Question

Motivation Tips for Tough Times
With company cutbacks, layoffs, and economic uncertainty weighing heavily on everybody, it is no wonder
some employees are dragging their feet into work. But according to Steven Stein, Toronto-based
psychologist and entrepreneur, there are ways to lift and maintain motivation, even in tough times. In
Make Your Workplace Great: The 7 Keys to an Emotionally Intelligent Organization, he offers these
valuable tips for motivating employees.
What motivates your workers. You may be surprised to discover how small changes, such as
those in job design or reporting systems, can motivate certain people. It might not take much, but the
only way to discover what your employees want, and how they react to change, is to ask them.
Offer ongoing feedback. No time is better than now to open up lines of communication with your
employees, if you have not already. Whether you offer feedback formally or informally, it is important
to let your staff know how they are doing, where they are performing well, and where there is room
for improvement regularly.
Emphasize personal accountability. Self-management can be highly motivating, and if you are
short-staffed, it can make a lot of sense, too. Most people will work much harder for their own sense
of accomplishment than they will because they were told to do something.
Involve everyone in decision making. By involving workers in certain company decisions,
especially those that involve them directly, you are much more likely to get support for your
initiatives. And you may even get some creative input along the way: your front-line staff might have
knowledge about the impact of certain decisions that you may not be aware of.
Be flexible. Time is an important commodity for people today, especially if they are taking on
more work than usual. By giving your employees the opportunity to juggle their time around critical
personal or family events and responsibilities, you will increase their motivation.
Celebrate employee and company success. It is important to stop and recognize successes,
whether individual, team, or organizational. Let everybody see that hard work is recognized and
worth carrying out.
Source: “Great Ideas: Motivation Tips for Tough Times,” PROFIT, 4 June 2009,
www.canadianbusiness.com/entrepreneur/human_resources/article.jsp?content=20090603_115416_7820.
Page 349
q1 . What other suggestions might you add to this list?
q2. If you are employed now (or have been in the past), how has your supervisor motivated you? If
you have never been employed before, how can a supervisor motivate you?
q3. Apply each one of these tips to group work. How might you implement these suggestions so that
group members, including yourself, are motivated to do well in the assigned work?

Answer 1

1. Employee motivation has become an increasingly indispensable component of the commercial or economic success of any business organization or company and the professional growth and success of individual employees as well. Especially considering tough economic times and lower productivity and economic success of the organizations or companies, it is imperative to restrain employee motivation and the employee supervisors and managers play an influential role in this regard or pursuit. Now, aside from some of the suggestions and feedback to improve employee motivation during economic downturns, it can also be suggested that the respective employees in any organization or company need to develop a sense of mutual cohesion and friendliness among each other which can potentially improve group employee productivity and work performance. To enhance mutual understanding among the employees and ensure a friendly and mutually constructive work environment, the employee supervisors or managers or the company or organization management can conduct various organizational events and programs involving all the employees and staff. Furthermore, higher organizational management should increase the accessibility of all the employees and staff to all levels of management to convey their various challenges or concerns. Therefore, the employee supervisors or managers should proactively communicate with the respective employees and staff and adequately address their concerns or problems and motivate them through proper work training, professional assistance, and required professional interactions. This also entails a transparent and open-door policy by the different levels of management so that the employees and staff can access higher management if the circumstances require them to do so to convey their problems or concerns. Direct and proactive support and assistance from the higher-level management in any organization or company can provide a sense of assurance and psychological peace of mind to the employees and staff.

2. Based on personal experience of working in a higher educational institution, it has been seen that the immediate academic supervisor or the head of the concerned academic department has always been proactive in providing periodic regular feedback on performance and suggestion on improving overall classroom teaching on the basis of the present teaching performance of the individual faculty members as reflected by management and student evaluation and feedback. The academic supervisor would have weekly meetings with all the concerned employees and staff and provide necessary feedback and recommendation to the faculty members and additionally would listen to the problems and challenges faced by them and convey them to the higher college management which would be incorporated into employee policies and management decisions. Hence, the academic supervisor or head of the academic department has always been cooperative and supportive to the employees or faculty members mainly through regular interaction and professional communication. The supervisor or head of the department would also occasionally maintain an informal rapport and relationship with the employees and staff to develop a friendly and proactive work environment in order to motivate the employees and ensure high employee productivity and work performance.

3. Maintaining an informal relationship with the employees and staff and providing regular professional feedback and suggestions to them can be implemented in group situations or collective employee activities and responsibilities. In this context, there can be common professional feedback or suggestions that may apply to multiple employees and staff depending on the common workplace challenges and problems faced by multiple employees or staff in any organization or company. This would enable the organization management or employee supervisors or managers to identify the common employee problems and work capabilities thereby encouraging more collective professional collaboration among the respective employees and help improve work performance and productivity of these professional groups as well. Moreover, positive acknowledgment and recognition of good work performance of both individual employees and group can further motivate the group members to cooperate and improve on their respective performance and perform even better. Group performance appreciation by the management or immediate employee supervisors and managers is critical to enhancing group motivation and improving the collective performance of any professional group. Additionally, assisting employees and staff to develop effective time management skills and providing a stable and work-life balance is also critically important for improving individual employee motivation within any professional group setting. It would facilitate the division of work responsibilities among the respective group members and setting appropriate deadlines for the concerned group members to perform the assigned responsibilities and commitments thereby enhancing the overall work performance and productivity of the entire group. In this respect, it is also important to develop mutual cohesion and an informal friendly relationship among the individual employees and staff within any professional group in any business organization or company.