In my opinion, HR in any cooperation is like an engineer; they are responsible for the necessary background research for the project, from statistics about the area of a building to the type of soil in a piece of land for a cultivation process. The HRs put the whole plan to get the best product or outcome, and to do so, it must be based on an intensive study of the psychology of the employees. Not only must they put everyone where they would be most productive, but they must also know how to motivate their employees.
Many HRs assume that the best motivation for an employee is to give them more “money” or threaten them using “money”. They believe that money is everything to the employee. On the other hand, we have group of HRs who think that powerful speeches, full of emotions and quotes about hard work, are the key, but this is no game of politics. If motivation is like a battery for the human being, it must have two poles – positive and negative – and I consider the two ways mentioned are just negative motivators that won’t get us where we want. If we think of it logically, emotional speeches won’t reach the hearts of Arab employees as they used to in the past. We must confront ourselves with the fact that Arabs’ emotions have changed in the past few years, and that money is not everything. Workers who await money will lose their spirit shortly after receiving it, because the motivation here is too materialistic.
Searching for a point of intersection, we must be aware that motivation is relative for each person. What you want to reach is “love”. Love in my opinion is the most important thing; to love your work and your company not for the sake of money, but for the name of the company and its reputation. That will make you work really hard as well as tolerate the wait if your salary is late for one or two months. We can reach “love” through the right type of motivation, money & glorious speeches are only small parts of the motivation, not all of it.
Relativity is the base of modern motivation, but it is how to implement it that requires some thought. You must take more care of intrinsic motivation. From my perspective, in Egypt and other Arab countries, the ultimate way to motivate the people in their work places is to make them think that they are special and important. Moreover, they must feel comfortable in their work place and with their work partners. Trust is also essential, if they are allowed the freedom to express what they feel, they will appreciate that greatly. If you make work the employee’s parallel universe, by using the available resources and creating a healthy atmosphere, he/she will stay longer at work as it gradually becomes their escape from life. “Appreciate before criticize” is a very effective method that will encourage employees and let them see the fruits of their labor to feel that they really do contribute. Make them feel that the company offers support even when it comes to personal matters.
Make them loyal to the place; reach the balance between the materialistic and moral motivation.
Motivation is indispensable; like fuel to cars, but every car must be supplied with the suitable sort and amount of fuel to give you the best performance. Don’t use the negative pole of motivation, but make “Love, loyalty, and respect” their motive.
Many theories talk about motivation; we can’t state that one is wrong and the other is correct. However, what we must do is search for the most suitable theory according to the surrounding circumstances.
I feel very sorry seeing the HRs in many companies working on salaries and poor evaluations, and work for the benefit of administration rather than for the name of the company. As I said in the beginning of my article, HR members are like engineers. No only so, they are also like doctors, as they diagnose and search for problems and allocate their cores, eventually finding the answers, and drawing up a plan to work on. HRs must not be people who no employee can trust. HRs must have a revolution.
Osama Ibrahim
Photography: Mahmoud Mansi
EDITORS: Mennat-Allah Yasser Zohny & Nada Adel Sobhi