Foreign experience in staff motivation - SearchInform

Foreign experience in staff motivation

 
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Effectively managing personnel is impossible without a system that determines the relationship between employees and the company. Domestic leaders consider the only incentive for productive work to be decent wages based on fixed tariff rates and salaries. However, the foreign experience of personnel motivation refutes such a one-sided, simplified approach. Of course, blind copying of the practice of Western Europe or Japan is not the best solution, but certain elements of the system of motivation and reward are quite applicable in Russia.

Differences between domestic and foreign approaches

Russian employers most often equate the level of salary and the level of employee involvement in the work process. Of course, the "issue price" comes first, there are only a few volunteers and enthusiasts who are ready to work for an idea. But to simplify the idea to the point that an employee only comes to work because of a salary is at least short-sighted. A seemingly simple trick: paying employees a gym membership or organizing foreign language courses in the office - works great to strengthen motivation and increase team loyalty.

Methods and ways of motivation in foreign companies are more diverse than in Russian ones. The Western approach combines financial, material and non-material incentives. Experience shows that the attitude of staff towards responsibilities is a mirror image of the attitude of the employer towards staff. The “favorite” employee works more efficiently, and the staff's ability to work is the key to a successful business.

The brightest models of personnel motivation are developed and successfully implemented by companies in Japan, Germany, Great Britain, France, Sweden. Let's figure out which motivation system is most effective, what foreign leaders focus on, and how to apply advanced experience in Russian realities.

Japanese model of staff motivation

Labor productivity growth in Japan is outstripping growth in living standards and wages. However, the Japanese experience is applicable only in a society with a strongly developed sense of civic responsibility and self-awareness, where common interests are above individual needs and a willingness to make personal sacrifices for the common good is clearly expressed.

“Firstly, you serve the emperor (country), secondly, your employer, and thirdly, your family. And only then can you think about yourself. "

This is a short formulation of the basic principle of Japanese motivation, which has survived from the days of feudalism and serves as the basis for corporate systems of motivation in modern Japan.

The main quality of an employee in the Land of the Rising Sun is loyalty to the company, which often borders on sacrifice and ignorance of one's own needs. How is it shown?

  • The Japanese consider themselves a necessary part of a unified system and take personal responsibility for the fate of the company for which they work.
  • For the Japanese, the concepts of "profession", "work", "enterprise" are identical. When asked about the profession, the Japanese would rather name the company than the occupation, for example, instead of "I work as an engineer" - "I work for Kubota. "
  • The Japanese system has a minimum number of missed business days. High responsibility leads to the fact that even if the employee is unwell, he does not ask for a day off and does not go on sick leave, but will continue to work.
  • Overtime is the norm for the Japanese. They stay at work without prior agreement and without objection. This, of course, will not cause joy, but it will not be a reason to complain about the boss and sort things out: "So it should be."
  • Taking a full leave of absence for a Japanese worker is disloyal to the company. Therefore, the Japanese take only part of the rest.

When a Japanese person identifies with the entire company, this is not only an echo of the feudal system, but also the result of a modern approach to motivation and personnel management.

Lifetime employment and seniority bonuses

Psychologists have established a relationship between self-identification and work experience: the longer a person works in a company, the deeper the employee's identification with the corporate “organism”. The Japanese incentive system exploits this property and "ties" guarantees of work and remuneration to work experience. This method of motivation minimizes the possibility of an employee moving to another firm.

The main principle of motivation, which the leaders of Japanese corporations adhere to: the more seniority, the higher the position and the size of the salary. This means that career growth directly depends on the duration of work for the company. Professional abilities, qualifications, personal qualities of an employee are important, but without appropriate experience, vertical movement in the company is impossible. Moreover, the transfer to a new place of work "nullifies" past merits, and only "own" employee can get a managerial position.

The types of incentives in the Japanese motivation system, in addition to wage growth, include:

  • bonuses and bonuses that are paid at least once every six months;
  • payment of travel expenses to the office and home;
  • medical insurance for the employee and his family;
  • partial payment for housing;
  • loans for the purchase of real estate;
  • training in universities in Japan, as well as in Europe and the USA;
  • advanced training without interrupting from the main place of work.

Corporate communication

In Japan, a system of active communication has been built, aimed at identifying an employee with a company. "Three pillars" of the system: formal communication, corporate ceremonies and a single workplace.

