Creating goals around each individual employee can help motivate and structure the workplace. Training and development plans can be customized to fit the needs of each individual. This can include high expectations, satisfying employees’ needs, ongoing training, setting work related goals and involve rewards upon success or completion. Recognition of achievement is a good example of improving an employee’s view of himself. Awards or recognition in the newspaper or company circular are excellent ways to denote worth to the company.
Self-improvement, hence self-esteem, can be improved by sending people to special schools or short courses, or paying for home study courses or similar improvement programs. Enhancing self-esteem improves feelings of self-confidence, strength, worth, and usefulness to the business organisation. This will invoke the ‘feel good factor’ and feeling good about yourself is a tremendous motivator. Keep employees in the information loop. Make sure that they know about critical organisational accomplishments, challenges or opportunities, being informed gives employees a feeling of ownership.
Many managers let their people know when it is too late. This causes people to feel more like victims than participants. Simply put, being involved and informed stimulates interest and interest stimulates motivation. Provide direct, personal feedback to employees as quickly as possible preferably within 24 hours. Most people really want to know what their manager thinks of their work. The more detailed and constructive the feedback, the better. Handwritten comments signed by the manager are usually best, but providing feedback can also be done through e-mail.
Employees, like everyone else, feel a strong need to belong and feel accepted. If managers provide an attractive room, where they can sit down and enjoy a few minutes of each other’s company and a little refreshment, important social needs have been fulfilled. Employees become better acquainted and develop friendships. Such a management policy encourages employee cooperation and provides incentive to work towards the best interests of all of the employees and the business. Other motivators include celebrating employee birthdays, anniversaries and work-related milestones.
In addition, social and recreational activities, including employee football, cricket and bowling leagues create a sense of togetherness and team spirit. Researching this question has highlighted many motivational aids which are available to management, however, I believe that organisations cannot motivate their employees; instead, they can create a work environment where individual motivation flourishes. All individuals have different motivational factors; but if they find the right environment, they will create their own self-motivation.
Although many employers still use these traditional classification schemes as a framework for recruitment and selection, they are becoming increasingly dated. A more comprehensive approach to recruitment ; selection is provided by Assessment Centres, they are the product of an evolving recruitment ; selection process. When screening potential employees it has become commonplace for companies and other organisations to use various, and in some cases quite advanced, methods of analysing applicants’ personalities.
The use of cognitive and psychometric tests appears to be quite popular, they supplement selection with information acquired from testing data, which allows for a more informed decision to be made. “Psychometric testing refers to any technique that has been devised for measuring an aspect of psychological functioning. ” (9) (Malin and Birch 1988) They provide a better indepth look at the candidate(s) by incorporating a wide range of assessment techniques. Assessment Centers allow for greater comparisons to be made between potential candidates, they allow for group exercises, which relate directly to the job.
Candidates are subject to scrutiny by a panel of observers so an informed decision can be made. This allows a less biased decision to be made and as the whole assessment process is longer and more interactive, theoretically, it allows for a better decision to be made. As well as personality tests, interviews are also a widely used tool in personnel selection. The way in which an interview is conducted can range from a completely free, formless conversation over semi-structured types to fully structured variants with standardised questions and processes.
3c How do these alternatives compare with the Seven Point Plan? The usefulness of the 7 Point Plan lies in its application to employee assessment, especially in the area of selection. The range of factors in the Plan covers most of the attributes that could be looked for in an employee. (10) Munro-Fraser’s 5 point plan is simpler than the 7 PP but focuses more upon what has occurred in the applicant’s career and may indicate future potential.
The use of cognitive and psychometric tests appears to be quite popular, psychometric personality tests are useful in that they are easy to administer and the data gained from them can be quickly and effectively quantified and also easily accessed at a later date. Although Assessment Centers allow for a greater indepth look at employees and closer scrutiny, the fact is they are expensive, time consuming and don’t guarantee success. 4a Describe the opportunities which in general sense the Internet may offer to the property and the construction professions using examples from your own profession.
The construction industry is becoming increasingly reliant on new electronic technology, ranging from project-specific Web sites and online equipment auctioning to bid analysis software and negotiation tools. The Internet is the world’s largest marketplace, growing dramatically as more vendors and consumers go online everyday. For the construction industry, the Internet presents a novel opportunity to negotiate bulk prices, purchase hard-to-find products from and sell surplus materials to a market that expands well beyond traditional regional boundaries.
Ideally, the results are more opportunities for sellers and better selection and prices for consumers. Contractors can chose from a list of vendors, locate those with available supplies and negotiate price and delivery terms. Some sites allow contractors to post requests for quotations and receive replies online. Overall, the internet promises the industry faster deliveries, cheaper prices, improved procurement tracking and more informed purchasing decisions. Construction companies looking to purchase and sell online may find the Internet ideal in many ways for contracting.
Online contracting actually eliminates some of the ambiguities and other problems inherent in conventional written agreements. For example, many businesses traditionally contracted with each other through the exchange of pre-printed contracts. Sometimes online contracts are formed via e-mail communications rather than through standard forms on Web sites. In these cases, the parties commonly agree upon the basic terms of the contract, such as product information and price.
As for my own profession, that of fire-fighter, we use the same technology, management systems and interfaces as those companies competing in the commercial market, but instead of e-commerce it is known as e-fire. E-fire is the use of electronic means to communicate effectively internally, with external organisations and members of the public via a range of communication media. Typical interfaces are telephony, facsimile, email, intranet, internet and extranet together with video conferencing within more developed organisations.
