Motivating employees: Importance of motivation in the workforce

The idea

Motivation is the drive that makes employees want to work hard and stay with the business. A motivated workforce tends to be more productive, produce better quality, give better customer service and stay longer, which lowers recruitment and training costs. Motivated staff also cooperate more, suggest improvements and help the business meet its aims. Demotivated staff may work slowly, make errors, take more absence and leave, raising costs and damaging reputation. Motivation can come from financial rewards such as pay and bonuses, or non-financial methods such as praise, promotion, job rotation and autonomy. The importance is therefore practical: motivation links directly to efficiency, quality, retention and profit.

For example: A call centre with motivated advisers handles more calls accurately and loses fewer staff.

What earns the marks

• Defines motivation as the willingness of employees to work hard and achieve business goals.
• Explains that motivated staff are more productive, so output per worker rises and unit costs can fall.
• Explains that motivation improves quality and customer service, which can raise sales and reputation.
• States that motivation reduces absenteeism and staff turnover, lowering recruitment and training costs.
• Identifies financial methods such as pay, commission and bonuses, and non-financial methods such as praise, promotion and job enrichment.
• Applies the importance to a named business, for example a restaurant where motivated waiting staff give better service and generate repeat custom.
• Uses terms such as productivity, retention, turnover, morale and reward accurately.
• Reaches a supported judgement about why motivation matters more in some contexts, such as service industries.

Common mistakes and how to put them right

• Treating motivation as identical to job satisfaction.

  Put it right: Motivation is the drive to act and work hard, while satisfaction is how content an employee feels.

• Assuming higher pay always raises motivation.

  Put it right: Pay matters, but praise, progression and interesting work can motivate just as strongly, and money alone may not sustain effort.

• Ignoring the cost of poor motivation.

  Put it right: Low morale raises absence, turnover and errors, so the business pays through recruitment, training and lost output.

Exam tips

• Connect each benefit of motivation to a business consequence such as lower costs, higher sales or better reputation.
• Use a real or invented example to show the link between a motivation method and an outcome.
• Include a judgement that weighs the importance of motivation against other factors such as pay levels or training.