HRM Assignment: Importance Of Motivation Within Workplace

Question

Task: HRM Assignment Task:
Being motivated as an employee at work is very important for an employer as employees feel super ready when they are motivated. They are ready to achieve all the set targets, actualize organisational objectives, and in most situations, work with the team and all stakeholders to meet project deadlines, amongst other things. As a newly hired HR Manager in a restaurant business, you are tasked to design policies that will help ease employees into the workplace post-covid-19 era, identify, and discuss the below.

1. Identify three possible motivational method you will introduce and discuss its benefits to the employees and employer.
You are planning to re-introduce a work policy that is aimed to improve on a better hygiene behaviour post covid-19, discuss the benefit of this to the employer, and identify some key challenges you will face when discussing this specific approach with the employees.
Recommend the benefit of workplace diversity and how a manager can motivate a diverse workforce.
The management of the company has introduced a salary freeze because of covid-19 to the business. Discuss the downside of this move and how it can affect business productivity and provide an alternative approach to this.

Answer

Introduction
The report on HRM assignment describes the vital role of motivation in the working place. It has presented why motivation is so important for employers and employees and how it makes them super ready to work. In this report, three motivational methods and what are the benefits they can provide to the employees and employer have been introduced. The work policy of the organization is also re-introduced which some changes with the aim to improve the hygiene behavior after COVID-19. The benefits of the new policy have also been discussed in one of the sections of the report. Every HR manager faces some challenges while introducing a new working policy and hence, the key challenges that the HR manager will face while introducing these working policies to the employees have also been identified. The report has also covered the benefits of workplace diversity and how it can bring success to the organization. The report contains how the human resource manager can motivate the employees to work in a place with lots of diversity. The downside of freezing the salary of employees due to covid-19 has also been presented and an alternative approach to this has been provided in this report.

Role of Motivation in Workplace
Motivation is something that makes a person contribute more, work efficiently, and behave dedicated towards the organizational goal. Motivation plays an important role in the workplace by improving the efficiency level of employees. It builds a friendly behavior between the employer and employees due to which communication becomes healthier and stronger between them. A motivated employee utilizes his or her true potential towards achieving the organizational goal which automatically enhances the performance of the organization. It also decreases the rate of absence of the employees in the organization.

Motivational Methods
Being a human resource manager, I can say that it is so important to have highly motivated employees in the workplace. Motivating employees is not a one-time method but is a dynamic and continuous process. Following are the three motivational methods I will use to make the employees and employer motivated throughout the work to gain their optimum potential towards the work. Reward Distribution- If a person knows that he is going to be awarded and rewarded for the successful completion of work, he starts putting extra energy and effort towards the work. This is one of the motivation methods I can use in the workplace to keep the motivation of my employee high. In this method, I can give financial incentives to the workers in form of bonuses, allowances, incentives, and many more like this when they accomplish the given work in an effective manner. I can also give non-monetary incentives such as perquisites, giving momentous and certificates in the functions and special occasion, providing them promotion and job securities. Rewards attract and appeal the person to get more by doing more and hence this is the first method I will use. Listen to ideas, complaints, and comments of employees- It makes employees satisfied when they feel included in the organization and when they find themselves an important part of the company. letting the employees share their ideas and working on them make the employees feel significant and they start collecting more and more effective ideas for the organization. It is always beneficial to listen to their comments and complaints and try to fix them. This makes the working environment positive and healthier to work and if the organization wants growth and high profit earning, it has to give a favorable working environment. This is the other method I can use to motivate the workers within the company (Steinbauer et al. 2018).

Career advancement opportunities- I can motivate the workers by providing them the opportunity for career development. Every person wants to grow more and more to get a higher position in the organization. If the organization provides job security and career advancement opportunities, employees will certainly increase their engagement in the organization. For this, training and development programs can be introduced to the employees. When there is the availability of avenues for promotion, it is quite sure that employees get motivated.

