The
Quick Guide to Employee Motivation
Thirty-Three Proven Employee Motivation 
Concepts To Make Your Company A Winner
Leonard C. Scott
The Quick Guide To Employee Motivation
Thirty-Three Proven Employee Motivation 
Concepts To Make Your Company a Winner
By
Leonard C. Scott 
Dallas, Texas
Copyright 2013
Second Edition
About The Author
Leonard C. Scott is a human resources 
professional with more than forty years in 
the field. He has been a corporate human 
resources and labor relations executive, has 
provided human resources consulting 
services to a broad range of American and 
foreign owned companies, and has taught 
business and human resources management 
courses at several colleges. He has appeared 
on a number of radio talk shows and made 
presentations at national and international 
professional and trade associations. His 
educational background includes 
undergraduate and graduate credentials from 
the University of Illinois, Northwestern 
University, and Cornell University. He lives 
in Dallas, Texas, and can be reached at 
scottco@airmail.net His website is found at 
www.lenscottandcompany.com 
It contains information on his books, 
articles, programs and presentations.
1
Contents
About The Author 1
Introduction 4
Money 6
Interesting Work 12
Working With Winners
From Whom Something
Can Be Learned 13
Job Security and Opportunity
For Advancement 15
Encourage And Accept
Employee New Ideas 17
Attractive Work Environment 18
Modem Equipment 20
A Boss Who Cares 21
Tell Employees Where
They Stand 22
Continuity Of Employment 26
Hire Capable Employees 27
Discharge Hiring
Mistakes Quickly 29
Teamwork 30
Provide Opportunity
For Mavericks 31
Flexibility 33
Opportunity For
Family Involvement 34
2
Develop a Specific Company
Vocabulary 36
Employee Speak Out Meetings 38
Set Up Departmental
Competitions And Have
Fun On The Job 40
A Management That Listens,
Looks, And Interacts 41
Innovation Award» 42
New Employee Orientation 
And Senior Employee 
Brush Ups 44
Company Culture Regarding 
Making Decision and Mistakes 45
Open Communication Channels 47
Employee Empowerment 48
Employee Surveys 50
Communicate on Company 
Progress 51
Train Managers in Employee 
Motivation 52
Build Bridges With
Natural Leaders 53
The Human Res ources 
Department 54
Incidental 56
Mission Statement 58
Conclusion 60
3
Introduction
One of an organization’s greatest 
sources of creativity, energy, and developing 
a “winning way” is the workers in the 
organization. The charge of leaders is to 
bring out these qualities through effective 
leadership and motivation programs. 
Motivating employees to achieve stretch 
goals in their work and enjoy doing that 
makes for a consistently successful company 
and a happy, satisfied work force. How do 
you do this as an owner or manager? In my 
forty-five years of work in the human 
resources field as an executive, consultant, 
teacher, and author, I have used all the 
motivation programs described in this book 
to assist companies become winners. This 
little book presents these programs and 
describes how to use them. The title of this 
book reflects the fact that the concept for 
each motivation program can be grasped 
quickly. The development and 
implementation will take somewhat longer. 
However, there is not much complexity in 
motivating employees. It is really quite 
simple. In fact, a company that I worked for 
many years ago used each and every on one 
of these motivational concepts in its
4
business operations, and it became the 
fastest growing firm in its industry.
One of the prerequisites for 
successfully motivating employees is to hire 
high potential, bright workers suited for the 
jobs they perform. To accomplish this a 
company must have an in-house human 
resources department with a skilled leader 
knowledgeable in employee motivation and 
employee recruiting techniques and 
employee selection instruments (tests.) 
Using an outside personnel service makes 
the use of many of these employee 
motivation concepts impossible and ties the 
hands of the company to a significant extent 
in developing a high-motivation work force.
5
Money
If a group of entrepreneurs, managers, 
and executives were asked what motivates 
them the most, the vast majority would say 
money. In my experience, the same applies 
to workers. Most Americans are money 
motivated. So, one program in a company 
that wants to be consistently successful 
should be based on motivating employees 
through money. There are a few principles 
that make a wage or salary payment plan an 
effective motivator:
— Wages and salaries must rise in a 
progressive fashion as employees become 
fully qualified in their work. (See example 
below. )
WAGE RATE SHEETS 
Dept. I 00 - Tool room
Training Rates
Classification Title Staring Rt F E d’ C B A  BWR MMWR
Die Maker A 7.94 8.10 8.26 8.43 8.67 8.93 9.09 9.23 9.53
Die Maker B 7.83 7.91 8.07 8.23 8.39 8.54 8.70 8.95
Dept. 130 - Maintenance
Classification Title Staring Rt. F E D C B A BWR MMWR
Maint. Man A 7.94 8.10 8.26 8.43 8.67 8.93 9.09 9.23 9.53
Maint. Man B 7.80 7.89 8.03 8.19 8.31 8.42 8.66
Janitor 7.28 7.37 7.53
Dept. 200 -  Heading 
Classification Title Starting Rt. F E D C B A BWR MMWR
Set-Up Man 7.85 7.93 8.10 8.26 8.42 8.55 8.67 8.80 9.09
Trucker/Wire 7.72 7.83 7.93 8.04 8.15 8.37
BWR = Basic Wage Rate MMWR= Maximum Merit Wage Rate
6
— There should be an above standard pay 
range (MMWR) for employees who 
consistently perform above the standard 
level. Sometimes these employees are called 
“water walkers.”
