Creating a Motivational Environment

Motivational Environment

The best supervisors have the most productive people who are also happy.  The real challenge for supervisors is to design incentive systems that encourage high performance and also engender high
employee morale. 

The following step related to Positive Reinforcement will help raise levels of employee motivation.

1. Describe the goal or Target Behavior

The target should always be related to performance.  What specifically must the individual do to become a high performer ? Answers such as work faster, be dependable, or take initiative are too genera.  “Answer the phone in a more professional manner” should be replaced with.

“When you answer the phone, say.  This is XYZ Enterprises,  Donna speaking.  How may I direct your call ?”  State the goal or target behavior clearly.

If the target behavior is actually a complex chain of behaviors, divide it into a chain of smaller successive behaviors.  It is best to find a smaller series of steps you can reward instead of waiting to reward the individual when the entire task is completed.  In other words, acknowledge small successes.

2. Check the Technical Skill Level

Make sure the individual possesses the technical skill required for the job.  If low performance is due to lack of natural ability or training, provide the training and information to set the employee up for success.

3. Select a Meaningful Reward

Make sure that you know your employees well enough to provide an appropriate reward that will
be meaningful to that person.  “One size fits all” rewards are not going to motivate everyone on your team. 

4. Provide Positive Reinforcement

Make all positive reinforcement based on the employee moving closer to the target behavior you desire.  If the employee receives the same reward at performance level two as at performance level five,
the supervisor’s reinforcement actually discourages improvement.  This is what happens when everyone in the organization is given the same raise reward.

5. Administer Immediate Rewards

Administer rewards immediately following each improvement in behavior.  Most managers and supervisors give positive feedback at the worst possible time – when they want to, not when the employee would be most reinforced by it.  Feedback on the negative consequences of an employee’s performance is often delayed for months by the supervisor.  No wonder we have problems with motivation!

6. Use Intermittent Reinforcement

As the desired behavior becomes a reality, change from a continuous reward structure to an intermittent reinforcement schedule.  Administering a reward every time a given behavior occurs is continuous reinforcement.  Administering rewards on an intermittent basis means administering the same reward each time, but not every time it is warranted.  Neither approach is clearly superior, but they both have trade-offs.

Continuous reinforcement represents the fastest way to establish new behavior.  In contrast, partial reinforcement is a very slow process and it is resistant to extinction.

For example, an employee who is praised every time an accurate report is written will quickly learn that you value accuracy.  But, what happens when you are on vacation and there is no one to offer that praise ?  That behavior becomes prone to extinction.

In Contrast, Partial reinforcement, although slow, is resistant to extinction.  Gambers in Las Vegas are excellent examples of partial reinforcement outcomes.  Some people stay motivated to win long after they should have stopped an unsuccessful behavior!