Describe the methods which may be used to motivate employees.

Businesses can motivate employees either through monetary or non-monetary incentives. There are many monetary incentives, some of which are: - Overtime: Staff are paid extra for working over and above their contracted hours, at a higher rate of pay than their usual hourly wage. - Piece Rate: Where employees are paid for the number of items they produce, where higher output means higher pay. This is a good motivation technique if the business is not concerned about a potential drop in quality with raised output, as workers may rush to produce as many items as possible. - Commission: This is calculated as a percentage of sales value made by the employee and is added to their basic rate of pay. It encourages cross-selling and up-selling as the employee strives to increase sales. However, monetary incentives are not the only method of motivating employees and in fact theorists like Maslow suggest that once an employee has an income which they are satisfied with, they will have to be encouraged by other means. - Team working: Placing groups of workers in a team and giving them the responsibility of completing a task together can be motivational to employees as they feel as if they have a duty to the team to keep standards of work high. - Job Rotation: Employees are switched between various different tasks to reduce the monotony of doing the same tasks each day. For example, a retail worker may be moved between Women's, Men's and Children's clothes sections on a bi-weekly basis. - Job Enrichment: Staff are given more interesting or challenging tasks. The employee will feel encouraged through feelings of recognition and achievement as they are given more responsibilities.