— Wage and salary increases should be 
based on regular employee performance 
evaluations and regular performance 
appraisal sessions. Performance evaluation 
programs can be based on the achievement 
of goals alone or on a combination of the 
achievement of gora s and the measurement 
of an employees work using the standard 
work measurement factors: Quantity of 
Output, Quality of Output, Interpersonal 
Relations, Innovation, Initiative and 
Ingenuity. (See Employee Evaluation Form 
which follows.)
7
Employee Performance Evaluation Form 
Employee Evaluation Report
Managerial and Supervisory Employees
Employee_________________________
Date
Titl e_____________________________
Department_____________ ___________
Performance Factors
Quantity of Output —
Outstanding Excellent Good
10 9 8 7 6 5
Make an overall judgment as to the 
size of the employee’s acceptable output 
in relationship to what is regarded as 
satisfactory/good, excellent, outstanding.
Quality of Work —
Outstanding Excellent Good
10 9 8 7 6 5
Make an overall judgment as the 
Quality of the employee's output.
Interpersonal Relations —
Outstanding Excellent Good
10 9 8 7 6 5
Judge employee's cooperativeness, 
influence on fellow workers, 
nature of upward and downward 
impact, and overall company 
loyalty and spirit.
8
Innovation — Outstanding Excellent Good
10 9 8 7 6 5
Judge amount, quality, and 
impact of employee's proposals 
for increasing output quantity 
and quality, and improving 
work environment and work 
group interpersonal relations, 
cooperation, and creativity.
Leadership & Managerial
Skills — Outstanding Excellent Good
10 9 8 7 6 5
Consider the employee's demonstrated 
ability to motivate subordinates to be 
highly effective workers. Does the 
supervisor/manager impart the desire 
in his/her subordinates to make an 
impact in the organization through their 
work?
Points Rating Total Points______________
48-50 Outstanding Rating_________________
40-47 Excellent
25-39 Good
Salary Increase Recommendation________
Superior’s Signature & Approvals
9
It is important that all employees must 
know where they stand at all times. One 
final note on money as a motivator: 
companies who pay the average “going rate” 
in wages and salaries get the average “going 
rate” of employee motivation and efficiency. 
Companies who pay above this level get 
superior employee motivation and 
efficiency. A major national metal forming 
company had a policy of paying its 
employees up to 10% above the “going rate” 
for its jobs with the result that it became 
one of the most profitable, highly respected 
firms in its industry due to its reputation for 
quality output, high productivity, product 
innovation, community involvement, and 
unstinting customer service. Another 
enlightened firm in this same industry 
established a salary structure with no 
maximum salary levels. Theoretically, 
the top human resources executive could be 
paid more than the top manufacturing 
executive if he contributed more to company 
profitability than the manufacturing 
executive. This company in just a few short 
years became the fastest growing firm in its 
industry. Also this compensation philosophy
10
enabled the company to secure executive 
talent from firms ten times its size and 
maintain an executive motivation 
environment second to none in its industry.
11
Interesting Work
Some jobs have a greater potential to 
be interesting than others. However, even 
the most repetitious job has some potential 
to be made more interesting and thus more 
motivating. For example, training programs 
on the origin and history of a given 
manufacturing operation or technology 
application can provide interest and 
motivation to a worker performing that 
operation or using that application. Other 
things that can make a job interesting 
are having workers train other workers in 
their jobs, having workers explain their 
work to persons taking a tour of where they 
work, and having workers explain and train 
executives in their work in “The Boss 
Comes Down From The Ivory Tower” 
programs. Also, providing employees with 
the latest equipment, technology, and 
work environment is a way to make work 
more interesting.
12
Working With Winners From Whom 
Something Qan_Be_Leamed
Hiring high potential, high 
intelligence employees who have a track 
record of achievement and something to 
offer fellow employees in terms of new 
ideas, new approaches to jobs, friendly 
competition in the pursuit of goals, and 
building camaraderie within the work group 
is an effective way to motivate employees. 
How do you hire high potential employees? 
Check their background, references, 
achievement track record, and educational 
record and give them aptitude and 
intelligence tests. Making certain that a new 
employee is bright, trainable, wanting to be 
trained, and has a solid work ethic is most 
important in building a high motivation 
work force. Currently, using temporaries, 
leased employee, and part time workers is in 
vogue. The motivation and efficiency 
emanating from such employees pales in 
comparison to that from a permanent 
employee work force with company loyalty, 
high pride in employment, satisfaction in 
their work, and a work outlook characterized 
by an attitude of creativity, innovation, and
13
ingenuity. My advice on using temporary 
and leased employees is to do this very 
sparingly and only when absolutely 
necessary.
