The Importance and Impact of Motivation in the Workplace

The Importance and Impact of Motivation in the Workplace

HSA-501: Health Management in Healthcare

Strayer University

The Importance and Impact of Motivation in the Workplace

Abstract

Motivation is critical to any organization. The outcome of an environment filled with motivated individuals is a highly productive staff who are more than capable of achieving the company’s organizational and business goals. It is important to understand what motivates people in a work environment. Some people are highly motivated when receiving monetary gifts, recognition, rewards, programs that support work-life balance, relaxed environments that promote creativity and fun. Employee incentive programs are also an eye-catcher for motivation when trying to recruit well-qualified individuals into the company. Essentially, employees want to feel valued and appreciated. They want to enjoy their jobs and feel good about the services that they are providing (www.americasjobexchange.com). When employees lack motivation, it can be detrimental to an organization because it impacts the employee’s ability to do their job effectively and efficiently. People who lack motivation in the workplace typically do the bare minimum only to get through the workday. They are content with allowing other employees to pick up their slack, causing additional stress on their coworkers. Companies who fail to motivate their employees run the risks of overcoming adversity Employee motivation should not be overlooked because employees that are motivated increase productivity reduce turnover rates, and improved overall performance (www.smallbusiness.chron.com).

Keywords: Employees, Motivation, Risks, Advantages, Organizations.

The Importance and Impact of Motivation in the Workplace

Motivation can be defined as “an individual’s degree of willingness to exert and maintain an effort towards organizational goals.” Job satisfaction alone is used as a motivational tool that retains employees for long periods at their place of employment (www.hrhresourcecenter.org). Kaluyu Memorial Hospital is faced with many motivational challenges. Some of the demotivating factors that the hospital is faced with are workers who feel undervalued, mistreated, fearful, tired, overworked, dominance, tension, lack of privacy for new mothers and lack of resources. After witnessing the numerous demotivating factors within the hospital it is evident that numerous changes will have to be made for the hospital to sustain financial challenges and overcome employee lack of motivation by demonstrating acts of kindness to prove to each staff member that they are appreciated and valued.

The Impact of a Demotivated Staff

Healthcare workers who lack motivation can hurt the organization and in some cases, the entire health system. Unmotivated people can cause a significant impact on rural areas. Often healthcare workers in rural areas work longer than usual hours; they lack more resources than healthcare facilities in urban communities and feel isolated. Workers who aren’t happy with their profession tend to lack motivation. These individuals tend to leave their job and seek more appealing employment opportunities in bigger cities. Disgruntled employees are likely to leave the healthcare industry altogether (www.hrhresourcecenter.org).

To operate a successful healthcare system it is a requirement to have high labor and delivery of service quality, efficiency, and equity, these are all dependent on the healthcare workers motivation and their abilities to exhaust all efforts on their tasks. The availability of resources and the skill of health care workers are also very important factors to consider within a hospital. However, all members of leadership should understand that resources and skill are not enough to make staff members perform at a satisfactory level influenced by their eagerness to be punctual, display flexibility when asked to carry out necessary tasks and show dedication (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov).

Poor healthcare facilities tend to have a lack of equipment, supplies, and poor structure as it relates to management. This leads to poor productivity, lack of responsiveness, and a limit on competences. The root cause of poor performance ultimately boils down to suboptimal performances in areas that require a level of complexity that is interrelated. This is an inclusion of challenges and complexity that provide and manage competing demands in the patient’s care, that can contribute to job dissatisfaction and a decrease of motivation in health care professionals (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov).

Herzberg’s Theory on Motivation

The staff members of Kaluyu Memorial Hospital need appreciation, recognition, value, and to be treated with fairness and respect. Herzberg’s theory believes that motivators are stimulated by achievements, recognition, and the opportunity for career growth. Currently, at the hospital, there is a lack of Herzberg’s motivating techniques. Employees are dreadful of their jobs and fearful of their superiors. Due to the lack of opportunities, respect, recognition, and resources, the hospital is suffering in multiple ways. The most significant loss is financial; the impact of disgruntled and unmotivated staff members can negatively impact organizations in several ways. Financial loss may be the result of staff members failing to utilize resources properly by overspending, running tests without the proper permissions or analysis, incorrect or uninformed medical diagnoses, loss of patients, overstaffed, and the misuse of funding to name a few.

