Week 11 by Andrew - Motivating Onboard Sales Managers

To gain insight into how rewards and motivation are handled in one area of a business I support, I spoke with Garrett Ford, sales director for Disney Cruise Line. In addition to overseeing group sales for DCL, Garrett is responsible for the team of onboard sales managers, those crew members whose goal is to drive future cruise bookings while guests are enjoying a cruise vacation.

Can you briefly describe the way onboard sales managers are incentivized?

For onboard sales, the way we incentivize them is based on total volume in a quarter. It’s a cash compensation reward. The view in a company like ours is that their compensation should mainly be held in their fixed compensation weekly, and the variable’s not much. The reason for that is that we want them to be exhibiting the right behaviors. We pay them a salary to exhibit the right behaviors and then based on volume of sales that they have, they can earn a small bonus for each week.

How do you align the individual incentives with the company’s objectives?

You start at the top and figure out what the overall goal is. Sometimes there’s a disconnect as you move further down the ladder, but what you truly want to do is make sure the overall goals are being satisfied at each level of the company. You’re also evaluating that what they’re doing is that which is in their control. You don’t want to be paying them for something they don’t have an influence on.

How do you balance developing a culture where employees are intrinsically motivated with the extrinsic motivation found in compensation?

That’s a great question. The first thing you want to do is find people who are intrinsically motivated by their core beliefs and then when you add the second factor to it, it should give you a great return. On the flip side, if you miss that alignment and have people who are motivated by the extrinsic factors, that’s when you start to see the wrong behaviors delivered.

What other forms of motivation do you use for the onboard sales managers?

The more important thing is figuring out what it is that motivates them individually. It’s been my experience that cash compensation will only take you to a certain point. I’m not exactly sure what that number is, but once that point is hit, there are other factors. I think Maslow’s hierarchy of needs explains a lot of this. Factors like days off, work-life balance, respect and dignity, these are huge. You have to figure out what this individual wants and then cater your style to that as a leader.

What changes do you see in terms of incentives and motivation as the workforce gets younger?

You’ve got to look at what their wants, needs and desires are, and when you look toward the millennial generation, respect seems to play a big role; individual choice; allowing them to be who they are in the workplace. They’re not necessarily defined by cash compensation. They desire mentoring, tutoring and attention. They are driven less by money and more by total experience.

This was just a brief conversation, one of many Garrett and I have had (he was one of my leaders when I worked in sales for a different Disney division), but the message he conveyed falls in line with the definition of employee engagement Heymann and Barrera (2010) espoused, of determining how best to connect the employee’s individual goals with the company. With the growth of Disney’s cruise business and the increased needs for effective sales, alignment of leadership to these personal and company objectives will continue to be crucial.

Heymann, J. & Barrera, M. (2010). Engaging employees in the company’s profits and their own, Harvard Business School, 1-28.

Phillip Week 11: Interview with Patricia Castillo, Director of Employee Relations, EPISD

The El Paso ISD is one of the largest school districts in the State of Texas and as an educational institution, I was wondering how its rewards system(s) is different from that of a private sector institution.

Good morning, Ms. Castillo. Our cohort's readings deal with reward systems and employee retention. Can you describe any rewards or incentives used in the school district?


Every department and campus within the district is different, as they'll all have smaller types of incentives and/or team building activities. As a district, we are limited as far as financial incentives we can offer. I would say right now we have a long-tern benefit in which employees can roll over unused sick, personal and vacation days each year. By the time an employee retires the district will pay the employee 50% of what those days are worth.

Even if an employee leaves the district?


As long as the employee is eligible for retirement when the resign.


(NOTE - According to the Teacher Retirement Systems of Texas, an employee is eligible for retirement when the employee's age and number of years worked adds up to 85. Ex. A 55-year-old who has worked as a teacher for 25 years is eligible to retire with full benefits).


Does the school district participate in any of the traditional employee recognitions, such as Employee of the Month/Year?


Yes we do and the EOM gets a plaque but we can't offer financial incentives or days off. The employee is recognized at a board meeting, receives a plaque at that meeting and then it's business as usual.

One of our readings talks about employee engagement and how the more an employee is engaged, the more likely that employee will stay on the job (Heymann & Barrera, 2011). For an organization that can't provide much in the way of incentives and rewards, how do you keep employees engaged?


That's a terrific question because right now as we search for a new Superintendent, we are in the middle of trying to change what has been the status quo for the last 5 years in that employees pretty much did what they were told and had little to no input. Administrators pretty much abided by what the Superintendent wanted and everyone else had to follow suit and no rock the boat. Today, we are trying to find ways where employees can be more vocal when it comes to policy and how things work.