Types of official communication:

  • morning meetings (planning meetings), at which they consider issues of enterprise policy, collective ethics;
  • collective gymnastics;
  • workshop meetings at which employees are notified of tasks and deadlines;
  • meetings of local groups, where employees exchange experience, discuss the best solutions for the effective execution of assigned tasks.

Types of corporate ceremonies:

  • New Year celebration;
  • hiring a new employee;
  • sports competitions among staff;
  • trips fully or partially paid by the company.

A single workplace means that all personnel of a department or division, including the manager, work in one room. Moreover, the tables are positioned in such a way that colleagues work face to face.

The Japanese motivation system as a whole is aimed at team building, strengthening a positive attitude and strengthening the employee's connection with the company.

American model of staff motivation

The approach to motivation in American companies is based on encouraging employee activity. The success of the American model of motivation is due to the focus of Americans on personal success and achieving a high level of well-being.

Companies in different countries around the world take the experience of the United States as the basis for doing business, where employees are motivated to perform their duties efficiently. The terms “HR” (from the English Human Resource - human resources) and “corporate ethics” “migrated” from American practice to Russia. In the 1960s, the United States developed a human resource management framework; systems of material incentives and non-material motivation of employees; methods of increasing staff loyalty.

  • Intangible incentives

In addition to a flexible wage system, American companies are characterized by the use of intangible ways to motivate employees. The company's personnel, as a rule, have access to:

  • health insurance paid by the employer;
  • refresher courses;
  • free lunches;
  • corporate events;
  • joint trips.

American companies are looking for non-standard employee incentive systems. For example, IBM and AT&T have chosen the family motivation path. The average age of most of the company's personnel is under forty. These are family people with children growing up. Therefore, the administration allows working on a flexible schedule, helps to select nannies and home helpers, organizes corporate nurseries and kindergartens, and arranges family holidays.

  • Material incentives

The staff motivation system in the United States is based on the remuneration system. Most often, American employers charge salaries according to a piece-rate bonus scheme: hourly wages plus various bonus modifications. The most common bonuses in the United States are the Scanlon and Rucker Profit Sharing Schemes.

Scanlon's system is that the share of the salary according to the plan is taken into account in the cost of the volume of production, and if the share of the salary in fact turns out to be less, then the amount of savings is distributed between the company (25%) and employees (75%). Part of the amount intended for employees is sent to the reserve fund, the remaining funds are distributed among the team depending on the contribution to the production process. The inventor of the system, Joseph Scanlon, believed that if employees were motivated properly, management would receive a wealth of useful information on ways to improve performance.

Rucker's system is that workers receive a bonus for the increase in "net" production in terms of one dollar of wages.

  • Professional encouragement

Another way to motivate staff in the American way is to pay salaries in accordance with the number of professions mastered and the level of qualifications. For each new specialty, the employee is awarded points. To receive a salary increase, an employee must score a certain number of points. Benefits of skill-based payroll:

  • mobility of employees within the company;
  • reduction of the staff of employees at the expense of their own qualified personnel;
  • lack of intermediate levels of management;
  • improving the quality of work and labor productivity;
  • saving material and human resources spent on a unit of production.

French model of staff motivation

In France, staff motivation is based on strategic planning, free competition and loyal taxation.

Unlike the Japanese, the French disapprove of overtime work. Even the standard work week in France is five hours shorter than most European Union countries - just 35 hours.

Additional "bonuses" from the employer for the French are not an advantage, but the norm. And the best non-material incentive for workers of the Fifth Republic is flexible hours or remote work, which eliminates the need to be present in the office.

As in many other countries, the French are willing to show favor to the company in exchange for such "privileges" as corporate health insurance, assistance in paying off mortgages, meals at the expense of the company. By paying for refresher courses, on the contrary, the approval of a French employee cannot be won.

The remuneration system in France includes two areas: indexation of wages and individualization of wages.

Indexation of wages based on price increases is the duty of French employers, which is enshrined in collective agreements and strictly controlled by trade unions.

Individualization of salaries is the calculation of payments taking into account education, qualifications, quality of work, level of employee mobility. Individualized salaries are calculated according to three schemes:

  1. “Fork” of official salaries, when the size of the salary depends on the amount of time worked, participation in the life of the company and, most importantly, the efficiency of the employee himself, regardless of the efficiency of his colleagues.
  2. A clear salary plus a bonus, the amount of which varies depending on labor productivity.
  3. The use of other forms of individualization: profit sharing, purchase of company shares, payment of bonuses based on sales results.