14
Job Security and Opportunity For 
Advancement
Employees give their all when they 
feel they have job security, that is, 
employment that allows them to pay their 
bills, move up the economic ladder, put 
their kids through school, possibly buy a 
house, and enjoy a little bit of the good life. 
How does a company provide job security? 
It establishes an internal promotion and 
transfer system that allows all employees to 
rise to their highest level of ability. This is 
done through job ladders, self-nomination 
for openings, temporary transfers, added 
skills training, 100% positive performance 
appraisal, and culling out poor performers 
quickly.
Employees consider the opportunity 
for advancement highly motivating. It is 
important to post openings before 
going out of the company to fill positions. 
Employees should be able to bid or self 
nominate for these openings and be 
interviewed by the decision maker seeking 
to fill the position. All employees who bid 
on an opening or self nominate for it, should 
be informed why they did or did not get the
15
position after they are interviewed. There 
always is a valid reason why one applicant is 
placed in an open position over another 
applicant. The reason could be prior 
experience, record of accomplishments, 
performance appraisal ratings, special 
knowledge and skills, or superior education 
achievement and credentials. Employees 
applying for an opening want to know why 
they did or did not get the job. Telling the 
applicants who are not chosen solidifies 
their belief that the company is dealing with 
them equitably and keeps their commitment 
to the company intact. Another approach to 
use in showing that the company believes in 
advancing employees up the organization is 
to establish a temporary assignment system 
based on company service. Under this 
system, an employee with the most company 
service in the department would be given the 
opportunity to accept or refuse a temporary 
assignment to a higher rated position thereby 
getting the opportunity to secure experience 
in the job that might be useful in the bidding 
or self nomination process when and if the 
job ever comes open.
16
Encourage And Accept Employee New 
Ideas
Accepting an employee’s new idea 
regarding a company product, service, 
procedure, or process is a great way to 
motivate employees. Encouraging 
employees to come up with such new 
ideas is an important motivational activity. 
Encouraging employees to do this should be 
embedded in the company culture. 
Department heads should regularly canvass 
their employees for their new ideas. Also, 
department heads should always have an 
“open door” when their employees come to 
them with new ideas. Informal “new idea” 
contests with symbolic prizes like “Einstein 
Genius Trophies” and “Most Creative Mind 
Trophies” should be held from time to time.
17
Attractive Work Environment
The presence of a highly attractive 
work environment is critical in establishing 
a high motivation work force. The work 
space that provided the maximum employee 
motivation that I have experienced had the 
following characteristics: a glass walled, 
office building set in a green space so that 
employees looking out would see spacious 
lawns, trees, modem sculptures, and plenty 
of sky; an open general office with desks set 
in a classroom format with no partitions 
which maximized communication among 
the employees in the general office; glass 
executive offices with doors that were 
almost never closed; a rear wall in the 
general office where beautiful works of 
modem art were hung and changed out 
every few months. Looking at these works 
of art provided a pleasant change of pace, an 
opportunity to think, and a visit to a 
beautiful scene where the mind rested for a 
minute and the spirit rose for a minute. 
Along this rear wall below the art work were 
stationed rows of cabinets and file spaces 
where employees could place their personal 
items, office supplies, files, etc.
18
The reception area of this office hm a free 
popcorn machine. The employee lunchroom 
had a lounge and reading area. The hum in 
this office reflected the ultra-high level of 
productivity, employee communications, 
pride in employment, and esprit de corps 
present in the company. This office picture 
might be used as a template for a high 
motivation office space any company might 
wish to build.
19
Modem Equipment
High on the list of employee 
motivators are attractive office furniture and 
the latest office equipment — computers, 
servers, copiers, hand-held computers, and 
phones. Employees, when given the best 
equipment available, will use this equipment 
to its maximum potential and often to levels 
beyond what is thought to be its maximum 
potential. Employees work with their 
equipment “all day every day” They know 
this equipment like they know their 
children. Over time they often find ways to 
use this equipment in new, ingenuous ways.
20
A Boss Who Cares
A boss who cares can get significantly 
more out of his/her work force than one who 
doesn’t. What does a boss who cares mean? 
A caring boss knows something about 
his/her employees, their marital status, the 
number, age, and sex of their children, their 
hobbies, what schools they attended, their 
birthday, their favorite teams, their 
professional aspirations, and their family 
background. A caring boss uses this 
information to build a positive relationship 
with his/her employees. A caring boss 
“trades favors” with his/her employees. At 
times to get something important done, a 
boss will ask an employee, usually a natural 
leader in the work group, to influence 
another employee or a group of employees 
regarding an important matter that needs to 
be done. Reciprocating with the employee 
who “has gone to bat” for the boss cements 
the belief in the work group that the boss 
cares, can be trusted, and is worth going the 
extra mile for. In cases where a boss has to 
ask his employees to do something “above 
and beyond”, a caring boss who is open to 
“trading favors” will motivate his/her 
employees to cooperate every time.
