can also schedule a meeting with other corporate members within my company to address areas of concern regarding job satisfaction and work attitudes.  I would like to include areas of discussion with respect to how well our company does in the areas: offering interesting work to employees, finding ways for employees to have continuous learning and expansion of their skill sets, and also about recognizing and valuing employees.  I would like to put an action plan together to ensure that this is periodically followed-up with and meeting the purpose of the goals.  This will give me an opportunity to maybe influence top leadership on ideas that can provide the workforce the ability to expand their careers within the company – win/win situation.

I would also develop a method to find sincere and meaningful ways to recognize employees for jobs well done.  This would be for both formal and informal means of recognition.  I plan to send a “kudos” email for the less formal recognition.  For those that deserve formal recognition, I plan to write formal letters of appreciation to be signed by the President of the Company and also be added to our quarterly company newsletter.

I am very hopeful that this will add additional motivators for those that are looking beyond more than just the money.