Methods for Increasing Employee Motivation - Research Proposal Example

? Business Research Proposal Contents Contents 2 of the research proposal 3 ment of the problem 3 Background and Context of the problem 3 Research Question 3 Significance of the Research 3 Literature (Brief annotations) 4 Proposed research methodology 6 Details of the proposed research methodology 6 Proposed sample design 7 Proposed data collection plan 7 Proposed data processing and analysis 8 Proposed report preparation 8 Proposed Budget: 9 References: 10 Business Research Proposal Title of the research proposal The title of this research proposal is ‘Research to Determine Methods for Increasing Employee Motivation’ Statement of the problem General Trading, a US based wholesale food distributor has witnessed significant drop in the revenue and has estimated that the significant drop is due to the low productivity of the employees which has occurred from low motivation levels. Background and Context of the problem General Trading is a food distributor of wholesale format in the US. The business is located at a very favorable location, which will help the business to grow fast and flourish. But as mentioned in this case, General Trading witnessed a significant amount of drop in revenues and is estimating that this significant drop in revenue was in relation to employee productivity. It has also been brought in the forefront that employee incentive programs are also not implemented or used by the company previously in order to increase the employee motivation of the company. Research Question The research question here is: What programs may be suitable to increase employee productivity and revenue? Significance of the Research Taking into account that General Trading has expanded across global boundaries. This problem regarding employee productivity, if remains unsolved may damage the reputation of the company, which has built over the years. It may even lead to compromise the efficiency of the company, which may lead to increased customer dissatisfaction. So a proper analysis of the situation and probable solutions to increase the employee productivity is very vital in this scenario. Literature (Brief annotations) General Trading is a wholesale food distributor organization with clients abroad to whom they export their product offerings across the borders. For them, maintaining a healthy motivation level among the employees and thereby increasing the productivity is very crucial to the development and flourishing of the company. In order to increase the motivation level among the employees, an employee incentive program is very much essential for the company. In today’s world, employees are the biggest assets to an organization. Companies are paying competitive salaries to the employees as compared to other companies, in order to keep them motivated, as well as to retain them. Most of them have already moved towards an ‘Employee Incentive Program’, which is itself a part of performance appraisal. It has also been found out in a study that employee engagement which mainly comprises of commitment to work, as well as employee’s job satisfaction with the company increases through a host of performance appraisal system that happens in a company from time to time. (Scott, “Introduction”). Employee Incentive Programs has been employed by many companies and is considered as a highly valuable tool to keep the employees in an organization motivated by offering various kinds of incentives on the basis of their performance in the organization or in similar grounds. Implementing an employee incentive program in the organization has also lead to solutions that exists between the company’s top management and its employees on the production front. It also leads to identification of the most efficient and effective employees in the organization, who can further be moved up in the hierarchy and can be groomed for possible leadership roles in the organization. As a result, it leads to identification of talent within the organization without hunting for the right candidate in the open market. (Gordon & Kaswin, “Recruitments & Retention Effects”) It can be said that incentive based pay for employees helps in increasing the morale of the employees and also leads to overall development of the organization’s performance. The focus of business, small or big, is targeted towards customer integration, which means fulfilling the demands of the end customers. An increase in organization’s performance will lead to better customer integration by the company, which will in return provide better business and generate more revenue for the organization. Employee Incentive Programs helps in developing a formalized link between the efforts put in by an employee and the salary he gets at the end of the month. There are some unique advantages that an Employee incentive program provides to an employee: First of all, it helps in providing the employee with certain amount of control over his monthly or annual income. Secondly, it imparts an increased sense of responsibility among the employees to deliver the best possible results. Many a times, it has also been found that employees make it a point to deliver flawless and quality performance in order to bag the incentives that are normally given at the end of the month, financial quarter or even at the end of the year as annual bonus. Thirdly, it helps the HR department of the organization to measure the performance of each and every employee working in the organization, by providing attention to the minute detail of the employees’ performance (Jordan, “Improving Morale and Organizational Performance”). Proposed research methodology Details of the proposed research methodology In this case, since the exact reason behind the sudden depreciation in revenue cannot be ascertained, it will be wise to carry out a descriptive research first and then an exploratory research. The descriptive research will be useful to find out the potential reasons for employee dissatisfaction, if there is any. The exploratory research will be helpful to get a qualitative view of the problems that are existent in the company, and may also provide some thoughtful solutions to the problems highlighted from the employees itself. The descriptive research will be conducted by carrying out a survey amongst the employees of the company located all over the globe. The survey questionnaire should be pretested among a few and selected number of employees in the home location. On the basis of the feedback, the survey questionnaire should be modified. The pretested and revised questionnaire should be then forwarded to all the employees of the company located all over the globe, in an email attachment, requesting urgent response to the mail. The process to be employed for this is the convenience sampling technique. In the case of convenience sampling technique, the respondents are identified on the basis of the convenience of the researcher. Once the responses for the online questionnaire are received, the entire set of responses should be analyzed. On the basis of the pain points that are identified in the questionnaire, the exploratory research should be carried out. The exploratory research should be carried out by conducting the focus group interview. The main essence behind conducting the focus group interview is to highlight the reasons identified for low productivity of employees and the reason for the dip in revenue and to extract possible solutions that the employees recommend for the tackling the problem. Proposed sample design Sampling Frame: Employees of General Trading. Select Technique: Convenience Sampling for Quantitative Research; Focus group interview for qualitative research. Sample Size: Assuming a rough number of employee strength of around 5000 worldwide, thus a sample size of 5000 is taken for the quantitative research. For the focus group interview, top level and middle level managers are to be considered. Sampling Process: The convenience sampling is being chosen for quantitative research as the employees in focus are employees of General Trading and can be contacted through email. For the qualitative research, Focus Group Interview is to be conducted by interviewing the middle level and top level managers of every location across the globe. Proposed data collection plan The quantitative research data should be collected by sending out online format of the questionnaire as an attachment of an email to all the employees of the General Trading located worldwide. The data for the focus group interviews should be conducted by interviewing the top level as well as the middle level managers located in various parts of the world. Proposed data processing and analysis For interpreting the data of quantitative research, analysis of data can be done using the latest data analysis tools like SPSS or SAS or by using graphs and pie charts. The qualitative data can be interpreted by focusing on the solutions on a case by case basis. Proposed report preparation The proposed format for writing the report to the client will be as follows: Title page Table of contents List of tables List of graphs List of appendices List of exhibits Executive summary Problem definition Background to the problem, Statement of the problem Research design Type of research design, Information needs Data collection from secondary sources, Data collection from primary sources Scaling techniques , Questionnaire development and pretesting Sampling techniques, Fieldwork Data analysis Statistical output Results Major findings Conclusions Recommendations Limitations Conclusions and Recommendations Appendix Questionnaires and forms Proposed Budget: Rough Estimation of the Budget, Staff and Time is given below: Research Type Estimated Time Staff Budget Pretesting 3 Days 4 $400 Quantitative Research 1 Week 4 $2,000 Qualitative Research 6 Weeks 4 $8,000 References: Scott D. Introduction. 2010. The Impact Of Rewards Programs On Employee Management. Hay Group WorldatWork. 10 April 2012 < http://www.worldatwork.org/waw/adimLink?id=39032 > Gordon A Allison, Kaswin L Jennifer. 2010. Effective Employee Incentive Plans: Features and Implementation Processes. 10 April 2012. Jordan Bay. Improving Morale and Organizational Performance. 1995. Employee Incentive Programs. 10 April 2012. Read More