Texas Roadhouse Won't Skimp on Making Employees Happy - Essay Example

Everybody in the company was very motivated by the financial rewards and incentives the firm offered. “Financial incentives are extrinsic rewards and are tangible visible to others and contingent on performance” (Hubpages, 2012). After a couple of payment cycles the employees noticed that their pay checks did not include the performance bonuses. The company said that the administration had decided to eliminate the bonuses. The employees were outraged. The firm also claimed that the contest for prizes was also cancelled.

The employees in the firm rebelled and formed a union. The productivity of the workers drastically decreased because the employees had no incentive to produce more. The actions of the employees hurt the customers of the firm because the services backlogged due to lower productivity. Texas Roadhouse restaurant uses extrinsic rewards to motivate the employees of the company. The firm believes deeply in the importance of keeping employees happy. Some of the rewards that the firm offers its employees include a yearly contest of $20,000 for the best meat cutter, $500 allowance given to the managers to be spent in activities for the employees, annual four day motivation conference at a luxurious hotel with the benefit of bringing the employees’ spouse to the event.

There are other ways to motivate employees that can be used at Texas Roadhouse to improve the performance of the company. An effective technique to improve motivation in the workplace is the use of intrinsic rewards. “Intrinsic rewards are positively valued work outcomes that the individual receives directly as a result of task performance” (Schermerhorn, Hunt, Osborn, 2003, pg. 118). An example of an intrinsic reward is receiving a pad in the back and a positive comment from the manager or supervisor for a job well done.

The motivation of the employees can increase by improving the job satisfaction of the workers. Another method that can be used to increase the motivation of the workers is by implementing feedback systems. “The importance of feedback in the workplace cannot be over-estimated - it is a key source of employee motivation” (Practical-management-skills, 2012). The firm must invest in improvements to the information systems of the company to improve the capabilities of the human resource module.

A way to simplify the payroll cycle is by switching antiquated time card systems, with electronic systems in which an employee logs in using a thumbprint. These electronic systems will reduce the work done by HR specialist and the payroll department by digitalizing information which eliminates the need of manual data entry. Today human resource departments must give emphasis to a knowledge based administration using technology as a tool (Peterson, 2010). The use of intrinsic rewards is a great method for motivating employees that can be implemented at cero costs.

The managers and supervisors have to be aware of the work performed by the employees in order to identify situations that merit giving the employees an intrinsic reward. The con of the intrinsic reward strategy is that it requires a lot of observation from supervisors and managers which wastes time. A lot of the time of management should be spent performing strategic functions. Improving job