Benefits to employees
The benefits of the above motivational methods to employees are:
• Foster personal growth
• Enhance skills and knowledge
• Improve work performance
• Creates a broad area of thinking about innovations and ideas

Benefits to employer
The benefits of the above motivational methods to the employer are:
• No need to put extra effort to manage the workforce
• Completion of work in the given time

Re-Introducing Work Policy
Before the arrival of COVID-19, there was no such focus was made on hygiene behavior. The work policy in the restaurant was very simple. The rules and regulations were not focused on anything that increase hygiene in the organization. Previous work policy includes a certain grooming and dress code, fixed working hours every day, banning on extra piercing, restricting posting the information of the organization on social media platforms, workers' compensation, employees' meals in the restaurant. These are some of the rules that were included in the previous work policy of the restaurant. After the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone is conscious of sanitization and health. That is why being an HR manager I felt to make some changes in the work policy of the restaurant and focus to include safety and health guidelines. In the new working policy, I will add regular washing of hands and using sanitizer, the employee should add masks and gloves in their dress code. I will allow the employer to post about the restaurant because now online service has also started. Besides this, I have made the working day alternatives for all employees and so, their salary will also be curtailed with some percentage. The full salary of the employees will not be given to employees but it will be provided after COVID when the earnings of the restaurant will return to the track.

Benefits
Having a hygienic environment is just no benefit to the customers only but there are lots of benefits to the persons within the restaurant. All these new rules will make the environment safe and free from coronavirus. Practicing this precaution will make each employer and employee healthy. Washing hands and using sanitizers can prevent the employer from being ill and it will also prevent the workers within the organization to spread the virus to other people (Kamalesand Knorr2019). Also, customers are health conscious so if these precautions are practiced in the restaurant more and more customers will attract to the restaurant.

Challenges
Introducing any new working policy in any organization is not an easy task. There is always someone to criticize the rule. In the same way, the rule imposed by me in the restaurant might face challenges. while discussing the new rules to the employees I may face the following challenges:

• Employees may not agree to work on an alternative day because working on an alternative day will cut their salary to some extent (Esposito et al. 2018).
• Employees may criticize the rule of wearing masks and gloves all the time because it is not comfortable. Wearing a mask on a summer day creates suffocations for many people.
• The rule of giving the salary after the phase of Covid might be opposed by some employees as it is not necessary that every employee trust the manager and this will make insecure about their salary.

Benefits of Workplace Diversity
Companies having a diverse workplace have several advantages, some of them include:
Positivity in reputation: Organizations that have a diverse workplace are frequently discerned as finer employers. Capable employees need an employer who is open-minded in every situation.
Increased productivity: More ideas and processes are allowed by a diverse workplace. This workplace diversity provides a range of expertise among employees.
Enhancement of market opportunities: If capable customers or employees look that an organization shows a diverse workplace, it assembles them to observe that they are associated with the organization more. Advertisement that shows the ethnically diverse persons motivate participants to apply, show a good reputation and enhancement in awareness of marketplace. Better cultural perception: A diverse variety of cultures in the workplace permits company to deal with different variations within a marketplace of the globe. For example- If an organization does trade with China and they have an employee who knows Mandarin can lead to better workplace relations.

Enhancement in creativity: If a diverse range of workers having different backgrounds and cultures works cooperatively, the chance for enhanced creativity takes place. This takes place because there are more employers with different perspectives and thinking (Dahanayake et al. 2018).

Motivation to Diverse Workforce
I will have to decide whether my whole employees need motivation or only selected ones. If production is less for every employee, I will motivate every employee. I will give equal importance to every employee this will prevent any discrimination. I will keep an understanding with each employee about their production and thinking about the workplace. I will speak with the employees about their low performance without thinking about their religion, culture, or gender. I will supply each employee with a copy of the procedural plan that would be sanctioned together. This procedural plan must be private especially when anything in the plan shows individual data like cultural or medical information. I will try to make a healthy competition event among employees, this will boost the confidence of employees to work better and will keep in mind that my employees would not feel defeatism. I will have a meeting with employees to regulate suitable events that will be appreciated by every employee. I will give my employees voice their ideas and opinions. If I will fail to reward the winner among my employees of a contest or a procedural plan and am unable to attend any planned contest will reduce my effectiveness in upcoming motivational attempts (Inegbedion et al. 2020).

