Impact of HR on employee motivation
Introduction
Organizations greatly rely on the relationships that exist between their employees and customers. Various human, financial, physical and human resources are employed together to help accomplish the target objectives. Since employees bear the responsibility of ensuring the goals set are achieved, businesses must come up with ways to ensure that employees are enthusiastic and that they remain motivated enough to perform their duties to the best of their capabilities. The importance of employees is also evident in businesses operating in the same industry where they have similar materials, resources, products and services because the employees act as the differentiation factor. In such an environment, an organization can set itself apart by training its employees to perform better and outdo other organizations. the human resource should therefore ensure that the employee needs are satisfied accordingly. Depending on how it is implemented, human resource management can have both a positive and negative impact on how an organization influences employee motivation.
The major goal for human resource management is to increase organizational performance and ensure that objectives are met in the stipulated time frame. There is however insufficient research on the impact that human resource management has on employee motivation. Human resource management refers to practices and policies that are implemented within an organization with the aim to improve organizational performance as well as enhance employee satisfaction with the organization and their overall well-being (Chelniciuc, 2014). There is therefore the need for the management to develop a better understanding of what employees expect from the organization and how best to deliver it. Other than focusing on how to satisfy customer needs and wants, organizations must also identify the employees needs and find a way to satisfy them.
Positive and negative impacts of HR
The best approach to use to better understand employees is through the goal setting theory. The theory is based on the premise that employees consider their goals and that of the organization as the determining factor for how much effort they put into performing tasks and the kind of attitude developed when performing duties (Hadziahmetovic & Ozlen, 2013). When the goals are kept specific, employees tend to be more enthusiastic when performing them and strive to produce the best results. Accomplishing goals also acts as the bar that employees use to gauge their performance and rising above it brings more satisfaction and commitment towards satisfying future goals (Chelniciuc, 2014). The theory further suggests that people have positive attitudes towards their management and the entire organization in general when there is exchange of information and communication channels that allow for constructive feedback.
There are however occurrences where policies and practices dictated by the human resource fail to motivate employees. Organizations often have to balance its needs, the needs of its employees and those from the customers. The challenge arises as a result of people’s shifting needs and preferences (Sarker, 2016). It is therefore crucial to ensure that the employees are involved in the policy making process as this ensures that the decisions reached by the HR are influenced by the contributions given by the employees as well as input from the human resource manager.
One approach that an organization could take to ensure that its human resource has a positive impact on employees is through training. Most organizations regard training as a priority because it is the best way to equip employees with the skills and knowledge, they need to become better at performing duties (Sarker, 2016). It also helps to bridge the gap between employees and top management as it creates an environment where employees from different departments can interact. In order to positively influence employees, the organization should seek to make sure that the employees’ goals are in line with the organizational goals (Hadziahmetovic & Ozlen, 2013). When the organizational goals are in line with those of the employees, satisfying any goal gives the employees a sense of fulfilment and satisfaction. They are therefore more likely to commit to satisfying goals set by the organizations as they are motivated by the fact that it will have a positive impact on their personal goals.
Although training is conducted to improve employee performance, the approach taken by human resource management could have a negative impact on employee performance. An example of this is the case where the training becomes another responsibility for the employee to bear (Bako, 2018). Employees often have a busy workload performing their duties. The introduction of training can be seen as an added responsibility that the employee has to bear. When viewed as an added chore, employees are more likely to become demoralized and this could negatively affect their overall performance.
Human resource can however come up with measures to ensure that employees do not develop positive attitudes towards the training. Informing employees early in advance could help motivate them as thy will have ample time to prepare their schedules such that they work around the new changes introduced (Lackmaker et al, 2015). Another approach would be to use in job training rather than waiting till an employee’s shift is over. Training through in job has a lower chance of adding employee responsibilities because the employees works for the same hours as they would on a normal day (Lackmaker et al, 2015). In job training has an added advantage in that the training is through real life scenarios that occur in the employees’ line of work. It therefore helps employees to achieve their personal goals by making them better at performing their jobs and this can be highly motivational.
Human resource management can also incorporate the use of equity theory to come up with ways to ensure that they positively influence employee. The theory argues that employees have the tendency to develop a mental ledger of their daily activities. The mental ledger is used to weigh the employee contributions to the organization compared to the different ways the organization rewards the employee for their exceptional work (Bach & Edwards, 2012). When the output is more than the reward, employees are likely to develop a negative attitude and become demoralized. Lack of reward communicates to the employee that any extra effort will not be rewarded. Such a working environment discourages employees from exceeding their abilities and only perform their average best (Frederickson & Stazyk, 2018). The lack of motivation could affect performance especially in organizations that rely on employee innovations and ideas. When the rewards are in plenty however, employees are highly motivated and are likely to try and do more than is expected of them (Hadziahmetovic & Ozlen, 2013). Human resource management can therefore rely on rewards to communicate to employees that their effort is noted and appreciated; and also align the organization’s interests with those for the employees.
