After reading this week’s articles about employee engagement and motivation, I could not help but think back to the job I had in college. As previously mentioned, I worked for one of the performing arts venues on campus. To this day, working as a student manager has been the best position I have held. Because so many of the strategies from the readings reminded me of my time there, I contacted the new house manager, Jennifer Maddox to gain the supervisor’s view of maintaining motivation at the IU Auditorium.
Jenn has worked as the house manager at the IU Auditorium for the past four years. Her main responsibility is to train and supervise the front of house staff for events. In order to create the prestigious environment necessary for the patrons of season shows, the staff must be engaged and happy to be at work. Negative attitudes could greatly affect a guest’s experience.
“We try to keep it a fun environment to be in, student managers are encouraged to mingle with other staff members before an event. We start meetings with games and trivia for prizes (even if the prize is something silly) which helps the group bond and feel comfortable in the team environment” (Personal communication with Jennifer Maddox, 2012). These activities reflect what Heymann and Barrera suggest in the article “Engaging Employees in the Company’s Profits and Their own.” Just like the company Great Little Box, the IU Auditorium wants to ensure that they hire the right people and that the workers feel happy and engaged with each other and the environment. (Heymann, & Barrera, 2010). The IU Auditorium also schedules bi-annual employee appreciation events to show each employee that the company values him/her. It may not be a free trip to Mexico, but employees feel appreciated.
“We also offer seminars on leadership for managers to partake in. This allows each employee to sharpen skills or voice suggestions on how improvements could be made. This gives an opportunity for the managers to feel even more engaged” (Personal communication, 2012). Martin and Schmidt support the use of these types of strategies to keep high talent engaged. They state that an organization should never assume that talented employees are engaged (Martin, & Schmidt, 2010).
All of the articles this week offer valuable insight into ways to motivate and engage employees. While the IU Auditorium employs some of the suggested methods, there are some that are difficult to practice when working with student workers (typically they move on after a maximum of four years). The examples of the companies from all of the readings did a great job of illustrating why employee engagement and motivation matters so much and why every organization should pay attention.
References:
Heymann, J., Barrera, M. (2010) Engaging Employees in the Company's Profits and Their Own, Harvard Business School, pp. 1-28.
Martin, J., and Schmidt, C. (2010). How to Keep Your Top Talent. Harvard Business Review, pp. 3-9.
This is great insight into rewarding employees to increase motivation. Motivated employees do not only create an efficient team, but also make patrons happy to give their business. In what ways were employees intrinsically motivated? Extrinsically motivated?
ReplyDeleteGood post, Megan. How do you think the employee reward system has changed from when you were a student manager, if it has at all? What kind of rewards did you receive as a student manager - did they differ much from those received by other (non-student) employees?
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked as a student manager, it has been longer than I would like to admit since I've worked there, we were rewarded with tickets to the shows on nights we were not scheduled to work, the occasional free snack from concession stands, meals during long events, or even occasionally getting to meet the talent from that evening's events. Since I have been gone, the leadership programs have been developed. Back in my day they were much less formal and more of a discussion than a program. I feel I might have benefitted from attending such programs. The non-student staff still enjoyed certain perks but they happened less often.
ReplyDeleteI think many of the employees there are intrinsically motivated as opposed to extrinsically. While the free tickets and snacks were fantastic, they were not the reason any of us worked there. Because of the intense hiring process, everyone selected to work there can contribute beautifully to the team. I considered everyone I worked with a friend back then. I liked going to work to see everyone and be able to joke around and have fun with my friends. There were many times when one of us was not scheduled on a given night, but we still showed up to check in. Maybe we were all nerds, but I loved it!
Megan, thanks for sharing. You talk about how some of the reward systems may be harder to implement for student workers who move on after a maximum of 4 years. Do you think that workers in more temporary work situations (who know they will be eventually be moving on) have the same drives as more permanent employees? For example, it sounds like the IU Auditorium did a good job of meeting the drive to bond (Nohria et al., 2008). However, do you feel like they met the other 3 drives discussed by Nohria et al? If so, how? If not, do you feel like it was necessary?
ReplyDelete