Free Employee Motivation and Retention Essay Sample

RESEARCH FINDINGS

Through the use of direct personal interview of a randomly selected sample from the target population, as well as the use of a Likert scale Questionnaire send by post to respondents, the following results were obtained regarding the level of motivation amongst the employees as well as their commitment to both work and the hotel, which in indicated the level of employee turnover.

Employees Profile

The average tenure of employees was found to be 6.23 years. The tenure of employees was significantly correlated with age, with older employees reporting longer tenure than that observed amongst younger employees (r =0.48). A significantly mild relationship between age and the number of positions employees held within Hotel X (r = 0.36) was also established.

On education level, 2% of the participants reported holding a graduate degree, 25% a bachelor's degree, 36% an associate's degree, and 39% reported having completed high school education. The majority of the participants who held lesser qualification than a bachelor's degree were either actively studying in pursuance of the qualification, or expressed a desire to study for the same in the near future. They felt that such a qualification would improve their chances of going up the career ladder at a faster pace.

Table 1 provides more detail on the sample.

Table 1: Demographic Profile

Average Years Tenure

Average number of positions held in the company

In Current Position

Exempt employees

Non-exempt workers

Results from interview

The research investigated the state of employee motivation among the employees in the major hierarchical levels of the hotel and found the following;

On the issue of employees' expectations from Hotel X, all employees reported to expect promotion to a higher position as the number one expectation.  Waiters expected to be promoted to supervisors, supervisors to managers, and mangers to directors.  A pay increase came in second among the expectations with waiters and supervisors respectively reporting the highest sensitivity to pay increase.

Employees across all levels, however, expressed significant doubt about the fulfilment of their various expectations by the hotel, with the internal policies of the top brass management cited by all the workers surveyed as the major impediment to such realisation.

The aspects of the company that made it attractive to new employees were also surveyed. It was found that Hotel X offered considerably good pay package to all calibres of personnel. Managers, supervisors, and waiters all agreed that the pay was acceptable especially considering the fact that at the time of conducting the research, the economy was in recession.  In addition, waiters reported to be significantly satisfied with the number of hours they were required to work. The employees also cited the expectation of career advancement as yet another reason which had attracted them to the hotel, though they later found this to be too difficult to be achieved in the company. Job security as well ranked high among the motivators of joining the company.

With regard to working environment, supervisors cited the best aspect of working in the hotel as good cooperation with and amongst their subordinates. A good number of supervisors also pointed one of their bosses as kind and understanding. Managers too identified cooperation among their subordinates, in addition to a culture of deep respect for superiors by subordinates, as one of the best aspects of their working life at the hotel.  Managers reported to be satisfied by the level of autonomy in running their departments given to them by their superiors as one of the aspects that created a good working atmosphere in the hotel. Waiter nonetheless reported no enjoyable aspects concerning the work atmosphere in the company.

A few undesired aspects of the work environment at the company were also found from the interviews with the personnel of the company. For instance, majority of the supervisors reported the aspect of uncertainty about promotion, even after dedicating many years of their careers to loyal service of the hotel, as the most disturbing aspect of their working life at the company.  A significant number of supervisors said they were unhappy with occasional "I am the boss here" feeling portrayed by the management as well as internal politics in departments.

On their part managers cited often, unnecessarily rude remarks by their superiors as one of the most disheartening as well as unacceptable aspects of working for the company.  Further, lack of a clear policy regarding promotion as well as pay increase were identified by the managers as de-motivating factors.  Waiters recorded the highest discomfort for working for the hotel citing subjection to bad treatment such as overworking with very low pay. They also had the least expectation of ever being promoted in their working life at the hotel.

A fair number of supervisors were found to stick to their jobs in the long-term because they believed, even with the existing policy that allowed for very minimal chances of promotion, that a promotion would come their way provided they stuck around for a longer period of time in addition to excelling in their duties. They contented that money, which a change of jobs would highly improve prospects of earning more, was not the biggest deal in their career development. The same reason was reported by managers, but who in contrast prioritised job security especially in the time of recession, as the number one reason for them staying around a little longer.

Most waiters reported  that it was not only their love for their jobs but longetivity-which  would give them a strong competitive advantage if they chose to hit the road in search for a new job-that prompted them to stay a little longer.  The need to stick for ones job in light of the economic recession at the time was also highlighted.

Majority of the supervisors, on the question of satisfaction with current position, were found to be mainly unhappy with their positions and many cited the reason for this as almost absolute non-existence of incentives as well as appraisals. Some also reported disregard of their suggestions of improvisation as well as floor politics as elements that significantly contributed to their discontent. Managers, on the other hand, said they were highly dissatisfied with their jobs because of poor work culture in the organization which entails teams shunning work and the senior managers pilling all of the  burden on middle level managers,  in addition to those reasons mentioned by supervisors.  Waiters reckoned that the amount of monetary compensation, in addition to tips received from customers, was quite satisfying , but the biggest causes of their dissatisfaction were extreme job pressure as well and subjection to offensive language by rude customers and some of their superiors as well. Lack of a program that matches rewards and performance was also mentioned.

 

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