Siemens: Motivation and Employees

SIEMENS: 1. Identify four benefits to Siemens of its in-depth training and development of workers. Ans. Training refers to increasing the knowledge, skills and attitude of employees or extending those the employees already have. Siemens as the top three electrical and electronic companies has been running various effective training programs for their employees in order to build a strong work force and thus contribute better services to the society.In order to do that, they are providing their employees with both on the job (shadowing, mentoring, coaching, job rotation) and off the job (courses, presentations, qualifications) training sessions. Along with the training, company is also providing different development programs to make their employees more flexible, adaptable to change, more creative and innovative. All these training and development programs have brought outstanding benefits to the company.Four of the main benefits of these are discussed below: * Raising productivity an d profit: The main objective of doing any business is to make profit increasing productivity. Siemens also has the same motive and for that it is continuously looking for improved training programs to build a more competent, efficient and a highly motivated team of employees. As the training is motivating the employees highly, they are more dedicated to work for Siemens which in turn gives the company a huge production and profit every year. Improving services and customer satisfaction: The employees of Siemens are always working for providing better service to their customers. They are highly motivated and confident enough to serve the customers with servicing them on time, keeping their clients informed and by doing what they are promising to do. These types of service are making the customers happy and satisfied to stay with Siemens. * Being more able to respond to competition: A well trained employees with good key skills, especially communication and team working skills has giv en the company a competent and efficient work force.So, this era of huge competition, they have achieved to be the top three electrical companies of the world and is currently competing with all their small and large competitors successfully. * Able to gain long-term employee commitment: Costs of recruiting staffs are high but retaining good staffs are far more difficult. Through different training and development programs like- Apprenticeship, Siemens Commercial Academy, Siemens Graduate Programs, the company is training to build a group of good staffs, they are making them more qualified, more dedicated and motivated towards the organization.It makes the employees stay with the company for longer periods which reduces the cost of recruitment resulting in cost savings. 2. Explain how an appraisal system can help to motivate employees. Ans. To measure the effectiveness of its training and development, unlike other renowned organizations Siemens is also using an appraisal system, kno wn as Performance management process. Well-designed and well-executed performance appraisals have a strong motivational impact. Appraisals have the power to motivate employees because they provide a number of interconnected benefits.A well planned appraisal method can thus motivate an organization’s employees to find out the best from them. A well planned appraisal method tends to cover up the following issues which can help the employees to be well motivated: * Demonstrates the need for improvement: If employees don’t have a clear understanding of how they’ve been performing, they can’t be motivated to make any improvements. So, an appraisal system works as a standard to motivate people by pointing out the deficiencies on them. * Employees build a sense of personal value.When managers take the time and effort to carefully review, analyze, document, and discuss performance with employees, the underlying message to the employees is that they’re impo rtant and valuable, and this alone is quite rewarding, whether the feedback is positive or not. * Turn the employees around: When employees are performing poorly, performance appraisals can provide the wakeup call that they need to get refocused and reenergized. With performance appraisal, however, the purpose of the session is not strictly disciplinary, so the employee is more likely to walk in with a more receptive and open mind. Pay reviews: In some instances, appraisals are related to pay reviews. In these cases, if the employees pay rises due to their good performance, they will feel motivated. * Increases satisfaction. When performance appraisals meet the employees’ needs in such areas as gaining recognition, sensing achievement and competence, experiencing growth, and meeting objectives, they’re also contributing to the employees’ job satisfaction, and this is one of the most important elements at work today. When employees are satisfied, some of the most visible indicators are reduced turnover, absenteeism, and tardiness. Meets higher-level psychological needs: Recognition is one of the most powerful forms of motivation for large numbers of employees. Although, there are numerous possible sources of recognition on the job, performance appraisals are an opportunity for employees to receive formal, significant, and enduring recognition from their manager. * Proper feedback: Providing the employees with proper feedback may give them the motive to try hard to overcome their deficiencies and retaining the positive attitudes on them. 3.Using your understanding of the work of Herzberg, which motivators can you see in action at Siemens? Ans. From the Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory, we came to know that, an individual’s relation to his or her work is a basic one and that his or her attitude toward work can very well determine the individual’s success or failure. There are both intrinsic and extrinsic factors which results in employee’s satisfaction or no satisfaction. From the intrinsic factors the following can be seen as present in Siemens: * Responsibility: All Siemens graduates are treated as individuals and responsible.The working environment of Siemens says that it requires high skills, knowledge and working ability in their employees. So, the organization works by making their employees responsible towards their work. * Advancement: For the advancement and career development of the employees, Siemens has come up with Apprenticeship training, Commercial academy and Graduate programs. They are also provided with further qualification if necessary. These types of opportunities make the employees feel that they are advancing with their career and the company values them. * Recognition: Siemens recognizes their employee’s efforts and hard work.Those who come up with outstanding performance are treated with rewards and appraisal. * Growth: Siemens looks forward to growth of th e employees as well as the organization. In the case Paul Thomson says that, his training effort helped him to grow in the organization. There are some external factors that is also working as a motivating factors: * Supervision: Employees in Siemens are closely supervised and given feedback on their works. This sense of appraisal system and supervision motivates the employees to maintain a long term relation with the organization. *Relationship with peers: In the case, Gavin Leslie says that, He feels good to share things with his colleagues and there is a good relationship that occurs in the organization. They feel more socially belonging to their co-workers. * Working condition: There remains a happy, friendly environment in the organization and thus the employees make sure that their customers are staying happy. They feel good that Siemens is treating them as they want their customers to be treated like. Combinedly, all these motivating factors are helping the employees meeting up their needs as well as the company to retain their best employees for long term. . Analyze how Siemens uses training and development to ensure growth in its business. Ans. Training and development helps the growth of a business. Siemens has a clear focus on well-motivated and trained work force as it is an asset for any types of organization. They are providing different training and development programs which are making the employees more skilled to remain competitive. These well-trained employees help to retain customers as they enjoy services from them. This contributes to customer loyalty and repeat business.Thus, Siemens is treating their employees just as they want their customer to be treated which in turn is giving Siemens a huge business growth and good will. So, we can see, ensuring growth of any business lies upon its employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction which Siemens is successfully maintaining. Various training and development programs Helps to build more skilled, motivated and competitive work force Repeat transaction increases production and helps to grow business Loyal customers make repeat transaction Motivated employees tend to provide better customer service and retain customers