Don't employees have a federation that serves as their own special interest group to help in that department?


They do but that group isn't as strong as they would like their members to believe. On the contrary, this was the same group that fought hard to convince the board of trustees to approve the district changing health benefits plans, a move that many employees are regretting.

So we're leading the way in re-enforcing our communications process to employees and encouraging them to work within that process.

Thanks very much for your time!

Reference

Heymann, J., Barrera, M. (2010) Engaging Employees in the Company's Profits and Their Own, Harvard Business School, pp. 1-28 

Candid Interview With Southern California Edison

Recently, I had a wonderful opportunity to interview Patricia Miller, Vice President of Human Resources at Southern California Edison. Ms. Miller was very candid in her responses and really did shed some light on keeping good talent, what motivates them and Gen Xers vs Baby Boomers. Hers is what Patricia Miller had to say.

Audrey: Do you feel your company has done a good job with acquiring and maintaining top talent? Why or Why not?

Patricia:  We have a done an excellent job of acquiring and retaining talent, but potentially for the wrong reasons.  Our company is a regulated business and has a long history of internal placements and hiring family members.  This has resulted in many employees wanting to work for and stay with Edison because it is viewed as a stable company with predictable hours and excellent pay and benefits.  Top talent is generally motivated by other factors such as challenging work, the ability to develop their skills and grow professionally, an entrepreneurial work environment and pay for performance.      

Audrey:  In general, what does your company do to keep “rising stars” (top talent)?

Patricia:  As part of our annual talent planning process, we identify those individuals who have a sustained track record of high performance and are deemed to be high potential (i.e. the ability to move multiple levels over a 3-5 year period).  These individuals are then targeted for developmental assignments.  Additionally, we have recently implemented a nine-month leadership development program focused on high potential employees.  The program is experiential, providing participants the opportunity to work on “action-learning” projects.  These projects are based on challenging issues the company is facing and the participants are given the opportunity to work on potential solutions to these problems.  Members of senior management are actively involved in the program and are assigned as mentors. At the end of the program, the participants make a presentation to the senior management team outlining their proposed solutions. 

Southern California Edison seems to have done its homework by not making some of the mistakes identified by (Martin and Schmidt, 2010). Instead of assuming rising stars are engaged SCE has taken steps to ensure engagement through mentoring and development programs as mentioned above. Additionally, instead of shielding rising stars, a mistake identified by (Martin and Schmidt, 2010), SCE has their rising stars work on real life challenges currently facing the company and support the stars on coming up with solutions. She also adds that they take these stars beyond their comfort zone.

 As Ms. Miller talks about what motivates these rising stars I believe the stars show signs of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations (Ryan and Deci, 2000). These stars seem to be motivated by the opportunity to come up with solutions for these company challenges. I believe they are doing this activity for its inherent satisfaction (Ryan and Deci, 2000). Also, being motivated to be successful in this program can lead to promotions and salary increases. This can represent an extrinsic motivation.

Audrey:  What do you believe motivates “rising stars” in your company?

Patricia:  As mentioned above, the opportunity for professional growth and development is key.  That is most effectively achieved through challenging roles where incumbents are given job assignments that stretch them beyond their comfort zone. 

Audrey:  In considering all employees, do you believe motivated employees have an impact on company performance? Why or Why not?  

Patricia:  I strongly believe this to be true.  It’s the difference between employees doing the minimum amount of work necessary to meet the job requirements vs. going above and beyond the normal demands of the job (i.e. discretionary effort).  Examples of discretionary effort are helping others with heavy workloads, volunteering for additional assignments or looking for ways to perform work more efficiently.    

Audrey:  How does your company keep employees motivated when there is a bad economy?

Patricia:  As part of a sound change management process, we have put significant effort into improving communications with our employees so that they understand the rationale for changes we are making.  Additionally, we are training our leaders to communicate more effectively since employees are more likely to believe what they hear when it comes from their immediate supervisor.

Audrey:  Do you think Generation X leaders have a different mindset than the Baby Boomer leaders in Corporate America? Can you reflect on the leadership mindset? Do you think they make good leaders?

Patricia:  Generally yes, mainly because of the philosophical differences in how work gets accomplished.  While Baby Boomer leaders place importance on “face time”, Gen X leaders are the first generation of leaders to grow up with technology and therefore are more comfortable with flexible work arrangements.  This flexible approach is also a function of them desiring greater work-life balance than their Boomer counterparts, as the research shows they “work to live” vs the Boomers who “live to work”. I don’t believe, however, that the differences in their work philosophies in and of themselves make Gen X good leaders; but, it certainly makes them more compatible with Generation Y, the fastest growing segment of the workforce they will lead, as Gen Y also values work-life balance.

