Mgt 312 - Motivating Employees

Motivating Employees

Durrell L. Burkes

MGT/312

November 24, 2014

When it comes to motivation, there are many things that set people apart as far as what motivates them. For some, it’s the feeling they take in after they have accomplished a daunting task. For others, it’s simply what rewards or accolades they will receive after they have accomplished their feat. Whatever the motivation, top companies are finding that having the right mindset and figuring out what keeps employees motivated to perform at their highest abilities is proving to keep them successful as well. A company that has picked up on finding ways to keep their employees motivated to perform efficiently is the SAS Institute. Their growing numbers accompanied with a low turnover rate shows the company is doing something right in getting and retaining the best people.

Since its inception in 1976, the SAS Institute has grown into the largest privately owned software company with over two billion dollars in total revenue. While many software companies experience high turnover rates in the 20% range, SAS has been able to keep their turnover rates at less than five percent. The way they have done this is how they are able to keep their employees motivated to perform at a high level while still enjoying their work. SAS allows for much autonomy on the job, encouraging employees to enjoy what they do. They do much development of new products in house, which encourages the employees to be creative and open-minded in finding new innovative products to create. Software companies are known for buying out usually smaller software competitors, and then use this already created software to increase their market value. This in turn, stifles the motivation of its employees by not allowing for new innovations to come forward. Aside from the encouragement of being creative and having autonomy, SAS Institute also offer many other perks that can allow for a steady balance of work and home life. While on the job though, SAS also encourage their employees to learn new areas and get additional training so they don’t get bored. Routine, day to day job functions can cause high burnout on the job, and SAS does everything they can to refrain from this happening by keeping their employees engaged and creative in what they do.

When performing a job or task for the specific reasoning on intrinsic motivation, it means that you do the work itself because it is the motivator. Reiterating that much of the technology created by SAS is done in house, employee engagement is much higher because employees are made to feel their contributions made will impact overall success of the company. Also, being encouraged to learn new skills and change jobs within the company can be linked to intrinsic motivations as well. Referring to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, intrinsic motivation may also be found because of the fulfillment of certain needs. For instance, a basic lower level need is security and stability, and SAS Institute has been able to offer that even during the economic downturn in the late 2000s. During the recession of the late 2000s, many software companies were forced to downsize their workforce because of inability to stay afloat. However, SAS Institute wisely invested percentages of revenues to new research and development in order to keep people working. This smart move by the company influenced employee’s intrinsic motivation because they are able to be satisfied in their psychological and safety needs. There are also facilities in which people are able to exercise, and there’s areas where people can enjoy having picnics, which fulfills the need for belongingness and cohesiveness. Each employee is also afforded their own personal office in which to work. While this could be seen as a factor that contributes more to the extrinsic motivations, this approach allows for employees to feel valued. Top managers have the attitude of wanting to treat others as they would want to be treated. In the workplace, having management who wishes to treat you as equal rather than just a subordinate can increase intrinsic motivation because of the self-actualization need being met.