21
Tell Employees Where They Stand
Few things are more demotivating 
than keeping employees in the dark about 
where they stand. Establishing a 
performance appraisal system that is 
understood by all employees is critical to 
motivating employees. An effective 
performance appraisal system is 
characterized by simplicity, the 
incorporation of goals, regular reviews, 
honesty by the reviewing manager, and the 
opportunity for the employee to ask 
questions and learn how he/she can secure 
the qualifications to move up in the 
organization. Critical to an effective 
performance appraisal system is a policy 
that states that management must deal with 
unsatisfactory performance immediately. 
Management should not wait until 
performance review time to tell an employee 
that his/her performance is unsatisfactory. 
That should be done as soon as the 
unsatisfactory performance takes place. In 
such cases, the employee should be placed 
on a thirty day improvement program. 
During this time, the employee must 
improve the unsatisfactory performance or 
face further disciplinary action or discharge.
22
If the unsatisfactory performance is 
improved, the employee is returned to 
satisfactory performance status. (See below 
for sample Improvement Program forms.)
Employee Improvement Plan Form
To: (Employee) cc: Personnel Files 
From (Supervisor/Manager)
Subject: Improvement Plan 
Date: December 14, 2013
Example 1
This is to notify you that your punctuality in 
the recent past is not following the 
professional pattern that is required of all 
XYZ Corporation personnel. Punctuality 
reflects upon your overall job performance 
and has an impact on your continuing 
employment.
This improvement program will be in effect 
until January 14, 2014, in the sincere hope 
that your punctuality will become an issue 
of the past. If significant improvement is not 
seen during this period of time, the security 
of your position will be in jeopardy and your 
employment will be subject to termination. 
Please let me know if you have any 
questions about this plan of action.
23
Example 2
This is to notify you that your performance 
in the area(s) of
has not been acceptable. Effective today, 
you are being placed on a (30) (60) (90) day 
performance improvement program. During 
this period, you will be expected to avoid 
the following errors:
!.
2.
3.
and to achieve the following objectives: 
1.
2.
3.
If these errors are not avoided and objectives 
not achieved, your employment will be in 
serious jeopardy and subject to termination. 
Please see me immediately if you have any 
questions about this program.
24
In tandem with a list of standards of 
performance or performance objectives, this 
Employee Evaluation report will do an 
effective performance appraisal job every 
time.
25
Continuity of Employment
Globalization, privatization, 
outsourcing, and offshoring have inserted a 
great deal of uncertainty and anxiety into the 
American labor force, and this has created a 
serious drag on employee motivation. The 
fear of losing one’s job, even if it is at the 
subconscious level, impairs an employee 
from “getting his/her head into the game” all 
day every day. To remove this source of 
insecurity and anxiety and thereby increase 
employee motivation, human resources 
policy should include bidding, bumping, and 
recall rights after a certain amount of 
company service is accumulated, perhaps 
one year. Such policy will not only assist in 
maximizing employee motivation it will also 
assist in maintaining the health of the 
economy. Continuity of employment not 
only plays into maximizing employee 
motivation, but it also provide the 
means for employees to save for retirement, 
college expenses, and a home purchase, all 
beneficial objectives for employees, 
businesses, and the economy as a whole.
26
Hire Compatible Employees
Management literature has little to say 
about the relationship between employee 
motivation, organizational productivity, and 
like mindedness of the individuals in the 
work force. Serious problems with respect to 
employee motivation and organizational 
productivity arise when employees clash due 
to personality, culture, or worldview. Years 
ago a company for which I provided human 
resources and counter-union campaign 
consulting services hired large groups of 
Hispanic workers. This resulted in this 
company experiencing serious employee and 
union problems. The company had hired 
workers from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Central 
America, and South America. Due to 
cultural differences the workers in these 
groups would not work together. The 
conflict surfaced in low productivity, poor 
quality output, squabbles between the 
groups, and interest in unionization. The 
lesson from this situation is not to 
discriminate against one group or another, 
but to hire individuals with a strong work 
ethic, communicate the company’s culture to 
them, hold regular diversity programs for 
employees and managers, tell employees in
27
orientation presentations what their 
employment rights and obligations are, 
and include in the performance appraisal 
system the factor of “Developing Positive 
Interpersonal Relations.” If employees know 
their pay depends in part on their 
maintaining positive relations with their 
fellow employees and their working with 
others as a team, they respond in an 
appropriate manner. See page 8 for sample 
employee appraisal form that includes 
Positive Interpersonal Relations as a rating 
factor.
28
Discharge Hiring Mistakes Quickly
No company can be 100% correct in 
all its hiring decisions. Poor performing 
employees are a significant drag on 
employee motivation. When one employee 
sees another employee not pulling his/her 
weight or not possessing the capacity to get 
the job done no matter how much training 
he/she is given, the employee may very 
likely “tum off’ and lose trust in and respect 
for the manager of the non-performing 
employee. In such cases, the non-performing 
employee should be placed on an 
improvement program (See page 23) and if 
he/she does not bring his/her performance 
up to the required level, he/she should be 
discharged promptly. Letting under­
performing employees stay on the payroll 
does serious damage to employee 
motivation. Under-performance should 
always be “nipped in the bud.”
