Does the Rewarding Strategy Can Improve Employee’s free essay sample

My Topic: Does the rewarding strategy can improve employee’s motivation? Introduction Vibrancy of a company derives from the positive and creativity of each employee, kinds of motivation methods are provided in accordance with a variety of demands and motivation. Targeting at a better performance and making employees try their best to accomplish companys objectives; many managers tend to reward their subordinates for the outstanding employees to reinforce the good behavior.However, whether the reward strategy can become an effective way to promote the employees motivation or not has been a common problem concerned by many professionals in human resource area as well as the leaders in some companies. Although, the strategic reward system contributes much to improve employees motivation by satisfying their needs and making them feel be valued, the reward strategy is still not perfect because of some internal and external factors, some overlooks caused by the reward strategy even may play a negative role in the improvement of employees motivation (Gary, 2007). This essay aims to discuss the positive and negative side of the reward strategy, classic theories will be provided to support and explain some opinions. In order to have a deep and clear understanding about the influences of reward strategy, this paper will compare the positive side with the negative side of the strategic reward system together to draw a conclusion for the issuewhether the reward strategy can improve employees motivation or not. Positive sides of the financial reward Reward strategy is a critical part in improving employees motivation.Usually, a reward system consists of financial reward and non-financial reward. Financial rewards refer to the compensation, such as the base salary, pay incentives and employee benefits. Non-financial rewards refer to the intrinsic rewards, praise, recognition, time off and so on (Duncan, 2001). Reward plays an important part in managing people well and motivating the organization. According to Maslows hierarchy of needs, people have five-level needs: physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs (Maslow, 1970).Financial reward can meet employees needs in different aspects which can contribute much to promoting the high performance. Employees will make determination to do the job well to acquire the financial reward for the satisfaction in both substance and spirit. A reasonable reward strategy will increase the attractiveness of an organization, it can help company to attract more excellent employees and to make the recruitment process more frequent, more and more excellent talents and genius will be appealed by the advanced reward system.As the Expectancy Theory tells us, if a company wants to motivate their employees, it should let the employees clearly know that the job can provide things they really need which have tight relationships with their performance and high performance can be achieved as long as the hard work (John, 1963). Based on this theory, the financial reward can adjust employees objectives and expectancy to make these two factors be in line with each other which will contribute much to the promotion of good performance as well as a good attitude.Equity Theory shows that employees will try h ard to seek the fairness in financial rewards, after the struggling, if the unfairness in reward still exist, the motivation will be frustrated. Formulated basis by the Equity Theory, reward strategy can reduce the feeling of unfairness in some degree which will guarantee the continual motivation for employees, besides, a fair financial reward system can also benefit much in the improvement of employees loyalty.A strategic reward system is formulated in accordance with the strategy of human resource department as well as the objective of whole organization that will drive the accomplishment of the organizations final mission (Richard ; Gill, 1999). This kind of pay policy can lead the development of other human resource system instead of becoming the burden of companys finance for removing the disadvantages of traditional financial reward system. The advantage of this reward strategy ensures the long-term implementation of reward mechanism because of the combination with organizations strategy.As a part of strategic reward system, financial reward can motivate the employees effectively by satisfying their needs and improving their expectations. Moreover, the financial reward can also help an organization absorb excellent job seekers and promote the employees ability as well as skills. Contributed by the strategic reward system, employees with good performance can be remained and kept, employees loyalty also will increase which will impact positively on the establishment of organization culture. Positive side of non-financial rewardActually, financial reward is just an important aspect of the strategic reward system, non-financ ial reward is also crucial for a successful motivation. Financial reward can affect the employees rapidly but also in a short term. According to the needs theory and expectancy theory, money is not the only motivator, what an employee want to acquire from the job is not just substance, each employee has a need to be respected and to be recognized. For staff, money is essential, however, the higher pursuit for self-actualization is the final goal.Sometimes, merely reward employees with money are not enough, reward strategies consist of both financial reward and spiritual reward, for the long-term motivation, encouragement in spirit is of much necessity (Herzberg, 1968). Praise employees for their outstanding behaviors will make staff feel they are be valued and recognized, the oral praise can give employees confidence to do their job well and will also promote their expectancy as well as self-requirement potentially. The encouragement from leaders sometimes can be the most useful reward for an employee who seeks for the self-actualization.Compared with financial reward, spiritual reward gives employees a feeling that they are believed and valued. The form of non-financial reward is of variety. It can be an oral praise, a public appreciation, a time off, a little gift and so on (John, 2011). It doesnt matter how much it is worth, what points is the power and motivation through which an organization can increase their staffs loyalty and inspire their enthusiasm. A gift or time off for employee may be not cost much, it can play meaningful effect.This kind of reward will help reduce the pressure in the daily working by providing them with some opportunities