03. HOW CAN WE MOTIVATE EMPLOYEES ? WHAT ARE THEIR NEEDS?

How can we minimize the employee turnover?

The hospitality business may reduce staff turnover by implementing various tactics that enhance job satisfaction, engagement, and retention. In the current globalized and liberalized corporate environment, personnel are turning into a company's competitive asset. Even with mediocre staff, a company can function, but exceptional staff can take an ordinary company to new heights. Likewise, unsatisfactory workers can lead to flourishing corporate empires to crumble. Retaining quality staff and fostering employee loyalty become more crucial and challenging in a competitive labor market. These days, finding the appropriate people for a job might be extremely difficult. There are many theories which are related for the motivation and these theories can applicable for the organizations to motivate the employees to reduce the employee turnover. 

Managers and officers must be highly motivated in order to understand why employees behave in certain ways at work and how to influence that behavior to get the most out of them in order to meet organizational objectives. Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs theory, Frederick Herzberg's Tow-Factor theory are most popular theories which are related with motivation. 

Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory

Among the most well-known theories of motivation is perhaps Abraham Mazlow's Hierarchy of Needs. According to this idea, human wants are categorized into five tiers which are stacked on top of one another like a pyramid. You are solely driven by the higher-level demands once you have satisfied every lower-level need.

Maslow begins with the idea that humans are inherently wantful and that their desires are influenced by their present circumstances. Maslow theorized that in order to satisfy their basic wants, humans must satisfy five distinct levels of requirements. 

The first level is physiological needs. This needs describe about food, water, cloths, shelter, reputation etc.  

The second level stands for safety needs. At that level, an individual needs to feel safe within their family along with society, as well as protected by violence. The need for safety can be shown in the need for a stable work, savings, and health, mental health, old age, and disability insurance.

Love and belonging is the third level of this hierarchy. Following a sense of security, people require a sense of receiving and giving love, appreciation, and strong friendships.

The fourth level is esteem. It is a requirement to be unique, to respect oneself, and to be respected by others. People desire to think favorably of themselves and to be appreciated by others for their accomplishments.

The final level is self actualization. The fulfillment of the previous four lower levels creates the foundation for the growth of this desire. It refers to the drive for self-actualization and a desire to realize one's own potential.

This above mentioned all the levels and the need are compulsory for the peoples. When the companies pay the attention to fulfill the basic needs of the staff their job satisfaction level goes high. When satisfaction shifts in a positive direction, the intention to turnover will decrease. To motivate the staff members there are many company strategies use in hospitality industry. Giving incentives, selecting the best employees, staff parties, arranging the team building activities, promotions, increments, staff trips, open door policy, proving accommodation facilities, providing all duty meals are some of the tactics that the organization do in hospitality industry. 


Herzberg's Tow-Factor Theory

The two-factor theory is another name for Herzberg's motivation/hygiene theory. The Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs serves as the foundation for Herzberg's research. Even after reading tens of thousands of books, he was unable to come up with any rules. He asked participants to a survey he conducted to list the aspects of their jobs that they found enjoyable and the aspects that made them feel unhappy. As a result, Herzberg discovered that people feel satisfied when they are doing or using themselves, and they are dissatisfied when they are being treated unfairly. It is impossible for the things that lead to discontent at work and the things that bring individuals satisfaction to be mutually exclusive. Herzberg developed his hypothesis of Motivators and Hygiene Factors based on these findings. Although employees may be motivated by both, their motivations are unique. Employees usually feel only temporarily satisfied with hygiene factors, whereas motivators.

Goal - Setting Theory

According to Khan and Nawaz (2010) in late 1960 Edwin introduced the goal-setting theory. According to the theory, goals are the main motivation and job satisfaction factors. Therefore, there should be specific goals that lead to performance. Higher performance makes better feedback and employees get satisfaction with their jobs. This theory can combine with cognitive theories and better understand the phenomena. With that, employees make self-efficacy to attain the goal and enhance their ability. Self-efficacy is positively linked to employee perception and contributes to job satisfaction.

Comparing to the other industries such as health care, banking, apparel, technology, construction, education, agriculture, manufacturing, the hospitality industry's job market is has competitive advantage and it helps to minimize the employee turnover even if there is a significant quantity of turnover rate.

According to the researcher, Kuda Rah has implemented various types of employee motivation factors within the hotel. According to Maslow the first step is physiological needs. The Kuda Rah management has got and decision to add different food verities from different counties and the Kuda Rah has 8 nationalities employees working environment. And the accommodation was arrange with the standards of the Maldivian government rules and regulations. All other facilities for the staff such as hot water, gym and fitness, air condition was provides to satisfy the employees.

Employee recognition activities such as selecting the best employee, most outstanding employee in social media of the Kuda Rah, has implemented to motivate the employees. More employee engagement in an organization is one of the main fact which leads to team build. As the result of that, the management has arranged staff parties, fishing trips, BBQ nights, sand banks, sunset cruise, island hopping etc.  

Reference 

• Heckhausen J., Wrosh, C. and Schulz, R., 2010. A motivational theory of life-span development. Psychological review, 117(1),p.32.

• Main, P. (2023). Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory. [online] Structural-learning.com. Available at: https://www.structural-learning.com/post/herzbergs-two-factor-theory [Accessed 8 Apr. 2024].

• Two-factor theory | Motivation & Job Satisfaction | Britannica Money. (2024). In: Encyclopædia Britannica. [online] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/money/two-factor-theory [Accessed 8 Apr. 2024].

• Heckhausen J., Wrosh, C. and Schulz, R., 2010. A motivational theory of life-span development. Psychological review, 117(1),p.32.

• Zalenski, R.J. and Raspa, R., 2006. Maslow's hierarchy of needs: a framework for achieving human potential in hospice. Journal of palliative medicine, 9(5), pp.1120-1127.

• Dr. Serhat Kurt (2021). Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory: Two-factor - Education Library. [online] Education Library. Available at: https://educationlibrary.org/herzbergs-motivation-hygiene-theory-two-factor/ [Accessed 8 Apr. 2024].

• West, M. (2022). Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: Uses and criticisms. [online] Medicalnewstoday.com. Available at: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs#what-it-is [Accessed 8 Apr. 2024]

• Khan and Nawaz (2010). (PDF) Theories of job satisfaction: Global applications & Limitations. ResearchGate. Retrieved January 19, 2022,