Sunday, April 12, 2020

Keep your team inspired during a pandemic environment


KEEP YOUR TEAM INSPIRED DURING A PANDEMIC ENVIRONMENT



Global Pandemic created by COVID-19 has now become the biggest threat that world has ever faced during past few decades. Due to the pace of spread of the virus, many countries have been locked down their cities and encouraged citizens to stay self-isolated.
No wonder, business organizations are worrying about how to keep the employees motivated during this period.
Motivation
Motivating other people is about getting them to move in the direction you want them to go in order to achieve a result. Motivation can be described as goal-directed behavior”. (Armstrong, 2006).
Majority of employees constantly get motivated subject to provided realistic target by the organization; on fulfillment of the target, employees should be rewarded.

“There are two types of motivation as originally identified by Herzberg et al (1957):
01.  Intrinsic motivation
02.  Extrinsic motivation”
(Armstrong, 2006)

During the pandemic environment, it is necessary to keep the staff motivated through intrinsic motivational strategies which are self-generated factors that influence employees towards a particular direction; rather than extrinsic motivational strategies which are implemented by the organization to motivate the staff.

Strategies implemented by the ABC Bank in order to motivate employees during pandemic environment

The decision has been made by the bank to execute Reward strategy, rather than going for Force or Fear strategies in order to keep motivating its staff. Few decisions taken by the bank related to staff motivation are as follows.

  • Provided a Salary advance for the month of April 2020 for the junior staff.
  • Transport is provided for the staff members who used public transportation.
  • Flexible working approaches such as work from home and shift working plan is introduced.
  • Staff members who work during curfew hours are recognized by the Corporate Management.
  • A simple heartfelt thanking e mail forwarded by the Managing Director to each team member for the commitment made by them during this difficult time.

According to Adam Tallinger,“Rewards are not all bad; they can be a healthy source of motivation. Rewards can be monetary, something tangible, group recognition, or simply a heart-felt thank you”.
(Tallinger A, copyright 2020)


Source – Financial Gazette


Video – Managing your team Through a Crisis 

References
1. Armstrong, ., 2006. A Handbook of  Humon Resource Management Practice, 10th ed. 120, Pentonville Road, London N1 9JN, United Kingdom: Kogan Page Limited, London.
2. Impact Advisors. (2017). How Are Your Employees Motivated in a Crisis? [online] Available at: https://www.impact-advisors.com/culture/employees-motivated-crisis/.
3. The Financial Gazette. (n.d.). Motivation_02. [online] Available at: https://www.financialgazette.co.zw/open-forum-keeping-your-employees-motivated-during-a-crisis/motivation_02/.
4. Managing Your Team Through A Crisis. (2018). YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yerTWcZmawA.

5 comments:

  1. Please follow the Harvard reference and citation style.

    Whatever you cited should appear in the reference list and whatever appear in the reference list should be cited in the main body of the text.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Motivation can be referred to one of best ways of driving the workforce towards achieving expected organizational goals.

    Through out the article, it has been observed that the author has proven to justify the the theory of Motivation, global context as well as the practice during an epidemic environment.

    Author has also brought fine definitions and information from reliable sources to argue the topic. Real life application of facts to a local bank is being demonstrated cleverly. Used language is much clear to understand. The facts have been well organized. However, it seems better if the author had included more pictures and videos to prove the argument.

    I agree with the content of this article and it is also helpful to a reader to get a basic idea about "practice motivational strategies in a crisis environment".

    My believe is any organization should invest more assets on introducing and implementing new strategies in order to motivate its employees. Researches and experiments to be done with in the organization to find new motivational strategies.


    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Sameera,
    This timely topic , as u mention above motivation fact can be costly better to have disadvantages as well from organizational level

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is a good effort Sameera, you have addressed an important topic on these days. During the pandemic environment, it is necessary to keep the staff motivated through various strategies like providing flexible benefits to long term employees, communicate more with your employees, stay connected etc. The decision made by the ABC bank to execute reward strategy is impressive. Nicely written blog. I enjoyed reading it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Timely chosen topic and described the idea with the real life experiences are more vital. Motivation is what we mostly needed on the pandemic situation and some of organizations have identified and implement programmes to keep employees motivated in situation. Intresting to read the article. Good job !

    ReplyDelete

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