29
Teamwork
Developing teamwork within an 
organization is an important motivational 
activity. This teamwork can be seen in 
manufacturing cells, within a company’s 
process, design, or in quality problem 
solving teams, or in strategic planning 
teams. Teams can be put together by self­
nomination, colleague nomination, or leader 
choice and direction, or some combination 
of some or all these approaches. Recognition 
of team achievements is critical to 
maintaining team motivation. Simple notices 
in company communications to team 
bonuses and team recognition awards can 
be employed to provide this recognition.
30
Provide Opportunities For Mavericks
A high motivation organization is 
characterized by teamwork, individual 
initiative and ingenuity, creativity, pride in 
employment, company loyalty, and the 
presence of mavericks. I can’t stress too 
much the important of having mavericks in 
an organization if it is to maximize its 
productivity, creativity, and innovation. 
Mavericks, those employees who do their 
best work alone or in concert with one or 
two other employees, are the “seasoning” 
for the company’s “stew.” Mavericks 
provide the “out-of-the-box” views, the 
challenges to the “that’s the way we 
always did it” thinking, the impetus to take 
risks, and the single mindedness that every 
organization needs to become and remain a 
winner. Mavericks often break the rules in 
arriving at a breakthrough in product 
development, financial innovation, 
manufacturing operations, organizational 
structure, new marketing concepts, or design 
of services. They “march to a different 
drummer.” They are invaluable in the 
overall scheme of putting together a highly 
motivated work force. How do you identify
31
these individuals? They often come out of 
consulting and public accounting firms. 
Some of them have been successful 
entrepreneurs who for one reason or another 
entered the corporate world. Some have 
experience as inventors and track records 
that include positions in research and 
development.
Flexibility
Maximizing employee motivation 
requires flexibility in organization, policy, 
and procedures. One size does not fit all in 
the world of work. It is impossible for rules 
to cover every situation. If a policy does not 
work, change it. If the change does not 
work, change it again. Making exceptions to 
policy in dire situations should happen 
without a lot of red tape. Common sense 
should rule when it comes to when and 
where to be flexible. Legalistic companies 
never maximize employee motivation and 
organization productivity. With respect to 
organizational flexibility, employee 
motivation can be achieved by giving 
special assignments to employees outside 
their ordinary function. This broadens the 
experience of these employees, provides 
them with interesting new work, and 
motivates them by showing them 
management believes that their capacity 
goes beyond their regular area of work.
33
Opportunity For Family Involvement
As a youngster I remember 
sitting around the dinner table listening to 
my father, who worked in a commercial 
bakery, talk about his job, his fellow 
workers, the bread making process, 
and the bread, pies, and donuts he baked.
My enthusiasm in listening to him led me to 
ask him to take me on a tour of his job and 
the bakery where he worked, which he did. 
This tour resulted in a great deal of pride 
throughout my family, pride in employment 
for my father, pride in me that my father 
made such an important product, and pride 
in my mother who felt that the company my 
father worked for was progressive and stable 
enough to allow an employee to bring his 
son in for a tour. All this pride added up to a 
big motivational influence on my father in 
his work and on my mother as well when 
she had to change family plans because my 
father had to rise to the call of duty at work. 
The principle here is that an organization 
maximizes employee motivation when it has 
programs that involve workers’ families, 
such as company tours, company picnics 
and outings, company presentations at the 
schools of the children of employees, and
34
company assistance to the children of 
employees with respect to school projects.
35
Develop A_Specific_Company_Vocabulary
I have already touched on the 
importance of building teams in employee 
motivation. Another aspect of this activity is 
naming these teams and building a company 
vocabulary. It may seem like a small thing, 
but labeling teams with apropos, fun 
names can add a motivational lift to the 
employees in the teams. Back in the 1970’s 
the Chicago White Sox were a pennant 
contender. The sporting press gave this team 
the nickname of “The Go Team” because of 
the speed of its players and it strategy of 
stealing bases as often as it could. At one of 
the companies where I worked in my early 
career, the owners gave this nickname to the 
executive committee because of the speed, 
accuracy, and right judgment that it 
displayed in making top level decisions. The 
members of “The Go Team” were proud to 
be part of this group. The entire company 
knew who “The Go Team” members were 
and what the name stood for. Other teams at 
this company adopted names as well: “The 
Inspection Detectives” (Incoming Raw 
Materials Inspectors), “The Drill Sergeants” 
(Trainers in one of the manufacturing
36
departments), and “The Computer Wizards.” 
The Sales Department at this company had 
some fun generating sayings also. This firm 
had an “inside sales team” and an “outside 
sales team.” Each outside sales rep had an 
inside sales rep to follow up for him, take 
calls when he was on the road, and generally 
be available to customers and prospects 
when the outside sales rep was not. Based 
on this “inside-outside” sales department 
structure, the company used in all its sales, 
advertising, and marketing activities with 
very good effect the slogan “Even When I’m 
Out I’m In.” One of the wags in the Sales 
Department brought in and posted a comic 
strip dealing with inside and outside sales 
reps that included a punch line explaining 
why inside sales reps could not be outside 
sales reps: “They are too ugly.” All this 
added up to great fun and good employee 
motivation.
