How Can We Reignite Passion in Senior Staff Stuck in Routine Roles for Years?

Hello members,

As a senior operations manager, I look forward to suggestions from you on improving the enthusiasm levels and finding ways to motivate the senior staff who have been performing the same task for 10 years. The only change that has occurred during these years is their designation; they continue to do the same age-old mundane job of listening to doctors' dictations and transcribing or editing.

Please feel free to send in your suggestions. To my dear trainer friends - please refrain from forwarding your write-ups. I am seeking suggestions and fresh ideas.

Thank you,
Padmanaban. M
9840029805
athreya54@yahoo.com

Senior staff can be motivated in the following ways:

1. Promotion
2. Enrich their job content
3. Make them responsible for greater responsibilities other than their routine jobs
4. Make them members of senior staff committees like the purchase committee and admin committee
5. Provide them with new concepts training such as SAP, ERP, and computer training, etc.
6. Conduct special dinners or get-togethers to make them feel valued
7. Extend some extra facilities to them like car loans, flat loans, etc.
8. Give them praise, recognition, and respect among other staff members
9. Ask for their suggestions on enhancing the company's business and profits
10. Depute them for training and development of new employees
11. Make them mentors for new hires
12. Offer them benefits of referral incentives
13. Assign them tasks related to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

P.K. Mishra

This has been discussed a lot of times on this site. However, do check with the given link: [Motivating employees - financial rewards](http://tutor2u.net/business/gcse/people_motivation_financial_rewards.htm)

Dear Padmanaban,

Before you embark further on any initiatives, you have to truly understand what this group of employees really wants. Senior employees usually do not like leaving their comfort zone, and if their performance is acceptable by the company's standards, why rock the boat?

But if productivity starts to drop, there are morale issues or sudden turnover, or increased mistakes in their work, you need to find the root cause by engaging them and fixing them accordingly.

Depending on the outcome of the above discussion, two possible initiatives that can be implemented to bring value to both the company and the employees are:

1. Job redesign
2. Training & Development on Employability & Workskills

An example of the above is the biggest supermarket chain in Singapore sending their Packers to attend a Cashiering course to become certified Cashiers. By doing so, the earning power of employees improved because they are paid more due to an expanded job scope. Most importantly, with the additional work skills, employees have an additional job avenue to explore if they decide to resign from the organization (but this is quite rare because employees, in actual fact, become more satisfied, engaged, and loyal).

Regards,
Autumn Jane

Hello Padmanaban,

Jane has said it right. First, you would need to discuss and gather the inputs on the AS-IS situation regarding productivity dropping, people/team handling, cost factoring during their work, etc. Then try to analyze the what and why of the situation. It's only then that you can begin to think of which motivating factors can be effective and to what extent for whom. I don't think a particular motivating tool or step can be applied across the board.

When I read your posting, I remember an old definition of 'experience' in management. A person with 10 years of experience can be said to have 10x1=10 years of experience, or 5x2=10 years of experience, or 2x5=10 years of experience, or in the worst-case scenario, 1x10=10 years of experience. You seem to have the worst-case scenario at your end, with employees learning for only 1 year and then repeating the same experience over and over again. The best-case scenario would be learning throughout the 10 years of service/experience (10x1 years).

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions or need further clarification.