In times of crisis, it is even more important to motivate employees
When there is a crisis, everyone from managers down to employees is nervous. Employees are worried about whether they can keep their jobs, so in times of crisis, should they lay off employees or raise salaries?
Case:
Mr. Willoby Macomik, who single-handedly founded the world-famous spice company, Macomik, is a complete dictator and an elite of such operators, but his management method has lagged far behind the trend of the times, and Macomik is faced with the dilemma that unless the salaries of all employees are reduced by 10%, the company's income and expenditure will not be balanced. It was at this time that Mr. Willoughby passed away.
The nephew of the elder Macomik, Mr. Charles Macomik, was appointed chairman of the company. At the beginning of his term of office, he gathered all the employees of the company and said very sincerely: "From today onwards, the wages of all employees will increase by 10%, and the working hours will be shortened." The fate of our company is completely on your shoulders, and I hope that everyone will work hard to turn the tide and save their company. The company employees present couldn't believe their ears, they were all dumbfounded, puzzled. Because the difficulties were in front of us, as far as the bad situation at that time was concerned, cutting the salaries of the company's employees by 10% was not enough to tide over the difficulties, who would have thought that the new supervisor, Mr. Charles, would give everyone a 10% salary increase and a significant reduction in working hours. When employees finally understood that the new supervisor's move to raise salaries was to show his complete dependence on all employees, morale rose immediately, and in just one year, Markomic reversed the loss.
The company will always encounter setbacks, whenever at this time, especially when encountering greater difficulties, the boss in the pessimistic and disappointed mindset, the first thing that comes to mind is often to reduce wages and layoffs, and salary cuts and layoffs will make employees' already fragile psychology hit again, who will be with the boss with one heart and one mind?
It turns out that layoffs are not an inevitable choice when companies are in trouble. The wisdom of Mr. Charles Macomik is that, despite the crisis, instead of arbitrarily making the decision to reduce salaries and layoffs, he tries to boost the morale of employees and make the company work together. The additional salary cost of 10% is exchanged for a huge intangible asset – corporate morale, which is not something that money can measure. downsizing? Raise? In contrast, it is self-evident which is better or worse. When the company is facing a crisis, it can be seen whether the boss employs people wisely.
As a leader, it is not enough to understand the inner wishes of employees, do not think that more bonuses and more good words can mobilize the enthusiasm of employees. People are very complex, and to make them work for you, you need to use more subtle means. There are some methods that can not only fully meet the needs of subordinates, but also stimulate their enthusiasm and motivation, improve work efficiency, of which money is an important means.
Only when all employees (the boss is no exception) have a "grateful heart", the "grateful heart" can play its huge role, otherwise the "grateful heart" can only be used as a tool for corporate decision makers or managers to fool employees, so it is very important for all employees to form a "grateful heart" through salary increases.
Enterprise managers should respect their subordinates and colleagues with a sincere heart, think more about their subordinates with their hearts, and conduct more "empathy". Only sincerity can carry out effective communication; only sincerity, cooperative relations can be lasting; only sincerity, enterprises will have a real sense of unity and cohesion.
Of course, layoffs can sometimes be a last resort to avoid bankruptcy.
The massive decline in passenger traffic that followed 9/11 and the company's operational problems brought America's largest airline, American Airlines, to the brink of bankruptcy. As a result, on April 16, 2003, the company's aviation service organization voted to implement salary cuts and layoffs, thus avoiding bankruptcy for the company. Layoffs are a powerful medicine that can be prescribed in the name of "disruptive innovation." However, if you just blindly lay off employees, in addition to employees, there are more companies themselves, so before "prescribing drugs", you must be cautious.
The leaders of successful enterprises are mostly the elite of the industry, and the companies that are downhill are mostly helmed by the hard-working generation. If business leaders want to maximize the effect of incentives, they need to grasp the essentials of timely, clear and tailor-made, and give employees a sense of mission and full autonomy in their work, in order to meet the needs of different contributors under the principle of fairness. It should be noted here that the "gratitude" strategy of raising and reducing salaries cannot be abused, and we must understand "gratitude" according to market laws and strive to cultivate a "gratitude" culture. Moreover, the relationship between the boss and the employee is based on economic indicators - profits, is mutual, employees should learn to be "grateful", the boss should learn to be "grateful": thank the employees for often working overtime for their company without compensation; thank the employees for enduring a lot of cold eyes and contempt in order to obtain a certain order; thank the employees for doing their own work to make the company operate normally; thank the employees for the timely delivery of the high temperature, sweating like rain; thank the employees for the grievances and tears that they swallowed alone in order to maintain the company's image.
However, this is not the case for some business managers, who do not respect their subordinates and colleagues with a sincere heart, and do not think about their subordinates with their hearts. Instead, he thinks of himself as the boss, as the savior, thinking that I have given you a job, given you a job, and it is good not to thank me without you. It is impossible to communicate effectively, the cooperative relationship cannot be lasting, and such an enterprise will not have real unity and cohesion. Because managers are driven by short-term interests, they only care about "picking up sesame seeds" in front of them, regardless of whether they will "lose watermelons" in the future. Further, this is also closely related to the concept of employment of business owners or decision makers.
Incentives include two aspects, on the one hand, material rewards, and spiritual rewards on the other. Giving certain material and monetary rewards to employees who perform well, and awarding medals and bonuses to individuals who have made outstanding contributions, will promote the employees themselves or others. How can companies motivate employees to reach their full potential? This is something we often explore. The incentive mechanism adopted by enterprises is the most effective, of course, there are many ways to motivate, not only money. The way to praise employees is more conducive to the growth of employees.
Harness the intrinsic desires of your employees to maximize motivation and productivity. Don't try to change talent one by one, but try to change your organization, reduce the negative factors that are not conducive to motivation, and fully mobilize talent to realize the instinct of self-motivation. Motivation is a double-edged sword, and if it is used well, it will prompt talents to stay; if it is not used well, it will hurt people's self-esteem and play a counterproductive role. Every talent wants others to see themselves as "self-respecting people", "value people" and "self-actualization people". Therefore, the focus of motivating contemporary talent should be on "affirmation", as Harvard professor Conte said: "Salary is a right, and only affirmation is a gift." "Negative incentives" (e.g., criticism, harsh punishments, etc.) are used sparingly. In short, the enterprise has more humane management and respects employees, and employees will naturally think about the enterprise everywhere and love their own employees.
Effective incentives are essential. Enterprise efficiency should also be linked to the interests of employees, reasonable and effective performance appraisal methods will make employees feel that the effort is rewarded, the work is naturally more hard. Enterprises should have humane care, the more humane the management of the enterprise, the more employees can take the affairs of the enterprise as their own affairs. Employees have the idea of "I want to work" instead of "the leader of the business makes me work."