Motivation is an extremely large part of organizations today. There is a constant need to motivate employees to work harder, longer and better than the previous day. Having an employee who is internally motivated can be considered almost as an answer to a prayer in some cases.
However, for the other employees who lack the motivation characteristics, businesses are getting creative in finding ways to motivate them. There are many different things businesses can do in regards to motivating their employees. Things such as extra vacation time, bonuses for successful completion of jobs, free lunches, and flex scheduling.
An article written by Motivation Ping explains a useful way to help motivate employees without spending any company money outside of the salaries the company already pays. Jeff Dennis' solution to unmotivated employees is called "The 20% Solution" (Dennis). It is described as "assigning 20% of every employee's time to business-related activities and projects outside of their core, day-to-day jobs".
The objective of this theory is to have employees spend 20% of every day working on something that enjoys them that is related the business core in some way. It is very prominent at companies like Google, Inc. and I Like Rewards. Additional benefits have actually been produced from this added 20% time. Google introduced Froogle, Gmail, and Google News. All of these products have basically added entities to the Google franchise. Gmail is extremely popular within students in college and recent graduates, due to the in-email chat feature.
Within my organization there is no opportunity to use 20% of one's time to work on something that enjoys us and also benefits the company as a whole. Thankfully when I was promoted I was given an opportunity by the owner/CEO of the company to use my free time to work on either my school work or something that will benefit the company.
Therefore in the free time I received was put to good use; I redid all of the medical history forms ever used throughout the practice, researched different methodologies in helping the organization succeed, and worked with vendors for new products and software that may be useful within the organization. Some of the projects I worked on during my "20% solution" time actually came to fruition and were approved by the owner/CEO.
As Jeff Dennis explains, "Use if to create an environment in which your employees can explore, learn and grow. The returns can be huge, in terms of innovation, retention and employee engagement. It could be a habit you'll never want to kick" using this solution could be a great benefit to any organization. It has shown increased productivity in my own personal position and would possibly benefit other employees within my organization as well.
There is a major motivation issue where I am currently employed and the 20% solution would be a great addition to our daily operations. It obviously wouldn't be very conducive to all areas of the business, due to the major clinical setting we have. However it would be useful in areas that do not have direct contact with patients. In fact this is why we hired some motivational and inspirational speakers to come talk to our staff.
The 20% Solution is a great addition to any organization that needs new innovative ideas, creative product development and employee motivation. Employee's working towards something they enjoy and feel a positive result from is a great motivator outside of money or additional vacation time.
