The Motivated Workplace: Hire Well and Beyond


By Shawn Doyle


In the late 1950’s Fredrick Herzberg did a landmark study on human relations and how it related to motivation in the workplace. He concluded that there were two factors relating to motivation in the workplace and broke it down into the hygiene theory and the motivation theory. The first part if his findings related to the work environment. The elements of hygiene involved:

•The company
•Polices and its administration
•The supervision people receive on the job
•Working conditions
•Interpersonal relations
•Salary
•Status
•Security

The theory is that the hygiene elements will not motivate an employee, but if they are not met there will be job dissatisfaction.

Herzberg thought the motivating factors were:

•Achievement
•Recognition
•Growth/advancement
•Interest in the job

There is no question that an employee understanding the pupose of what they do relates to the hygiene and the motivating factors. It is the manager’s role to make sure that employees are well informed and clear on the purpose of their work, the teams work and the company’s work. When employees know why they are doing the work, they are much more motivated and satisfied with their job. So how does a manager insure that this is happening?

Begin in the Beginning

In order to have a workplace that is energized and motivating we first must hire well. It is the foundation upon which a motivating foundation is built. As Lou Holtz once said, “Motivation is simple. You eliminate those who are not motivated.” If we consider the opposite of that-- it is adding people who are motivated. Hiring can be the most positive or the most destructive influence on the team’s motivation. Do not underestimate the impact on the rest of the team when a poor hire is made.

I have met managers from a variety of organizations who were not skilled in interviewing and hiring. An organization is only as good as the quality of the candidates and the quality of the hiring process. If an environment is going to be one where employees are motivated-- then the quality of the people hired is critical. Here are a few tips for making sure the “right” candidates get hired:

•Conduct multiple interviews the process of interviewing should consist of several interviews.

1) A screening interview over the phone

2) An initial interview

3) A second interview

4) A final interview.

The candidate should also be interviewed by several people in the organization as well. The idea behind multiple interviews is that you end up knowing the candidate better and finding out what they are really like as a person. Having several people interview them allows the manager to get different perspectives about the candidate.

•Look for a cultural fit There absolutely must be a cultural fit in addition to the competency fit. Research has shown that most employees don’t last in a job due to lack of cultural fit as opposed to the ability to do the job. Managers must overlook the temptation to go for the competency and ignore the cultural aspects. An IT expert who is a technical genius but treats people with disrespect is not a good tradeoff.

•Get Human Resources involvement It is important to have Human Resources involvement, but they should not be the ones who make the final decision. The final decision should be up to the hiring manager. I have worked with organizations in the past where HR did the interviewing and the hiring, and managers were then “stuck” with a candidate that didn’t fit there needs. Managers should insist on having the final say in the process.

•Always recruit Managers should always network and should always be on the lookout for viable candidates both inside and outside the organization. The best approach is to get viable candidates before they are needed. When the need arises the manger then contacts the people in the file that are viable.

•Know it they are the best they will be When candidates are being interviewed they are at their very best. They are the best they will ever be dressed, the best they will ever present themselves. The mistake that is made by hiring managers is that they think they can change the negative characteristics of a candidate after they are hired. This is as absurd as changing someone after they become our spouse.

•Have knockout questions It is advisable to have knockout questions. These are questions that would eliminate the candidate if they answered the question as a “no”. I was the hiring manager for a corporate university and one of my knockout questions was about continuous learning. I felt very strongly that we shouldn’t hire a candidate as a training manager if they weren’t willing to learn themselves. I would ask a few questions about reading, training, classes etc. This gave me the ability to determine if they were a learner or not. Managers must decide on the qualities that are absolutely not negotiable and turn them in to knockout questions. These questions should be woven into the interview. The candidate should never know that it is a knockout question. Knowing the nature of the question could influence their answers.

In order to assist with finding candidates who are a good fit in terms of enthusiasm, here are some good open ended interview questions that can be used:

•So tell me about yourself…
•What is the best job you have ever had and why?
•What is important to you in the workplace?
•Who has had an influence on your career? Why?
•Do you do any reading? What do you read?
•What book has had the most influence on you in the last five years?
•Who been the best boss that you have reported to? Why?
•The worst boss? Why?
•What motivates you? Why?
•How would you describe yourself?
•How would the team of people you work with describe you?
•What do you stand for?
•Who are your role models?
•What have you learned in the past year?
•What professional organizations do you belong to? Why?
•What does enthusiasm mean to you?
•Describe your personality.
•How do you get along with others?

This list of questions should provide managers with a baseline for determining the candidate’s level of enthusiasm. These questions should obviously be mixed with questions about experience and job skills. The idea is to look for both competency and culture.

The New Hire

The best way of insuring that employees understand the purpose of what they do is to start out in the beginning¬ – when they are hired.¬ This is an overlooked and underused concept. Many managers that I have worked with in the past have used the “frying pan into the fire” concept. They threw me into the work with no explanation, training, understanding or concept of what I was doing and why. Most people reading this book have had similar experiences.

We should not overlook the critical first days of a new employees work life when we can lay the foundation of their belief and have a huge impact on their perception of us and the company! Keep this in mind – if we want them to be motivated we have to create an environment from day one that does that. The first and most important element once a new employee starts is orientation.

Orientation

Orientation is when new employee gets the first and most important exposure to the organizations mission vision and values. An employee has decided to join your organization but not necessarily decided to stay long term yet. Orientation should be delivered by a professional who can covey the values of the company’s vision. I am sure there are small organizations that may say, “Well, we are small, and we don’t conduct orientation.” I think small companies get successful by acting like big companies. It is crucial for new employees to be properly oriented. It is also important in small companies because each employee can have a more meaningful direct impact. Orientation sets the stage.

There may be organizations that don’t have mission, value or vision statements. My question would be if that is the case how does the organization know where it is going? How will it know when it gets there? Is there is a long term plan that can be shared instead of mission vision and values? I think not having a written cohesive statement of what your company stands for and where is it going is dangerous.

At orientation, the employee should learn all about the company and what it stands for and what kinds of qualities and actions are valued. There is no doubt that oriented employees are more knowledgeable, and knowledgeable employees are more motivated.

Orientation also has several advantages:

•It gets employees motivated
•It helps employees feel appreciated early in their first week
•Orientation converts belief in favor of the company
•Builds excitement about the company
•Gets everyone on the same page
•Instills values and culture

If you follow the simple steps of hiring well and then giving people the orientation they deserve- you will be amazed at the impact it will have on the organization!

Shawn Doyle is the President of New Light Learning and Development (http://www.newlightlearning.com) a company specializing in Leadership Development. He has also authored five books on leadership sales and motivation. His latest book The Manager’s Pocket Guide to Training has just been published by HRD Press. Sldoyle1@aol.com.


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