Motivating and Engaging Employees for Better Business. a Virgin Media Case Study

Virgin Media Case Study

In its most basic sense, motivation is the need or desire to do something. Our individual experiences and circumstances shape our desires and needs, and these differences shape our motivation, and determine what we will be motivated to pursue. In a business setting, each day, an employee comes to work with a particular reason, or motivation, to be there. For some people, a place of employment offers financial security and social relationships, while others might solely view work as a stepping stone to a greater growth. Virgin Media is a company that believes that employee satisfaction leads to greater customer satisfaction, which generates increases in business earnings (The Times 100 - A Virgin Media Case Study, p. 1). Virgin Media uses a compilation of Maslow, Herzberg, and Taylor’s theories of motivation to provide a variety of incentives and motivators that create a culture of enjoyment and productivity in the workplace.

There are many ways in which researchers have found that motivation occurs in the workplace. Virgin Media provide employees with various incentives for being above average employees. One motivational factor is money. While Virgin Media realizes that money is not the greatest motivation, it does recognize its importance in its employee’s life. Thus, Virgin Media offers competitive salaries and uses programs like ASPIRE to that reward employees for above average work. (The Times 100 - A Virgin Media Case Study, p. 2). This theory of rewards being motivation derived from Frederick Taylor. He suggested that people are motivated by the need for money and this motivation would increase productivity (The Times 100 - A Virgin Media Case Study, p. 2). Even from first hand experiences, money is not always enough to increase motivation and productivity at work.

Taking into account that people needed more than just rewards, Frederick Herzberg proposed that motivation is based on two factors; he called these factors hygiene and motivators. Hygiene refers to those things which should cause job satisfaction such as salary and working conditions. This category also includes things like friends and employee benefits. According to Herzberg, hygiene factors could lead to dissatisfaction in the workplace if they are not meeting the person’s needs (The Times 100 - A Virgin Media Case Study, p. 3). Motivators include things such as recognition, especially amongst peers, achievement and opportunity for advancement, and responsibility (The Times 100 - A Virgin Media Case Study, p. 3). Providing apprenticeship schemes and the annual apprentice graduation ceremony are ways Virgin Media utilizes this theory. Giving employees a sense of importance, training them, and even celebrating them helps to improve job satisfaction (The Times 100 - A Virgin Media Case Study, p. 3). Herzberg suggested that while we can pursue any factor at any time, different levels of motivation would be achieved (Alanis Business Academy, 2013).