Article: Tweaking motivation initiatives

Culture

Tweaking motivation initiatives

These featured tweaks will free up a chunk of funds without compromising quality, motivation levels, or the bottom line.
Tweaking motivation initiatives

Margin  and revenue guidance  took a  beating on  quarterly reports across most companies. It's time to have credible Impact without excess dollar spends. 

This feature is a culmination of experience across industries, verticals and  service lines. Let me be clear, spends will  still be made, but in real time tested and some newer unproven initiatives. These featured tweaks will  free up a chunk of funds without compromising quality, motivation levels, or the bottom line. 

Manufacturing: Coming to work: Years ago Karan, an owner of a $20 million steel plant came up with this novel idea to motivate his workers. The factory being out of town had two different means of conveyance. One for performers, and regular bus  for all others. The performers( aka hi pots) got an ac bus to work from a trunk point. This made folks aspire to move to that bus. Far from being  discriminatory, it provided astounding results. Karan had to anyway provision for  such a bus for his key managers. He just tweaked it to  include performance as the gating criteria. 

All companies: The ID card holder: Workers anyway need to be given a tag holder. One of my earlier companies made a party of this with specific Coloured lanyards  for coaches, team leads, trainers and managers and regulars for all the rest. The aspirational effect to wear the colours made a dent of an  impact. The services  have a rank system for years on sleeves and shoulders. It's stood the test of time. It can work everyday. We don't need to put our workforce in press white uniforms, just  tweak it with an attractive badge for each title, we'll have ourselves a huge  differentiator. 

IT: Learning rewards: People love to learn. Why not give this a shot in the arm by providing  specific learning opportunities for an already performing work force. Not just that, displaying that on a hall of fame. It can be as unique as a skydiving lessons, paid for attendance to  national / world conference. There are cplp, disc, NLP, and many other workshops in the training world. I've seen it make a world of difference just tweaking this spend that's got to be made anyway. 

All companies: First day experience: Handing a personalised mug,  surprising with a decorated desk, telling him to leave early, handing out movie passes, or shopping coupons. Will make a  a new employee's day.  It shows trust, belief, and the trust in the firm's has in the new hire. Most organisations get bogged down in paperwork, boring walk throughs. Tweak it! Some even tried gamifying  it. My cousin took her parents to see a movie with passes she received after she joined a world leader in computer software. 

ITeS: Dated jobs in vogue: I recently stayed at a hotel that didn't require me to go to a checkin desk. A QR code received on my smart phone  opened the door to my room. That's one less janitor, guest executive at the desk. Those dollars savings can be used to up the room experience with gaming, tablets or movie packs at a marginal long term cost. You'll be surprised at the savings on time money and effort. Less paper work, leaner team, one less appraisal to do, more time to groom one team member. We have cleaners, house keeping, office boys even today  in leading organisations. Can we reload some tasks on existing staff. I hear a Japanese school has no janitorial staff. It is all managed by students from lunch  services to cleaning. Can we at least try out some tweaking. 

ITeS: Old equipment out: Sir Richard Branson once bought a fleet of new aircraft at the height of a downturn. the aircraft company even got seat back screens thrown in for free! No reason why we can renegotiate with our suppliers. From pc's, flooring, food vendors, everyone gotta to up the ante. The customer's got to have the last laugh. A prominent auto manufacturer has clauses in its contract to ensure each of its parts suppliers gets paid only after the whole product  is sold, not when the part is delivered. This puts pressure on parts suppliers to improve his small part be it a windshield wiper or hub cap every 6-12 months. You'll be surprised what assigning  a super laptop, software or tools does for employee experience. 

Startups: Team building scrapped: companies wonder why people don't work together, bond and mix, why do we have the lunch group, the no talkers group? a movie, resort visit, tons of free flowing booze, entertainment fails miserably as its just excessive fun in an uncontrolled manner. I've seen superb trust, bonding  and working together. All the team did was go to an orphanage together, clean a street together in a locality Or ate a meal along with the Homeless folks. The humility, grounding and looking at Each other work along side does its magic. Tweaking it provides a huge social service. 

Financial services: First day video: we normally  play an emotional video, have a warm party for a colleague leaving. Can we reverse this? Play a 'what's he / she like' video in the first week with the team. Build those bridges with pillars deep. 

All companies: Marshal the team: When a colleague fell ill the whole team made a trip to the hospital and took turns dropping in to a colleague's place. Not just for the team ring leader but for all. This goes a long way in helping. My boss managed to raise funds for me in 4 days when in need  for a surgery. This is no mean feat. Tweak the get together to a whole new level. 

ITeS: Phone/internet pack: being given a phone is a huge step for those who go from enters Level to supervisory roles. Can we amplify this experience by rewarding the employee with internet pack, or minutes for good work. We have enough muscle to negotiate with telecom providers. They are only to eager to do more business. Legal term of usage guidance and to do's can happen on the fly. That's a small blip. 

All in all you're likely to save  15% off each track. Whilst improving the employee experience.  

BPM: Bad shift/or lack of it: I've seen pampered employees. There is no fostered shift for them They come and go as they please. Specially in 'enabling functions'. While the business units slog it out. These employees follow the glorious 9-5 shift. When our customers work  6pm to 3am, and they leave. The Impact on business will be felt sooner or later. The least commitment we can have is each team member takes turn on one late shift at least once  a week in a month. Manager should do one full shift a month at night, team leads every week, practice head once a quarter. 

 

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Topics: Culture

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