Abstract
The purpose for this assignment is to provide proof of knowledge, of business management skills, and employee/company motivation.
Introduction
The company I decided to provide a motivation plan strategy is a hypothetical greeting card company. Just for Us Greeting Cards is a personalized greeting card company, which provides customers with completely personalized greeting cards, through an interactive web site. Hallmark alone is in over 42,000 retail store nationwide, and are the leading force in the industry. If we expand on their ideas from ready-made cards to personalized cards we can provide a more intimate purchasing experience, securing customer retention through loyal return clientele. (Hoovers, 2005)
Motivation Plan
Just for Us Greeting Cards, hopes to provide a customer-centered company, focusing primarily on providing personalized, high quality greeting cards at a greater value than most other greeting card companies. With card prices ranging from $3-5 dollars, purchasing a greeting card is hardly a luxury item. Therefore, in hopes to gain maximum profit, we will offer competitive pricing with many more options to choose from, securing a broader customer base. Instead of having pre-set cards, with the option to personalize small pieces, we offer thousands of pictures, card size and paper selections, to give the customer more freedom and offering a better experience. Our target customer is one that will want a personalized card and experience. Because of this personalized experience, the company is lacking in fresh new ideas, and has employees that feel underappreciated for the extra amount of service involved in transactions between the company and its customers. Therefore, I have devised the following strategy to bring about an organizational turnaround.
The Plan
1) Effectively communicate what is expected of each employee; let the employees know clearly what it is you expect of them. You should always write it down. Without the knowledge of knowing where they are headed how can we expect our employees to set any goals? They need to see the big picture before completing the details.
2) Listen, value and ask for employee ideas and feedback: Allow your employees the chance to help you improve yourself and to provide you, as well as the organization better, more diverse and creative ideas. Ideas should constantly fluctuate to accommodate for marketing changes.
3) Give your employees responsibility as well as authority to perform their responsibilities. By giving your employees the ability to handle problems on their own or to make decisions in times of crisis gives employees a sense of ownership for the company, providing a way for your department to develop a greater ability to deal with tough situations.
4) Provide the resources available for improvement of the individual: Provide the training and support so that your employees go into their jobs with a feeling of confidence in their ability as well as their confidence in the organization for which they work.
5) When someone does something right, let him or her know: provide positive and genuine feedback when the situation warrants it. Do it immediately and do not make someone wonder if they did a good job.
6) Maintain a pleasant, comfortable and friendly work environment: the more stress you can keep out of the workplace the better. People want to enjoy coming to work. Cater to each individual’s needs as best as you can to ensure that this situation occurs. This can mean time off for special family situations, possibly providing day care programs, lunch room programs, and mental health days off.
The most important aspect of this plan is to not let external factors, such as departmental peer pressure, force management decisions to change. The need for support and follow thru of this plan needs to include all levels of the organization. The organization needs to provide the support, resources and freedom to follow through on each step of this plan.
Conclusion
We must keep our employees motivated in this day and age. A properly structured motivation plan that involves all parties concerned is of vital importance. Providing constant feedback, incentives, and allowing room for change and grow are all a part of this plan. This motivation plan is vital to expand the boundaries of performance. If the plan is used and changes are made, the organization will have the fresh ideas needed to prosper, as well as motivated employees that will support the organization through change. Proper motivation is the key to successful business, allowing ideas to be molded and fresh perspectives from many resources, and not just through the minds of management.
Resources Cited
- http://www.hoovers.com/greeting-cards/–HICID_1464–/free-ind-factsheet.xhtml (2005)
- Management (8th edition) Stephen P. Robbins, Mary Coulter (2005)
