“It’s not the tools you have faith in – tools are just tools – they work, or they don’t work. It’s the people you have faith in or not.”

~Steve Jobs, Apple
By now most of the companies understand how crucial it is to keep employees motivated and engaged. It doesn’t just improve their performance and makes them more productive, but it also influences the overall vibe the company sends out to the world. Because, let’s face it, the way managers treat employees is very likely to be exactly the way those employees then treat company’s partners and customers. And since company’s reputation was also named the top reason for candidates to accept jobs there, the influence of how employees feel about their workplace spreads even so much wider.

Research done by Glassdoor and Guardiananytime

You may think, if employee motivation is such a critical element, then naturally any leader should crave to find more ways to improve it. But, unfortunately, research shows that in many companies it is still not the case. The common belief is that after lengthy interview processes only the most motivated candidates are left and the thrive from being selected for the role will keep them motivated and productive throughout their career. But it’s just not how intrinsic motivation works. Even if it helps peak employee performance during first months in the company, research shows (Beatty&Schneier) that it is nonetheless not enough to sustain such performance in the long-run.

In addition, even though an employee may possess a strong intrinsic motivation for doing the job in general, there can be numerous cases when specific tasks received from the management are not of any interest to the employee. As Sigler and Aamidor write in their article “to simply expect individuals to be happy with what they have done, be intrinsically reinforced by their own work, and to consider irrelevant what the boss thinks ignores the basic fact that the behavior may have nothing to do with personal desire.” That is why, in such cases, when an employee performs a task mainly because it was asked by a higher authority and therefore does not possess high intrinsic motivation to accomplish it, it is important to provide an employee with extrinsic motivation to perform it exactly through the usage of positive reinforcement.

Another point is that when a certain employee performs at a satisfactory level, on average, not much attention is typically paid to the fact that this employee may actually have a higher potential and maybe even a desire to perform significantly better. Overlooking the possible improvement in the performance of employees may not cause much harm to an organization, but it could cost an organization the potential for an even bigger growth. Studies show (Borbidge) that “employees will perform at an average level to keep their jobs, but will perform at a higher than expected level when they feel they are respected and valued as an employee.” Moreover, “most studies reveal that employees want to be enthusiastic about their job or the purpose of their job, and when they are they work harder and more effectively at it.”

Perhaps, an impressive story on how positive reinforcement succeeded to reveal a significant potential of employees and exactly how much it influences organization’s overall prosperity is the good old story of Emery Air Freight.

Emery Air Freight found out that even though managers were confident that their departments were operating to fully meet the standard, after the closer investigation, it was revealed that the actual figure was two times smaller than the managers originally estimated. After introducing positive reinforcement programs in three areas – sales and sales training, operations, and containerized shipments – Emery has announced impressive results. Thus, in the customer service department, which is the part of operations department, before positive reinforcement initiatives were introduced, the standards were met in 30% to 40% of cases and after it, they were met in 90% to 95% of cases. This result was kept on the same level for almost four years. Container use, before the positive reinforcement, was around 75% and after it became 95%. “All in all, Emery has saved over $3 million in three years. No doubt about it: Positive reinforcement pays.”

Another common workplace situation is when motivation of even a talented and committed employee is undermined by manager’s critique, negative feedback, unclear tasks and contingencies, and lack of respect or trust. The impact of these actions may not seem very significant or long-lasting, however, the actual negative impact it may have on employee performance is, in the majority of the cases, highly underestimated. It is important to understand that you get more of what you reinforce. Emphasize wrong behavior and you get more of it. It is a folly to reinforce one behavior and expect another. Moreover, simply removing negative reinforcement and not employing any positive feedback will still lead to the decrease in employee productivity, because “people do what bring praise and avoid what doesn’t. And good performance will decline unless it’s acknowledged” (Hinkin&Schriesheim).

Our last argument in favor of using positive reinforcement to motivate and engage your employees will be an economic one. It’s free! What can be a better solution in the current times of economic crisis? “Fortunately, you don’t need a single dime to make your people happy at work or to show them just how much you care about them and appreciate their efforts. Most people will never admit it, but money is not the thing they desire most from their work. Instead, showing appreciation, respect, and, yes, even love are the three most important ways to make your employees feel happy about their work. And happy, engaged employees are the single best way to impact your company’s bottom line” (Patkin).

Positive reinforcement is a universal technique and can be used across different cultures, industries, and organizational types. It’s free, it’s easy to initiate and implement, and its impact not just on employee motivation, but on overall company’s bottom line is really impressive! It’s a magic wand managers were asking for, so use it and enjoy the results!

Ann Bailey

More articles about positive reinforcement:

Reinforcement And Punishment, Negative And Positive: What’s The Difference And Which One Should You Use?