One of the most valuable assets that any business has is its people. There should be highly qualified and motivated employees, so that employees are able to shape the future of the business, making it more profitable and competitive. The truth is that people work to live. If they could live sans working hard, they never work. It means that there is always something that really motivates employees to work hard. That is why, they are working so hard.


Consequently, it is very important for managers, especially CEOs to have a motivation strategy to create and maintain the spirit of enthusiasm among employees. One of the most important challenges that lies before the manager is how to motivate employees in the best possible way. Employees are motivated to work, only if their expectations are met at work. As a result, managers are compelled to draft a motivation plan that benefits both employees and business.

Partners of business
To begin with, employees should be partners of the business, especially the success of the business, as motivation of people is directly based on what t he employees can gain from the business. Managers or team leaders ought to share the organisational vision with the employees based on the organisational hierarchy, so that the employees can have an idea where to go and what to do for achieving business goals.

What is more i mportant is that managers should be able to convince employees that they also have a major role to play in bringing the glory to the business in the competitive business environment. What needs to be done for all these things is to properly communicate with people in the business. If not, you are unable to identify the ideas and attitudes that the employees hold.

One of the greatest needs of each person is the need of being appreciated. Large ceremonies that require much money are not essential to appreciate people. It is of the essence to pen down that privileges must be provided based on performance alone. However, the biggest mistake that can be always seen not only in Sri Lanka but also in all Asian countries is perks and privileges are given based on nepotism and sexism which undoubtedly pave t he way for demotivation among hard-working employees.

Specially, this will lead to presenteeism. Presenteeism is a newly coined word to the business world. It means that the employees are present at the office, but not working, because they think high performance will not result i n promotions in their business entities. This can always be seen in the state sector. This is costly and disadvantageous for business institutes, as salaries are paid on time, although the employees are not working.

Claming credit
People can’t grow if they are constantly doing what t hey have always done. Hence, different and more challenging tasks have to be given to the employees grounded on their knowledge and skills. What can be seen in many business entities is top level managers being reluctant to share their work with the juniors. These managers do all the work alone with the ulterior motive of exaggerating their performance and claiming the whole credit.

This results in a high turnover of staff and dissatisfaction. The challenges t hat are given t o a person should be reachable and in the frames of the person’s interests. If not, it will undoubtedly lead to pessimistic attitudes among the employees. At the same time, proper programmes must be designed, in order that employees’ performance can be improved. People ought to be armed with the necessary skills, before t hey are provided with challenges.

The seniors must let the juniors resolve issues in their own way, as everyone has a unique way to deal with problems. One of the factors that results in demotivation is that the j uniors have no conducive environment where their creative ideas can be put into practice. The organisation should be a platform where innovative ideas can be put into action. The working environment is more important to the employees, probably than money.

It can be seen that some employees work with low wages in some business organisations, particularly, due to good working environment. If the work place is nice t o work, it will energize and motivate the employees to work more efficiently, resulting in higher profitability in the business.

What the seniors should understand is that the juniors or employees are not machines that can be operated for 24 hours. Actually, there are no even machines that can be operated all the day. Therefore, it should be compulsory for all the employees to take their meal on time. This can create positive attitudes towards the business. Some researchers have proved that putting a picture of kids or family on their desk can energize some workers.

What has to be noted here is that motivation is an art that makes your business more profitable. What the business community has to keep in mind is that personal growth and business growth should go simultaneously.