Workplace Motivation

Why is motivation in the workplace important

As we all know, workplace motivation will increases the business efficiencies, it's like having a well functioning machine. In fact, if you are having issues with your computer at work and it is causing you to experience some slow down in performing your task, you would call up on IT to get that fixed and you can definitely make the argument that if the organization doesn't fix your computer they will be losing money as your rate of work would be reduced.

Well, the same is true for humans, but the lack of motivation isn't something that is easily perceivable and thus not easily measurable! However, more and more organizations are realizing the importance of the workplace motivation and are taking steps to increases the employee workplace motivation. One could wonder about the motive for doing so, but I suspect that it's more to do with increasing profits, then having an altruistic motive.

Workplace motivation and Job performance

The main reason to actually have self motivation in the workplace is to ensure that the organizational goals are attained, more precisely, for the organization and you to make money! This isn't to say that money as a motivational value, but the lack of it definitely does. Hence, let take some time to review the three elements that are required to have job performance. First, we need to have the capacity to perform, second, we need to have the opportunity to perform and lastly we need to have the willingness to perform. As an employer and an employee, self motivation should focus on these three elements and we need to ensure that we are performing at our best possible in all three of these areas:

Capacity to perform: We need to first be honest when applying for a position within an organization as we need to ensure that we actually have the capacity to perform. It is well understood that we might have some short comings prior to commencing the work, but we need to ensure that we will be well motivated to bridge the gaps in our capacity to perform. This might be done by asking the right questions to the right individuals and/or by taking the time to learn the knowledge that is causing the lack of capacity to perform. If the capacity we are lacking is physical, then we need to be self motivate in getting our fitness to the level required.

Opportunity to perform: This is often viewed by employees as the sole responsibility of their supervisor. However, we can all play a key role in ensuring that we have the opportunity to perform and if we feel, as an employee, that we don't have the opportunity to perform then it is our responsibility to bring this situation up to our supervisor and, preferably, bring a solution along with us.

Willingness to perform: This is totally within the control of the employee, as supervisors, managers and leaders we can help by ensuring that we have an up to standard work environment, but at the end of the day the willingness needs to come from the employee. As supervisors, the only thing we can do is to identify these employees that are capable but not willing and address the situation.

As leaders and employers we need to recognize that hiring the right person for the job will increases their workplace motivation as well as their job satisfaction and will result in a positive outcome for the employee as well as the employer. So, right at the start make sure that when you post the job opening that you are realistic and hire the right person, with the right qualifications and personality to the position. So this means if you are going to over hire, make sure it's not too much out of line, otherwise your success will soon be followed by a problem that you will need to solve!

But, increasing the workplave motivation isn't as simple as not over hiring, there are a multitude of factors to consider. To get a good understanding of what other factors play in human motivation see the Motivation Theories page.

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