How (not) to motivate your employees

There are some truths that need to be recognised universally. If you're getting something for free, you are the product. Anyone who calls themselves a thought leader is likely starting a cult and must be avoided at all costs.

And companies that hold employee-appreciation days on the weekends do not give two hoots about their employees.

There are 52 weeks in a year. With a 5-day workweek you had 260-odd working days to appreciate them. Another problem is how sadly unappreciative the thoughts are most of the time.

After a whole year of hard labour, all you receive is a mass-produced letter of appreciation most likely written by AI or a piece of cake that can hardly be called a tasty treat.

Such vapid gestures reveal more about our corporate culture than it does anything about what actually motivates people at work.

According to training and development professional Jishu Tarafder, Chief Consultant, Corporate Coach, "Employees need to be recognised for their work, they need to be backed up with necessary resources to do their jobs properly, and a good work environment is a must if you want to motivate them."

"Other forms of motivational practices can work in conjunction with these core tenants, but cannot replace them," he added.

So, why are organisations so wide of the mark? A book called "The Human Side of Enterprise" by Douglas McGregor, a former professor at MIT Sloan School of Management, might hold some answers.

The book, published in 1960, divided managers' assumptions about workers into two categories. He called them theory X and theory Y.

Although McGregor, who died in 1964, was very much a product of his time, with the anecdotes in the book centring around men with names like Tom and Harry, his ideas remain surprisingly useful.

Theory X managers believe that people have a natural aversion to work; their job is to try and get the slackers to put in some effort. That requires the exercise of authority and control. It relies heavily on the idea of giving and withholding rewards to motivate people. Sticks and carrots and all that jazz.

Although perks and stale pastry fit into this picture, pay is critical to theory X; After all, work is the price to be paid for wages.

"My former workplace regularly hosted motivational sessions on weekends where we mostly played Chinese whispers and called it a day. I would have rather taken my holiday morning nap and a share of whatever they paid the speaker," shared a Marketing manager from an MNC wishing to remain anonymous.

"And I would have been way more charged up for work that week. Instead I was tired and resentful for losing the weekend," he added.

"Sending a gift basket with generic grocery items to thank me instead of a cash bonus for my hard work this quarter doesn't inspire me to replicate my efforts in the next one," said Sheikh Ishmam (pseudonym), a product manager at a local FMCG.

Theory Y, the one McGregor himself subscribed to, is based on a much more optimistic view of humans. It assumes that people want to work hard and that managers do not need to be directive if employees are committed to the goals of the company.

It holds that pay can be demoralising if it is too low or unfair, but that once people earn enough to take care of their basic needs, other sources of motivation matter more.

In this, McGregor was a follower of Abraham Maslow, a psychologist whose hierarchy of needs moves from having enough to eat and feeling safe up to higher-order concepts like belonging, self-esteem and purpose.

"During my time at BRAC, my biggest motivation was how the projects I worked on bettered people's lives. When I moved to Maya, a new dimension was added. The project I worked on bettered the lives of eight million factory workers during the pandemic," said development practitioner Anika Shahjabin.

X or Y?

Theory X is not dead. It lives on in low-wage industries as we saw during the recent garments protests, and in obscenely high-wage ones where pay motivates people long after they can feed themselves.

It surfaces in the fears of managers that working from home is a golden excuse for people to do nothing. It shows up in the behaviour of employees who phone in, and bosses who insult, berate and bully employees.

"I loved my last job. But my boss was a bully whose frustrations at home spilled over into work. I don't respond well to such behaviour so I started disliking my workplace. I was overworked but my boss started calling me lazy and refused to help manage my workload. So eventually I quit my boss," said a former sales executive who now works at a local NGO.

Nevertheless, theory Y is in the ascendant. Research shows that if people think what they do matters, they work harder.

A meta-analysis of such research, conducted by Cassondra Batz-Barbarich of Lake Forest College and Louis Tay of Purdue University, found that doing meaningful work is strongly correlated with levels of employee engagement, job satisfaction and commitment.

Trust is increasingly seen as an important ingredient of successful firms; a recent report by the Institute for Corporate Productivity found that high-performing organisations were more likely to be marked by high levels of trust.

Companies are trying to come with mission statements that give people a reason to come into work that goes beyond paying the rent.

"Employees have to believe in the company they are working for. If their values aren't in sync with the company, you cannot inspire them. Without inspiration there is no motivation," said Najmus Ahmed Albab, CEO of Lighthouse Bangladesh and founder of Bangladesh Cancer Aid Trust.

The appeal of autonomy and responsibility is not only infused into the management philosophy of ad firms or magazines, but also of manufacturing firms that rely on employees solving problems on their own initiative.

Some organisations do raise wages in the theory Y belief that reducing workers' financial insecurity will improve employee retention and organisational performance.

One interesting line that came up over and over again during my conversations which flies in the face of theory X believers is "the biggest motivating factor for me is the satisfaction I derive from a job well done and getting appreciated for it."

I heard this line or some variation of it from bankers, development workers, engineers, architects and homemakers (they are their own boss though).

So, regardless of the organisation or the nature of the job, appreciating them for their contribution and paying a living wage is the basic template for employee satisfaction it seems.

McGregor stated that the goal of his book was not to persuade readers to take sides, but rather to force managers to make their assumptions clear. It is still possible to run financially viable firms in accordance with theory X.

Nobody is ready to admit that, so sadly the cycle of insincere appreciation is not ending anytime soon.