Whose job is it to motivate employees?

As managers or entrepreneurs we know that the right people are critical to the success of the organisation. There is no room for drift wood or coasters in a growing SME.

Selecting the right people to be on the bus is key, but then how do we keep them motivated? Or should we even try?

In the past two weeks of delivering leadership workshops, many managers have stated the importance of keeping employees engaged and motivated. Some have received half-year employee satisfaction survey results and are grappling with selecting the right actions to move forward.

Others run on a constant treadmill in their minds of how to drive teams to deliver results while keeping their employees happy. When asked if this is a new pressure point, many who had been in the region for years described it as an evolving issue. So what has changed?

First, companies are more cautious with salary increases, bonuses and incentives. Some are still dealing with the consequences of paying the inflated salaries during 2006-2008 and have had to freeze their payrolls over the last few years.

Second, the labour legislation is becoming more flexible, allowing more individuals to switch companies with ease. Personally, I believe this is great news as it forces companies to start becoming a place where people want to work, rather than the only place in which they are allowed to work.

Third, many employees are still living in the boom years mentally; they have high expectations and an ‘entitlement' mentality. They may also have overstretched themselves; UAE statistics show that 85 per cent of the population is in debt.

So how can managers keep their team motivated with all of these factors in play? They can't.

In fact, they shouldn't even try. It is an employee's job to come to work motivated. It is the manager's job to stop demotivating them. Sounds simple, but what does it mean in practice? Why do people have inflated expectations about bonuses, salaries or entitlements?

Conversations

Typically, these have been created by the management, either through inflated conversations that over promise but remain vague enough to enable employers to wriggle out of commitments when deadlines approach. Or by glossing over an individual's poor to average performance, rating them as good in the appraisal review because the manager doesn't want to hurt their feelings.

This causes problems when money has to be distributed. Remuneration becomes a reflection of actual performance rather than manager-employee discussions, and that can leave employees confused. Managers promise to review packages, but blame more senior management for not taking any action.

The writer is the CEO of biz-group, a consultancy.