The advantage of the French motivation scheme in the part that stimulates the increase in productivity and quality of work is the "self-regulation" of the size of wages. All employees have information about the financial position of the company and know how much of the profit they can count on for good work.

British model of staff motivation

The labor motivation model in the UK provides for two systems of remuneration: monetary and shareholder. Both schemes imply the dependence of the salary of employees on the total profit of the enterprise. There is also a “fluctuating” wage scheme, which fluctuates in proportion to the company's income. Collective agreements between UK workers and employers contain a rule that requires employees to pay a share of the company's profits.

Some companies practice equity participation of employees in the capital, when employees buy back part of the company's shares and receive either a part of the profit or income in the form of interest on shares. The total income of an employee with labor share participation consists of a salary (official salary), a bonus depending on labor efficiency and a part of the company's profit depending on the invested capital.

The introduction of a profit-sharing motivation model helped increase the number of jobs in the UK by 13%. Moreover, the income of employees from part of the company's profits is from three to ten percent of the salary, and the salary is four percent lower than in similar positions in companies with a different approach to remuneration.

Shared participation of personnel in the company's profits perfectly motivates employees of any rank to improve performance, show genuine interest in business processes and create a friendly, favorable atmosphere in the team.

German model of staff motivation

The employee motivation scheme in Germany is based on the ideological conviction that an employee is a free person with his own interests, who bears personal responsibility to society. The concept of economic freedom for Germans includes taking into account public interests and determining the place of the individual in the market system.

The modern German economic model is based on the idea that not every German is able to “fit in” and survive in a free market. Therefore, the state creates a social market economy, its goal is to create equal living conditions for all residents of the country.

The combination of corporate systems of motivation and the state system of social justice leads to a compromise that allows the employee to exercise more freely in the professional sphere without fear of being left without permanent income.

Researchers consider the German model of labor incentives and the availability of state social guarantees an excellent example of a harmonious, optimal way to translate economic theories.

Dutch model of staff motivation

The basis of material motivation in the Netherlands is benefits and compensation. For example, if an employee needs to visit a doctor or go to the bank, the employer will provide a couple of hours of working time to resolve personal issues - and will pay for this time in full. And if an employee stays on sick leave for more than three months, he is entitled to compensation in the form of an additional day to paid leave.

Swedish model of staff motivation

According to surveys, in the ranking of priorities of the inhabitants of Sweden, friendship, partnership and friendly colleagues are in first place. The second is interesting work. But the Swedes pushed the size of wages to the seventh position.

Trade unions in Sweden are seriously concerned with the issue of decent pay. During the renegotiation of collective labor agreements, trade unions insist on introducing a solidarity wage policy, which is based on two principles: equality of wages in similar positions and reducing the gap between the maximum and minimum wages.

The solidary wage system is designed to solve a set of target tasks:

  • Encourage equipment upgrades and the introduction of technological know-how in production.
  • Provide social support to vulnerable people.
  • Maintain the spirit of healthy market competition.
  • Respect the principle of equal pay for equal work. This principle means that employees in similar positions in different firms with the same qualifications receive the same salary, regardless of the profitability of the enterprise in which they work. The size of official salaries is prescribed in the industry collective agreement and does not depend on the size of the company's profit.

Swedish union activism prevents owners of low-income companies from lowering employee wages. Employers are required to pay for labor at the level fixed in the industry-level collective bargaining agreements. The tough stance of the Swedish unions on solidarity wages helps to increase the profitability of enterprises. After all, in order not to go bankrupt, the owners of enterprises are forced to modernize production.

The principle of reducing the gap between high-paid and low-paid specialists is implemented in the form of a system of one-tier increase in wages. This contributes to the averaging of wages, when minimum wages are raised and maximum wages are held back. When renegotiating collective bargaining agreements, unions are trying to include a clause on accelerating wage growth for low-paid workers. This policy is aimed at developing highly qualified specialists in all spheres of the economy.

* * *

It is necessary to adopt foreign experience of motivation taking into account the characteristics of culture and mentality. Thoughtless copying of other people's ideas will not bring the desired result. It is important to remember that non-material methods of motivation only work when employees have satisfied material needs.

09.12.2020

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