37
Employee Speak Out Meetings
No employee motivation program 
would be complete without Employee 
Speak-Out Sessions. These are semi-annual 
meetings between the employees in each 
department and the top executives of the 
company. Employees are requested to speak 
their minds, pro or con, about issues that 
they believe are important to them and the 
company. They are given the chance to 
bring up grievances, gripes, and positive 
comments about company operations, 
policies, procedures, products, services, and 
anything else that they might want to touch 
on. These sessions are kind of an “open 
mike” opportunity for any and all employees 
to speak their mind and ask questions of top 
management. The best way to run these 
sessions is to set a time limit on them, say 
one hour or so, have no agenda, announce 
that top management will be listening and 
not talking, and announce that answers will 
be given to all employee questions at the 
session or after if some research is needed,
38
and absolutely no recriminations will be 
involved for anything that is said. Having 
the top human resources executive take 
notes at these sessions will insure that all 
questions and comments are answered. It 
has been my experience that these speak out 
sessions are highly motivational in that they 
often clear the air on issues bothering 
employees and top management, give 
employees an opportunity to get “up close 
and personal” with their top executives, 
provide employees with the thinking of top 
executives on issues that everyone in the 
company sees arising down the road, and 
provides evidence to all employees that their 
top executives are “regular persons” open to 
interacting with their employees in an open 
and fair way.
39
Set Up Departmental Competitions And 
Have Fun On The Job
Rapidly growing organizations in 
highly competitive environments generate a 
host of problems, frictions, stresses, and 
anxieties. Installing a sense of fun in the 
workplace by posting funny materials as 
mentioned above is important for employee 
motivation. Having inter-department 
competitions with recognition for the 
winners and “payoffs” for the entire 
company also make for employee 
motivation and group stress release. To 
increase employee motivation, one of my 
clients would hold production output 
contests between manufacturing 
departments in the summer months with the 
winning department getting company-wide 
recognition and the entire company getting a 
free barbecue lunch on the company with 
the event being held outside on the company 
lawn in a picnic style atmosphere. As the 
CEO of this company used to say “Life is 
short, and our working days are long. 
Making work as enjoyable as possible and 
having as much fun as possible while 
working hard to make the company a winner 
is the best way to go.”
40
A Management That Listens, Looks, and 
Interacts
Company “Speak Out” programs have 
already been discussed. However, these 
programs are not enough. A company 
culture should be set up wherein all 
managers make it a regular practice to 
interact with employees at their work place. 
Asking questions, getting answers, and 
encouraging employee’s to input 
about everything and anything that affects 
the company as a whole and the employee’s 
job should be in every manager’s 
management and motivation “tool box.” I 
recall a company president at a 
highly successful firm where I worked many 
years ago engaging most every employee 
every few weeks with the question “what’s 
cookin?” The answers given and the 
communications involved kept the President 
up to the minute on company affairs, greatly 
decreased the number of meetings that were 
held in the company, and provided 
motivation to employees in that they felt 
good about the President taking time to 
speak with them, listen to their ideas, 
and with certain matters getting something 
very important done right away.
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Innovation Awards
Many companies have suggestion 
systems and awards for suggestions that are 
adopted by a suggestion review committee. 
Many of these suggestions deal with low 
productivity increase items. Few companies 
have innovation awards. These are 
suggestion that result in major productivity 
increases and offer major awards, awards in 
the thousands of dollars. Some examples 
of game changing innovation ideas are the 
following: At one of my clients, an 
employee suggested that instead of running 
parts through a central heat treating 
operation, mobile, mini-heat treating 
ovens should be moved from machine to 
machine to heat treat parts right as they 
came off the forming machines. This was a 
major productivity increase innovation and 
the employee who suggested it was awarded 
an award in the thousands of dollars.
Another game changing innovation involved 
the setting up of an “in-house” set-up man 
training program due to the extremely tight 
labor market for experienced set-up men. 
This innovation dropped labor costs, 
increased quality, and significantly 
increased productivity per set-up man. This
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innovation did not pay an award because the 
corporate culture of this company dictated 
that every executive strive to come up with 
game changing innovation in his areas of 
responsibility. The payoff for such 
innovation at this company came in the 
areas of salary increases and year-end 
bonuses.
43
New Employee Orientation And Senior 
Employee Brush Ups
To get new employees motivated and 
off to a good start, a company must provide 
them with a thorough orientation program 
which covers company philosophy and 
culture, operation of the compensation 
system and performance appraisal program, 
the rights and duties of all employees, 
company discipline policy, company 
communication channels, company service 
accumulation policy, general company 
policies, employee benefits, promotion 
and transfer policy, company speak out 
sessions and open door policy, where the 
company stands in its industry and where it 
wants to go in its industry. These orientation 
sessions should be delivered by someone in 
top management. Also, “brush up” 
orientation programs should be offered 
annually to employees who have 
accumulated some company service to keep 
them up to date.
