unit 2 (motivation, human resources) Flashcards
motivation
the reason why employees want to work hard and effectively for the business
why do people work?
- money (to pay for necessities and luxuries)
- security (knowing that your job and pay are safe)
- social need (feeling part of a group)
- esteem needs (feeling important, needed)
- job satisfaction
benefits of well-motivated workforce
- high output for worker
- willingness to accept change
- more willing to communicate effectively
- decreased labour turnover
- lower absenteeism
frederick taylor
- an engineer in America who conducted experiments at his steels company on how productivity can be increased
- he believed workers were quite simply motivated by money
benefits of taylor (paying based on output)
-may be more motivated = more productive, increasing efficiency for the business
drawbacks of taylor (paying based on output)
- may not necessarily be motivated by money
-if employers do not provide good working conditions and relationships employees may become demotivated - difficult to measure output in a business
wage
- paid every week
-wages can be payed in (time rate and piece rate)
time rate benefits
- easy to calculate by the company
- employees knows exactly how much they should be paid
time rate drawbacks
- good and bad workers get paid the same amount of money = demotivation of good workers
piece rate benefits
- encourages workers to work faster and produce more
piece rate drawbacks
- workers may focus on making a large amount of products and so rush their work, impacting the quality of the products
salary
- salaries are paid monthly, it is an amount of money of money paid per year and divided and paid in 12 monthly amounts.
salary benefits
- only has to be distrusted once a month so less time consuming for the HR and finance department
- employer has the money in their account for longer than if they were paying wages (weekly) - improves cashflow
salary drawbacks
- workers may prefer to be paid weekly
- no payment for extra-time work = demotivating employees
commission
payment relating to the number of sales made, the more sales an employee makes, the more money they make
commission benefits
motivates employees to sell more products, increasing sales for the business
commission drawbacks
- employees can put pressure on customer to purchase more products in order to get their commission = leading to customer dissatisfaction = damaged brand image
profit sharing
a system where a proportion of the company’s profit is paid out to the employees in addition to their wage/salary
benefits of profit sharing
motivates employees to work hard and reach their objective of profit as they will all receive a share of the profit.
drawbacks of profit sharing
- if a business makes a loss or low profits, then employees will be disappointed
- profit share is usually calculated based on a percentage of your existing salary/ wage which may mean conflict between higher and lower paid employees
fringe benefits
perks that employers give to their employees
-free lunch
-gym membership
-company car
-free accommodation
-discount on businesses products
non-financial methods of motivation
- fringe benefits
- job rotation
- job enrichment
- teamwork
-training - opportunities for promotion
job rotation
involves workers swapping around and doing each specific task for only a limited time then changing around again
job rotation benefits
- more variety of workers (not boring)
- easy to cover absents as employees are skilled for all jobs
job rotation disadvantages
-expensive (staff training)
job enrichment
- involves looking at jobs and adding tasks that require more skill and responsibility
job enrichment advantages
- make employees feel empowered and trusted=motivation
job enrichment disadvantages
-unhappy employee if extra responsibility with no pay
teamwork advantages
-better sense of belonging to the company (motivation)
teamwork disadvantages
employees may clash=arguments and distractions
training advantages
-new skills leads to a sense of achievement=motivation
training disadvantages
-expensive
opportunities for promotion advantages
employees feeling recognised and given more challenging work (Maslow’s self actualisation)