The downside of Salary Freeze
Due to covid, there is so many organizations that is freezing the salary of employees due to lack of sale. The organization is not earning money that they can give the salaries to employees. There is lots of downside of this move out of which the first one is the company will lose its valuable employees (Zhao and Sutcliffe 2020). If the employees will not get the salary for their work, they will resign from the company and may move to the other place. Another downside of this move is that the workers will not contribute enough potential towards the accomplishment of organizational goals and this will harm the reputation of the organization (Aguinis and Burgi-Tian2021). The productivity of the organization will get reduced due to the inefficiency and ineffective way of working.

Alternative Approach
It is necessary to find the alternative approach of salary freeze in the organization otherwise the organization will have to tolerate a great loss. The alternative approach can be discussing the scenario with the employees. As a human resource manager, I can level with the employees and try to explain why such a decision was taken, and also, I will present the alternative means of providing them compensation. I will try to feel them the important part of the organization by saying golden words regarding their place in the organization. I will promise them to provide small perks and to repay all of the amounts after the organization's earning will return to the previous track. I will reinforce the fact that the step of salary freeze is important for the current situation to make them assure that this is very temporary (Cletus et al. 2018). Another thing I can do is not to freeze the whole salary of employees, instead, I can give some portion of the salary so that they can have the feeling of relief. Giving some portion of salary instead of freezing the whole will make employees connect with the organization for a long time and they will not leave the organization. In this way, the organization can retain the valuable employees in the organization and the productivity will not get disturbed.

Conclusion
The role of an HR manager is quite complex as it has to deal with lots of diversities in the workplace. Every organization has different types of employees and dealing with them is not an easy task. Making the motivation of employees high is very necessary for getting favorable outcomes in the organization. There are so many ways through which motivation can be maintained among the employees which are giving them financial incentives and non-financial incentives. Getting extra incentives with salaries makes the spirit of employees high and they contribute their full potential towards the organizational goal. Another thing that can be done is to provide job security and options for career development. The organization can take the advantages of diverse culture in so many ways. It will have an idea of what type of dish each culture like and on the basis of which it can promotes its business. Job security in today's era has a great value. Employees get attracted towards the organization that provides job security to them and in the greed of job security employees contribute their maximum efforts towards the goal. Another finding from the report is that freezing the whole salary of employees is not a good option rather they should be provided with small perks and allowance so that they do not leave the organization and the organization will not lose the skilled employees.

References
Aguinis, H. and Burgi-Tian, J., 2021. Talent management challenges during COVID-19 and beyond: Performance management to the rescue. BRQ Business Research Quarterly, 24(3), pp.233-240. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/23409444211009528
Cletus, H.E., Mahmood, N.A., Umar, A. and Ibrahim, A.D., 2018. Prospects and challenges of workplace diversity in modern day organizations: A critical review. HOLISTICA–Journal of Business and Public Administration, 9(2), pp.35-52. https://sciendo.com/downloadpdf/journals/hjbpa/9/2/article-p35.pdf
Dahanayake, P., Rajendran, D., Selvarajah, C. and Ballantyne, G., 2018. Justice and fairness in the workplace: A trajectory for managing diversity. HRM assignmentEquality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/EDI-11-2016-0105/full/html
Esposito, M., Tse, T. and Soufani, K., 2018. Introducing a circular economy: New thinking with new managerial and policy implications. California Management Review, 60(3), pp.5-19. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0008125618764691 Inegbedion, H., Sunday, E., Asaleye, A., Lawal, A. and Adebanji, A., 2020. Managing diversity for organizational efficiency. Sage Open, 10(1), p.2158244019900173.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2158244019900173

Kamales, N. and Knorr, H., 2019. Leaders with Managing Cultural Diversity and Communication. Asia Pacific Journal of Religions and Cultures, 3(1), pp.63-72.
https://so06.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/ajrc/article/view/242052

Steinbauer, R., Renn, R.W., Chen, H.S. and Rhew, N., 2018. Workplace ostracism, self-regulation, and job performance: Moderating role of intrinsic work motivation. The Journal of social psychology, 158(6), pp.767-783. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00224545.2018.1424110 Zhao, Z. and Sutcliffe, C., 2022. Why are Pension Schemes Frozen, and How Does a Freeze Affect the Employer's Risk. Available at SSRN 4032651. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm abstract_id=4032651