Motivating Employee Performance through Rewards - Annotated Bibliography Example

Motivating Employee Performance through Rewards Summary of the articles Casserley, Meghan. "Master Americas Top CEOs On The Secrets Of Motivating Employees." 15 October 2014. forbes.com. 22 December 2014 . The article speaks about Annies ways in which its motivated its employees to become more productive. Annies has always remained as a driven business. According to the CEO of the company, John Foraker, the company had faced strict competition from other natural food companies, though managed to make a 360 degrees turn and grow its market to $839 million through having 106 employees who are always kept on track (Casserle 1). Foraker describes that because of their mission driven approach, the company has been able to attract smart personalities to work with them. In addition, according to Foraker, he insists that the secret to their keeping their employees highly motivated is through offering good pay, benefits plus creating a comfortable work environment (Casserle 1). According to the CEO Mike Fifer, the company came with a policy of allocating part of their pretax profits to the employees. This idea really motivated the employees to work in on direction towards the companies goals since each felt the need to make the company profits, as some of them came back to them (Casserle 1). Lawler, Edward. "Value-Based Motivation." 9 April 2009. businessweek.com. 22 December 2014 . Based on the article written by Edward Lawler, organizations suffered a lot in terms of employee motivation following the economic recession. The recession affected employees in that it demotivated them. There were a number of employees who lost their jobs while others had pay cuts and withdrawal of their allowances (Lawler 1). Such companies reported a reduction of their productivity. The author also acknowledges the fact that various employees had different reasons that motivate them during the recession time after pay cuts were introduced. He adds that some employees are motivated by paying for their holidays and going for golf trips with their bosses (Lawler 1). Based on the author, he insists that what has become key for motivating employees during the recession time is the feeling of job security plus financial rewards. In recession, businesses can always forego increasing pay and bonus without risking on high turnover, though they may risk on motivation (Lawler 1). In the market, few employees were sort after by employers hence few employees were willing to forego their jobs when bonuses and pay cuts were introduced. Based on the author, the organizations introduced means at which they could make their employees remain highly motivated. In introducing merit based pay increase, most employees became motivated (Lawler, 2009) . Mangalindan, JP. "Clif Bar climbs to the top of Americas workplaces." fortune.com 14 September 2014. 22 December 2014 . Mangalindan talks about the life Clif Bar and how he makes his employees motivated. Clif Bar, who is a brand manager, believes in bicycles as a means of transportation. In addition, the company is known to maintain, a friendly philosophy for its employees right from the start. The idea for which Clif Bar operates at was dreamt by the founder, Erickson Gary 24 years ago as he rode his bike 175 miles through central California (Mangalind 1). During the trip, Erickson realized he could make better energy bars than the places where he visited. Moreover, Clif Bar came up with a policy to encourage employees live in an eco-friendly place. The initiative was aimed at making the employees motivated. In addition, money incentive was introduced too. Employees who bought company-approved hybrids, electric or diesel vehicles were reimbursed by Clif Bar up to $6,500 (Mangalind 1). Those who took public transport, walked or rode bicycles to work were reimbursed $1,500 a year. Furthermore, those who fitted their homes with their approved solar panels received a reimbursement of $1000. The reimbursements had a big impact on the employees to become more motivated and buy their products, which to them were much cheaper than others who did not work in the company as it came with great benefits. He realized that the turnover rate of employees stayed at less than 3% within the given year. All in all, the best strategy used was the reimbursement offered to workers as it motivated them highly. Reflect your reaction Casserley, Meghan. "Master Class: Americas Top CEOs On The Secrets Of Motivating Employees." 15 October 2014. forbes.com. 22 December 2014 . Casserley Meghan wrote an article after speaking to some of Americas Top CEOs about the secrets involved in motivating employees. In talking to John Foraker, th CEO of Annies one could see how he managed to tranform the company to a high performing one amidst the strict competition. Foraker story directly relates to some of the concepts learnt inorganization behaviour class. The most outstanding concept based on the article is the notion of employees being motivated by money. Money is a key motivator for working clients as it directly relates to their efforts. Employees who work and get recognized for the hard work by their employers are at a better position to become more motivated than those employees who are not recognized for their hardwork. In as much as a company may have good policies and working environemnt, in the end, what matters is whether the employees are motivated or not. Based on the answers which most CEOs gave, rewarding employees through giving them money is the key motivator to increase their performance level. Based on our course, employees motivate workers to work in one direction or goals as they are aware and guaranteed of a reward in the process of achieving the given target. Lawler, Edward. "Value-Based Motivation." 9 April 2009. businessweek.com. 22 December 2014 . In the article written by Edward Lawler, global recession affected employees motivation when the pay cuts and deduction of allowances were made. This is a fact based on the course content of organization behaviour. Human beings are always demotivated when the benefit which they associated with working for a given person or company was withdrawn, explaining the demotivation experienced by most companies during the recession (Lawler, 2009). Since companies still wanted to make some profits, and needed employees to be motivated in such hard times, various ways to make them motivated were devised. Financial rewards based on performance was introduced, this implies that workers were rewarded based on how they achieved targets set (Lawler, 2009). This motivated the employees to work harder in order to acheve the financial benefit acrued with it. In our course work, we managed to read about how money can be used in the reward system to promote a motivated work force. In as much as the pays and allowances of the given employees were cut during the recession, motivation was still motivated by another means which could save the company expense, but yet make their workers motivated to make them profits during the hard economic times (Lawler, 2009). Mangalindan, JP. "Clif Bar climbs to the top of Americas workplaces." fortune.com 14 September 2014. 22 December 2014 . In this article, Clif Bar demonstates the various ways which he uses to motivate his employees. In being one of the best eco-friendly company, the company usually rewards its employees that buy products from them. For instance, giving reimbursements to those employees who buy diesel or lectric vehicles from them with $6,500. Such reward policies have greatly motivated their employees to wor hard (Mangalindan 1). In our course work, we learnt that employees are always motivated, by appreaciting their work. No matter how small their contribution to the company is, it is always good to reward it. This is one of the ways in which the business has been able to keep aloft despite the many economic downpours (Mangalindan 1). The organization behaviour of any given business is key in ensuring performance is maintained. A well groomed and behaved team always reflects to success as they are able to work as a team. In the case of Clif Bars, they were able to keep all their employees motivated and hence reduced the rate of employee turn over (Mangalindan 1). Work Cited Casserley, Meghan. "Master Class: Americas Top CEOs On The Secrets Of Motivating Employees." 15 October 2014. forbes.com. 22 December 2014 . Lawler, Edward. "Value-Based Motivation." 9 April 2009. businessweek.com. 22 December 2014 . Mangalindan, JP. "Clif Bar climbs to the top of Americas workplaces." fortune.com 14 September 2014. 22 December 2014 . Read More