44
Company Culture Regarding Making 
Decisions And Mistakes
An important driver of employee 
motivation is company culture. A correct 
company culture engenders high employee 
motivation, whereas an incorrect company 
culture engenders low or no employee 
motivation. Critical aspects of a correct 
company culture are what I call “fearless 
decision making” and pushing decisions 
down to the lowest level. “Fearless decision 
making" involves encouraging all 
employees to make the best decisions 
they can make as quickly as possible and 
based on their best knowledge and judgment 
and not fear recriminations if they make 
a mistake, Of course, consistent bad 
decisions are not to be tolerated, but rather 
eliminated through added training or 
discharge. The impetus to high efficiency, 
smooth operations, and employee 
motivation and satisfaction that the practice 
of “fearless decision making” generates is 
very significant. Pushing decisions to the 
lowest level creates two things: constant 
focus on training all employees to do their 
jobs at the highest level possible and 
insuring speed in decision making that
45
maximizes efficiency and smoothness in 
operations. Also, pushing decisions to the 
lowest levels builds employee confidence, 
job satisfaction, and personal achievement.
46
Open Communication Channels
High employee motivation is 
maintained through regular and open 
communications throughout the 
organization. Generating an atmosphere 
wherein employees have no reluctance to 
speak their ideas to management, disagree 
with management ideas, and bring 
issues, complaints, and congratulations to 
management is critical to developing a high 
level of employee motivation. I recall a 
situation wherein the company president at a 
firm where I worked employed his 
“management by waking around” approach 
in assessing a planned change in operations 
and was told in these “what’s up” mini­
meetings that this planned change was the 
most unreasonable thing he had promoted in 
many years. When he came to me, and I told 
him the same thing, he just smiled. What did 
this smile mean? His satisfaction that his 
people where telling him what they really 
believed and that there was broad consensus 
throughout the company that his idea was 
wrong and would be disruptive to 
operations. He backed off this planned 
change. That provided a tremendous shot in 
the arm to employee motivation throughout 
the company.
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Employee Empowerment
The famous behavioral psychologist 
David McClellan found that work groups 
with track records of high achievement were 
characterized by bosses who empowered the 
people in these work groups. By making 
these workers feel strong the bosses insured 
that things would get done in the fastest, 
most efficient way possible. How do you 
empower an employee? Part of the 
answer is to ask employees how something 
should get accomplished rather than telling 
them what should be done and when they 
offer up their solution, tell them to go do it 
right away. There is a story about a famous 
retailer that instructed its sales personnel to 
in all situations make certain that the 
customer was totally satisfied with its 
interaction with the retailer. Based on 
these instructions, an associate decided on 
her own initiative to allow the return of a 
very expensive wedding dress by a customer 
who was not satisfied with it and wanted to 
return it. The customer was so impressed 
with this quick action that she bought 
another wedding dress there and gave the 
store all the clothing purchases for the 
entire wedding party. The quick response of
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a frontline employee in a transaction that 
would at another firm take multiple levels of 
decision making resulted in significant 
increased business and possible future 
business rather than a lost customer and the 
negative comments of this customer to 
friends, relatives, and fellow workers.
49
Employee Surveys
In addition to a semi-annual employee 
speak out program, periodic employee attitude 
surveys are good motivational instruments. 
They not only provide a lot of information 
on what employees are thinking about their 
job, their work, and the company, but they 
also provide important information on the 
effectiveness and leadership skills of 
managers.
50
Communicate on Company Progress
Employees are motivated through 
regular information on company progress. 
They feel a sense of accomplishment and 
empowerment when they know that their 
efforts are resulting in positive outcomes for 
the company and that they are working for a 
“winner.” Keep the good news and not so 
good news flowing to employees. They will 
be turned on by the good news and turned 
on to solutions by the bad news.
51
Train Managers in Employee Motivation
All the programs in this book will not 
bear fruit unless the Human Resources 
Department and line managers know what 
they are and how to implement them. 
Regular management training on 
motivational techniques must be an integral 
part of overall management training.
52
Build Bridges With Natural Leaders
In every organization there is a small 
group of natural leaders that are not in the 
management ranks. These individuals for 
one reason or another do not want to move 
into managerial positions. However, they 
have a great deal of sway in the 
organization. They are the people who can 
get things done using unorthodox 
approaches and personal loyalty. They are 
the people who can sway other employees 
when there is resistance to a change or a 
need for the work group to perform above 
and beyond the call of duty. They are the 
unseen movers and shakers of opinions and 
attitudes in an organization. Getting to know 
them and earning their trust are critical to 
getting continuing employee motivation.
53
The Human Resources Department
In recent years the Human Resources 
Department has lost its clout in companies. 
