Autos and Employee Motivation
While the news is full of stories abut the bailouts of GM and Chrysler, Consumer Reports has identified the most and least reliable cars in the magazine’s 2009 Annual Auto Issue. And as you would guess, Japanese manufacturers – Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Subaru, and Nissan, own the top spots. Detroit’s GM, Chrysler and to a lesser extent Ford are closer to the bottom of the list. As I heard this story listening to Bob Brinker's Money Talk, it dawned on me that many of these Japanese cars are manufactured right here in the United States, by employees who are earning lower wages than their Detroit brethren. Lower paid employees producing better quality cars. It shouldn’t work that way should it? After all, when I talk to many sales managers about employee motivation they tell me the only thing that matters in driving productivity is the compensation program. Here is part of a email I recently received on this topic of employee motivation - the sales manager writes:
“Like many companies, we are going through difficult times, but first - my observation after 25 years in sales/sales management is that there is only one thing that drives sales reps behavior. So, unless the management team ties compensation directly to corporate values/vision, there will be diametric opposition between sales behavior and corporate goals.”I beg to differ. There is more than “one thing that drives a sales reps behavior.” The Auto industry is documented proof that employees are motivated to produce by more things than compensation. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the role of compensation, but there is more!
Several years ago a
Gallup study indicated that “actively disengaged” employees cost the U.S. economy between $292 billion and $355 billion a year. The research consistently showed a tendency for actively disengaged workers to be:
- Significantly less productive
- Report being less loyal to their companies
- Less satisfied with their personal lives
- More stressed and insecure about their work
Why is it when sales organizations want to spark increased employee motivation and production, the first thing they turn to is the pay program? I think its because the compensation program is easy. Take out an excel spreadsheet, run some numbers, compare some alternatives and announce a new plan. That’s easy compared to looking at the root causes of employee motivation and assessing an environment where the team is “actively engaged” has been created.
What Do You Think?What have you found to be the key drivers of employee motivation? Does this differ for a sales team?