Herzberg’s Theory on Motivation

There are two factors used by Herzberg, motivating factors and hygiene factors. Per Herzberg, the presence of a motivator will cause an employee to work harder. At the Kaluyu Memorial Hospital, there aren’t any motivating factors, explaining why employees dread coming to work. Staff members aren’t happy with the environment and how they are treated. Hygiene factors are another motivating factor used by Herzberg. When hygiene factors are absent, employees tend not to work hard. These hygiene factors are not within the work itself; however, it surrounds the job. Hygiene factors are company policies, supervision, relationships, work conditions, remuneration, salary, and security (www.expertprogrammanagment.com). The Kaluyu hospital is lacking both motivators and hygiene factors in Helzbergs theory, and as a result, employees are fearful of their superiors, there are tensions in the workplace between doctors and nurses, lack of participation in company meetings due to the domination of nurses over other employees, and lack of recognition to the nurses who feel they do more work than the actual doctors. The hospital also lacks in hygiene when considering new mothers as there is no place of privacy for them to nurse and no dependable refrigeration to store food for their babies.

Formulating a Plan for Success

The first step to improving communication within the hospital is to call an all-staff meeting with each department of the hospital, addressing all of the problem areas and plans to improve processes within the hospital. Improvements will include recognition programs, incentives, bonuses for employees who go above and beyond, closed-off areas for nursing mothers, new refrigerators for staff members, and an open-door policy for all staff members. All employees should feel comfortable enough to voice their opinions without an underlying fear of being reprimanded. Everyone within the hospital should be treated with respect, and any individual who refuses to do so will be subjected to termination. Giving employees the freedom of speaking their minds to peers and leadership in a respectful manner will allow room for creativity. Imposing fear of employees can be detrimental to a company as it suppresses the worker’s natural ability to express creativity.

There is a great need for employees who are dedicated to providing great services to the patients of Kaluyu Hospital. To fulfill that mission, employees must feel that they are valued and appreciated for those services. It is important to take into consideration the well being of our employees as they are not capable of providing superior services if they have been overworked and dreadful of their jobs. Therefore going forward as the Director of Kaluyu Memorial Hospital, I will make it mandatory for all employees to take off two days per week and restrict all employees from working hours over 12 hours per day. I will also provide staff members access to the hospital’s laundry service if they lack the resources to wear clean clothing. Appearance is major in a healthcare setting as no one wants to visit a hospital environment where the workers appear to be tired, overworked, and unkempt. Going forward, we will implement reward programs, incentives, and give recognition to all employees who are deserving of it. With all of these changes, I am positive that employees will become more motivated to work hard, and the hospital’s expenses will decrease because employees will work harder to cut cost and work within the budgets. Our hospital will incorporate patient portals and care coordinators to help patients maintain wellness after being released from the hospital. The hospital will also incorporate a team of individuals who will handle the financial responsibilities of the patient. There will be incentives for Registrars who can collect copays at the time of the visit. By managing the patients care, properly diagnosing, along with collecting accurate health insurance information, the hospital’s expenses should reduce tremendously.

Conclusion

There is a sense of recognition and value that is necessary for every human being within an organization. Everyone wants to be treated equally and with respect. An organization is only as strong as the people who run it. If staff members feel undervalued and fearful of leadership, this will cause a major strain on the corporation as a whole. Individuals should be able to voice their opinions without huddling amongst each other in corners. Staff meetings should welcome the opinions of everyone and not just people of certain credentials. The wellbeing of staff members is essential to every organization, especially a hospital. The people who are admitted into the hospital or visiting are most likely dealing with a traumatic experience and the least that they need is a disgruntled member of the staff or an overworked doctor trying to perform a medical procedure on them that could be life-threatening. A hospital that receives extreme life-threatening cases and houses HIV/AIDS wards cannot afford to make any mistakes because they can be deadly. To avoid mistakes that may be detrimental, all staff members must be motivated and fully focused because peoples lives depend on it, literally.

References

Benefits of Highly Motivated Employees. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.business.com/articles/the-benefits-of-highly-motivated-employees/

Dagne, T., Beyene, W., & Berhanu, N. (2015, July). Motivation and Factors Affecting It among Health Professionals in the Public Hospitals, Central Ethiopia. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4650878/

Librarian, I. (n.d.). Why is Motivation Important in Health Care? Retrieved from https://www.hrhresourcecenter.org/HRH_Info_Motivation.html

The Importance of Employee Motivation. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.americasjobexchange.com/employer/employer-articles/employee-motivation

Leonard, K. (2019, January 28). Consequences of No Employee Motivation. Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/consequences-employee-motivation-41238.html