Success in the corporate world should no longer be a mystery. Many organizations today, struggle to retain employees. Still many more, have become “personal hell” for most employees. The evidence of this is the fact that, a great majority of employees abuse drugs; are absent from work; or better yet often late for work. Many managers still haven’t been able to interpret all these behaviors.
They are a result of something within the work context. Even those who are highly paid are not exempt from this. Many companies or organizations continue to lose lots of money. Studies have been taken, and many have revealed that many workers are frustrated with their work. They see work as an evil to be avoided, if chance allows. Many times, in our country employees go on strikes or ‘go-slow’.
Many employers haven’t learnt the true impact of these practices. Every time employees go on strike, to demonstrate their job dissatisfactions, thousands are lost. Gone are the days, when viewing employees just as income-earning machines used to work. Today, employees need something more. They need motivation.
Banu Ozkeser in Impact of training on employee motivation in human resources managements noted that, in today’s conditions, long-term success and competitive advantage of the enterprise depend on giving importance to human because many of the resources can be imitated, except for human resources. Therefore; it is important to ensure human resources do their activities voluntarily. In other words, the motivation of individuals to work is an important factor in the success of the enterprise.
Motivation is way for employers to incite collaboration from employees. It is a way of making employees to voluntarily contribute in the productivity and sustainability of the organizations. Managers need to be inspiring. Viewing workers simply as resources won’t work. Modern-day business environment demands a different approach to handling worker. The scary fact is that only 20% of people are really enjoying their work.
If more knew how to build organizations that inspire, we could live in a world in which that statistic was the reverse—a world in which over 80 percent of people loved their jobs. People who love going to work are more productive and more creative. They go home happier and have happier families. They treat their colleagues and clients and customers better. Inspired employees make for stronger companies and stronger economies. – Simon Sinek in Start with Why
There is such a thing as burnout in the workplace. Competition is very fierce, and because of that many employers expect too much from their staff. Not only are working schedules inflexible, but also many undertake overwhelming responsibilities. Whether managers realize this or not it compromises the workers’ sanity. That’s why there are conflicts in the workplaces. That’s why there are all sorts of counterproductive behaviors. All this undermine the productive capacities of employing institutions.
Hart and Cooper in Occupational stress: Toward a more Integrated Framework pointed out that, occupational stress is a growing problem that results in substantial cost to the individual employees and work organizations around the globe. The changing nature of work has placed unprecedented demands on employees, and fuelled concerns about the effects this change is having on the well-being and health of employees and their work organizations.
In many organizations, these changes have also been coupled with rapid technological change, and a strong push for greater efficiency, increased competitiveness, and improved customer service. Conventional wisdom suggests that it is this climate of continual change that is placing many employees under pressure and creating the types of work organizations that will produce high levels of occupational stress.
Clearly, workers’ mental health is very important for employers and themselves. It is important that managers accommodate employees’ non-work lives in developing work plans. Workers have relationships, outside the workplace, and if such should suffer in the pursuit of organizational profits; losses are inevitable. Catering for such will increase job satisfaction and engagement, ultimately leading to increased productivity.