Motivating employees can help boost performance and should therefore use human resource management to identify internal and external factors that can be manipulated to increase job performance. In order to yield positive results, HR could focus on motivational forces such as employee self-efficacy to help boost employee confidence (Smerek, 2017). The level of confidence that employees possesses when performing their duties greatly influences performance. Confident employees are more likely to be innovative and tend to be better at performing duties at the workplace. Confidence enables employees to seek out better ways to reach the objectives set and in so doing, become innovative and promote organizational development.
The management should however ensure that the approaches used under human resource management do not create a competitive environment. Self-efficacy can create aggressive competition which could discourage teamwork. The innovative approaches that employees take on by themselves could also lead the organization away from the set objectives if left unchecked (Stone, 2017). Management should therefore use HR to ensure that constructive feedback is provided and that employees have guideline to follow even when being innovative.
Motivation can also be achieved through team building activities aimed at improving performance. Often times, employees are restricted to working within their departments and rarely interact with one another. Interaction is therefore limited and this discourages teamwork between departments (Stone, 2017). Through human resource management, department heads can come up with activities that help employees to intermingle and get to know one another. Team building activities also help improve communication as they create an environment ideal for interacting with people from different departments. To management get to interact with junior staff and this makes it easier to exchange ideas even in the workplace.
On the positive side, team building takes employees from their usual routine and allows for interaction on a less formal setting. It also helps to break workplace monotony as employees are exposed to new experiences other than their job requirement. Team building further promotes innovation as it gets people with different opinions together and encourages them to brainstorm on ideas that will be beneficial for both the employees and the organization in general (Aswathappa, 2005). The exposure promotes personal growth and this is highly motivational as employees are assisted in fulfilling their personal goals as a result. Helping employees to achieve their personal goals his motivational as it is seen as a reflection of the organization’s commitment to help its employees become better not just at their jobs but in life.
There is however the risk that team building activities could affect the nature of relationships that exist between employees and the management. The interaction between top management and junior staff could reduce professionalism especially when team building drifts too much from the organizational objectives. In most organizations, the professionalism and respect reserved for top management makes it easier to maintain order (Hadziahmetovic & Ozlen, 2013). When the line between top management and other employees is blurred, the interactions could affect the management structure used. Hierarchies could be broken down as a result and employees may become difficult to manage in the event they lose respect for the top management. It is recommended that organizations find a way to strike a balance between team building and professionalism. Leaders must therefore maintain their influence over employees without affecting the managerial hierarchies used to govern the organization.
Human resource management can also be used as a motivational tool by encouraging teamwork. The environment that an organization operates in is subject to change from time to time. the change is caused by internal factors that the organization may or may not have control over. In order to remain competitive, organizations can structure their human resource policy to foster teamwork within the organization (Smerek, 2017). When working in teams, employees can share ideas on how to approach a specific objective and how to be more innovative. Rather than having an individual or one department assigned to a specific task, HR can create an environment where employees consult with one another regarding some aspects of the business and work together to accomplish the set objectives. When employees work as a team, they are more likely to be motivated especially if the teams have a positive impact on their job performance (Stone, 2017). Difficult tasks are easily undertaken when teamwork is employed because members of the team brainstorm on the various approaches that can be used to resolve the issue. Although not all ideas generated from teams are implemented, exposure to such an environment trains employee to take on different approaches when tasked with a duty and not limit their approach to only what they know.
Teamwork can however demoralize employees especially in cases where some members of the team do not play their part. Since most teams are assessed as a unit and not on the contributions from each member of the team, some employees may neglect their responsibility and force other teammates to bear the burden (Smerek, 2017). Such an environment can have a negative impact on employee morale and some may lose the motivation to perform beyond what is expected of them. Human Resource management policies should strive to ensure that each employee allocated in teams play their part so as to avoid placing others at a disadvantage.
Conclusion
Organizations exist to satisfy their goals and objectives and the responsibility usually falls to the employees. While the sole purpose of employees is to ensure that the organization meets its goals in the given time frame, personal goals are held in the same regard and satisfying them is what motivates employees to keep working. In order to remain operational organizations must find a way to align their interests with those of the employees. This will make the employees feel part of the organization and in so doing, make its interests their own. When employees are part of the organization, any form of progress or growth is seen as a reflection of the employees’ growth. The Human resource department should therefore ensure that employee interests are addressed with the same urgency as organizational interests as this will motivate employees to work towards promoting organizational growth.
References
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