This is unfortunate in that the key player in a 
high impact employee motivation program 
is the Human Resources leader and his/her 
department. People issues and employee 
motivation should be the bailiwick of 
Human Resources. If a company’s work 
force is not motivated, it should be the 
responsibility of the Human Resources 
group to get them motivated. The motivation 
“buck” should stop at Human Resources. It 
is critical then that the CEO of a firm 
wishing to maximize the motivation of 
employees and utilize them as a factor 
in gaining competitive advantage in the 
marketplace hire the best Human Resources 
leader available with a proven track record 
of establishing and implementing highly 
successful employee motivation programs. 
Actually, these Human Resources leaders 
are few and far between and difficult to 
locate. It may be an overstatement, but many 
believe that in the last thirty years Human 
Resources has become a record keeping 
function with the responsibility for keeping 
the company out of legal and union
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trouble. Nevertheless, these top human 
resources executives are out there and can 
be found. The key quality of a top human 
resources executive knowledgeable in 
employee motivation is the capacity to tell 
truth to power, the ability to stand up to 
backward thinking operational managers, 
and the possession of a track record of 
human resources achievement. The true high 
potential human resources leader will have 
an entrepreneurial approach to the 
human resources function. He/she will be a 
risk taker, perhaps a maverick, a highly self­
assured individual with a creative mind 
capable of utilizing critical thinking and 
personal charisma to enliven the people 
energy of a company and bring it to an 
optimum level.
55
Incidentals
There are little things that managers 
should remember with respect to employee 
motivation. Smile and say hello to 
employees even if you don’t know them 
personally. Employees expect this, and 
when they don’t get it, negativity toward the 
company arises. Also, employees want to 
work in an environment as clean or cleaner 
than where they live. Therefore, it is 
important to keep all office areas, operations 
areas, eating areas, washrooms, and green 
spaces as spotless as possible. This point 
may sound like an exaggeration, but it is not. 
Few things tum off an employee more, 
especially a female employee, than a dirty 
bathroom. I have seen companies forced into 
battles with union organizing attempts due 
to bathrooms that were dirty, that did not 
have inside locks, and that did not have 
sufficient toilet paper. Never tum down an 
employee who wants to have a word with 
you. Always stop and hear a person out. If 
the conversation looks like it will take a long 
time, at least start it, get the gist of the 
matter, and set a time to continue the 
discussion to its conclusion. An employee 
will feel comfortable about having
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something dealt with if he/she feels that 
he/she has gotten the ball rolling. In 
situations like this, always follow up until 
the matter is settled. Further, learning 
important information about employees’ 
family members, sports likes and dislikes, 
and hobbies and interests is money in the 
bank with respect to employee motivation. 
Short personal written notes of 
encouragement, recognition, and thanks 
from managers to employees are strong 
motivators. Finally, make certain that 
employee safety is a priority. Employees 
tum off quickly when they hear that another 
employee has been hurt on the job due to a 
safety omission.
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Mission Statement
Including in the company mission 
statement a section on the view of the 
company vis a vis its employees can provide 
strong employee motivation. The Employee 
Section of the mission statement might 
include the following:
— We have a high regard for our 
employees.
— We wish to be the employer of employee 
first choice in our industry.
— We wish to create a highly motivated 
employee work force that is very 
knowledgeable and highly trained.
— Through continual management, 
leadership, and worker skills training we 
expect to generate within the company 
significant creativity and innovation to 
achieve and surpass company goals.
— We believe our workers and managers 
should be proactive in all their work.
— We believe our leaders should show the 
way and be examples of initiative, ingenuity, 
creativity, innovation, company loyalty, 
and pride in employment.
— We regard our employees as a source to 
achieve competitive advantage in the 
marketplace.
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When a company places in black and white 
its high regard of its employees and states 
that it consider them a source to achieve 
competitive advantage in the marketplace it 
makes for a high degree of employee 
motivation.
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Conclusion
At this writing (2013) a survey of 
employee attitudes indicated that 65% of 
those surveyed did not like their work and 
44% wanted to change jobs. This clearly 
indicates that employee motivation is 
lacking in today’s world of work. As this 
little book indicates, motivating employees 
is not difficult. Actually, it is quite easy and 
when made an integral part of a company’s 
culture, it is “money in the bank.” So why 
don’t companies do it? Some don’t care. In 
this age of globalization, it is a buyers job 
market and not caring about employees is 
the easy way out. Some don’t know how. 
This little book solves that problem for these 
employers. It may sound “pie in the sky”, 
but the implementation of the motivational 
programs discussed in this book would have 
far reaching effects — increased 
productivity, increased profits, increased 
customer satisfaction, increased job 
satisfaction, and increased national 
wellbeing.
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Leonard C. Scott is human resources professional with more than forty years in the 
field. He has been a corporate human resources and labor relations executive has 
provided human resource consulting services to a broad range of American and 
foreign owned companies, and has taught business and human resources 
management courses at several colleges. He has appeared on a number of radio 
talk shows and made presentations at national and international professional and 
trade associations. His educational background includes undergraduate and 
graduate credentials for the University of Illinois, Northwestern University, and 
Cornell University. He lives in Dallas Texas, and can be reached at 
scottco@ainnail.net His website is found at www.lenscottandcompany.com It 
contains information on his programs and presentations and a number of his 
published articles.