Evaluating Human Resource Management Policies
To assess the effectiveness of human resource management policies, companies often rely on key performance indicators (KPIs), such as absenteeism rates, staff turnover, resignations, and voluntary departures, as well as employee performance evaluations, including the quantification of results achieved. Through this dashboard, the company aims to measure each employee's contribution to revenue and, more broadly, the collective value added within the organization.
The Carrot and Stick Approach
To maintain a minimum level of performance, managers and supervisors often resort to the carrot and stick policy: rewarding efforts (through professional or monetary incentives) while keeping a close eye on employees through imposed objectives, demotions, or even threats of dismissal. Although this method, which mobilizes what economist Bruno Frey calls extrinsic motivations, may have been suitable for the Fordist organizational model in the past, today's managers are seeking to activate intrinsic motivations. This type of motivation includes everything that brings satisfaction to the individual, independent of any external reward, threat, or constraint.
The Power of Intrinsic Motivation
It is, in a way, the "free" work that an employee can provide to the company, solely for the satisfaction of the task accomplished and the pleasure of working. Nothing can replace the strength of employees motivated by the sole accomplishment of their mission! American studies conducted by MIT and Harvard have revealed that happy employees are twice as healthy, nine times more loyal, 31% more productive, and 55% more creative.
The Benefits of Intrinsic Motivation
"For the country and for employers, nothing is more profitable than free work: this supplement of zeal, application, concentration, investment that the individual deploys without any other reward than the spontaneous pleasure they feel in doing it," writes economist Jacques Généreux. However, to stimulate this precious type of motivation, the company must guarantee certain prerequisites, favoring the employee's fulfillment. Studies have shown that among the levers that managers can use, organizational justice, particularly in ensuring internal equity and avoiding favoritism, is essential. Similarly, adapting communication to the specific needs of each employee, valuing the quality of the information communicated, and generally promoting autonomy in tasks, company culture, and a work environment concerned with employee well-being, are all factors that allow for stimulating intrinsic motivation in employees.