to relieve the busy life style. It conveys the care and attention from the organization, which will make employees feels, are really an important member and they are loved and cared by family. Warmth caused by these spiritual rewards gives staff more energy. Feeling grateful for the company, employees will be more responsible for their position and hope to work more efficiently to live up with what they have accepted. Loyalty also can be established and strengthened in this process.Non-financial reward can be a crucial motivator in the long term for the belief and confidence it gives to staff. Satisfying the needs of esteem, employees will be conscious of the role they play in an organization and will feel pleasure to improve the present performance. As the Equity Theory, employees will compare their own reward with others, differences between the rewards will cause unbalance, then employees will seek ways to change the present unbalance which can promote them to perform better and more positively (Kennish, 1994).Maybe, an organization just rewards several outstanding employees, it cannot only motivate the staff who receive the honors but also the staff who do not receive the honor but want to get that kind of reward. Aiming to motivate employees in a long term, strategic reward system combines financial reward with non-financial reward together to make the reward system as considerate as possibl e. The satisfaction for different-level needs comforts employees effectively; besides, it helps employees to improve the self-expectancy invisibly. In order to meet the individual needs, employees will try hard to promote their own performance, which eventually help meet the organizations needs. Motivation generated from the needs and expectancy together helps staff improve the performance. Some negative problems during the implementation of the reward strategy No system can be perfect, although contribution by the reward strategy benefits much in improving employees motivation, some negative sides still exist due to the complicated internal and external environment.Some problems can not be avoided, but we can try hard to orchestrate and prevent. Financial reward sometimes can cause pressure for the operation of an organization if not make a proper budget. Before putting the reward strategy into effect, the finance ability and the actual situation of organization should be taken into consideration to avoid the financial tense. Besides, the allocation of financial reward also has much to concern, there are some issues an organiza tion should pay attention to, such as how to realize the maximum fairness and meet each employees need at the same time (Frase, 2001). There is just relative fairness, moreover, fairness is a subjective feeling, you cannot judge it by specific indicators, it is hard to formulate and to measure. However, the inequitable feeling usually can frustrate an employees motivation if it can not be well handled with in time. Many companies have encountered this annoyance, much money has been allocated but there is no progress in the performance and motivation. Before rewarding employees needs by the moneyed encouragement, the necessary information must be collected and analyzed.What the employees really want and why should be learned about for an effective and right reward. We can classify a companys employees into three kinds-staff at grass-roots, staff at middle level, staff at high-level. Different financial reward policies should target at different groups (Parker, 2001). As for the staff at grass-root , the financial reward can be very effective for this group consist of young people who do not have much economic resource, money is the most important and crucial element to meet their needs.As regards to the middle level, moneyed reward and spiritual reward are both very effective; money and recognition are both crucial. As for the high level staff, the needs of esteem and self-actualization may be more important to show their ability as well as the life value. So if the same financial reward is allocated for different staff can have different effect in improving motivation.In fact, mistakes and low-effective financial rewards are common for many companies for not knowing what needs of their employees (McGarvey, 1997) Non-financial reward is another crucial part for a strategic reward system. However, in the implementation process, many problems emerge due to the overlooking for how to allocate the rewards effectively. If the spiritual reward is in a high frequency, the value and meaning of this kind of reward will be reduced which will make employees feel unhonored and unwanted when they received the reward. That is why so many companies devote much to non-financial reward but few employees have been motivated, commonly seen rewards can not make them excited. Moreover, the reward strategy sometimes can cause the high expectancy of staff, employees may think these rewards are what they should get if accomplish the working task, they maybe regard these rewards as a form of revenue or some necessary welfare which will make them enjoyable but can not improve their motivations (Christopher, 2011).Besides, many companies have a certain misunderstandings for the contents of the non-financial reward, overlooking for the enterprise culture may make the spiritual rewards unworthy, enterprise culture should be a part of the non-financial rewards for a proper and good enterprise culture can comfort and unit the staff as well as make their employees more loyal and full of motivation. Conclusion To conclude, the reward strategy can really improve the employees motivation by meeting employees needs in both substance and spirit.According to the needs theory and expectancy theory, strategic reward system can satisfy staffs needs and then help improve their self-expectancy. However, there are still some negative sides of the reward strategy during the implementation process. This paper introduces some situations, which may make the reward unworthy and not be valued, these situations can be avoided by paying attention to the crucial parts and mastering the employees psychical activity. The reward strategy should be adjusted according to the ongoing situation of organization, combining the financial rewards and non-financial rewards together is the most proper method for an organization to improve their employees motivation. In comparison, the advantages of the reward strategy can win over its disadvantages in a large degree, paying attention to the possible issues existing during the implementation period can be a very effective method to optimize strategic reward system.