After this interview with Ms. Miller, I believe Southern California Edison fulfills all four of the emotional drives that motivates employees ( Nohria, Groysberg & Lee, 2008). Acquire – fulfilled by identifying high potential employees and placing them in challenging programs; Bond – fulfilled by action-learning projects and collaborating with upper management; Comprehend – fulfilled by placing rising stars in positions that allow them to affect solutions for current challenges facing the company and Defend – fulfilled by trusting and challenging these potential leaders and allowing them to step outside their comfort-zone to come up with solutions while rewarding them with fast-track opportunities (Nohria, Groysberg & Lee, 2008). Southern California Edison seems to be doing a great job with motivating employees.

References

Nohria, N., Groysberg, B., and Lee, L. (2008) Employee Motivation: A Powerful

    New Model, Harvard Business Review, pp. 1-7 (full article)

Ryan, R., and Deci, E. (2000), Intrisic and Extrinsic Motivations:  Classic

Definitions and New Directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, No. 25,

    pp. 54-67.

Martin, J., and Schmidt, C. (2010). How to Keep Your Top Talent. Harvard

   Business Review, pp. 3-9.

Week 11: Cynthia... Motivation at Government Jobs.

For this week’s assignment, I talked with a friend who works for a department of the U.S. federal government.  Our topic this week addressed rewards and motivation of employees.  Jobs in government agencies present a unique study of how to motivate and engage employees, since government managers can’t offer high performing employees the stock options, and other rewards  that are found in the private sector.  I wanted to understand what keeps highly educated, intelligent and ambitious people in government jobs engaged and motivated to perform, and understand the tactics they use to motivate their employees.  (Note the person I interviewed is not a member of a public employee union.) 
Q1: In class this week, one of my readings discussed extrinsic motivation (motivation from external sources…praise, pay, reward, etc.)  How does anyone get motivated to work hard in the government–when you don't have stock options, bonus programs?  Are there extrinsic motivations?

I think most people (not all, of course) who work for the government are motivated in part by public service and the ability to work for "good" versus working for someone else's "profits."  We have seen a great deal of turnover and competition, particularly during the economic boom, with the private sector.  Government employees from our agency are always recruited by private sector companies in our field.  We can't offer stock options, bonuses, etc., but we can offer the only opportunity to work for a large agency that deals with huge private and public sector challenges… no other company in the world can match that.  The opportunity to lead and be promoted is another source of motivation.  With the majority of our workforce able to retire over the next several years, there is a tremendous opportunity for advancement if you work hard, play well with others, and show commitment. 

Q:  Do people have annual reviews … and what happens if they have a great one… are salary increases all based on years in job/pay grade?  If pay increases aren't options, are there other ways people are rewarded?

Yes.  We have a performance management and appraisal system that was instituted about 5 years ago.  Employees (and Managers) can be rated exceptional, fully successful, minimally successful or unsatisfactory.  The union contract requires that those rated exceptional be guaranteed a bonus (given out in March for the previous calendar year's performance) of at least 2.5% of their salary.  Fully successful individuals get awards on a sliding scale based on the level (within fully successful) of their rating, but only if there is money left over after giving all the Exceptional employees their awards.  Last year, all performance awards within the government were capped and not all who were eligible received awards.  

Managers must review all employees (face to face) at least three times a year:  once at the beginning of the calendar year, at the mid-year (in July), and again at the end of the year.  Salary increases also are provided to employees based on their Grade and their Step and can come either every year, every 2 years, or every 3 years depending on where the employee is step-wise within the grade (there are 10 steps).  As you progress up the steps, you have to wait the two or three years before you progress to the next step depending on what step you are moving from and to.  For example, you'll be a Grade 15, Step 8 for three years before you become a Grade 15, Step 9.  But a Grade 15, Step 1 will become a Grade 15 Step 2 in one year.  (I can explain this in greater detail if you really want to know).  Employees also get cost of living increases each year if Congress passes one -- these are usually quite small -- one to one and half percent of salary.  The last three years we have gone without a cost of living increase.  There are also career ladder positions where you come into the government at a Grade 9, but are promoted each successive year (unless you're not at least rated fully successful) to a Grade 11 and then the third year a Grade 12.

Q:  Do you have reward systems for people who perform exceptionally well?

We have minimal ability to reward employees financially.  There are strict limits on the awards you can provide employees (even trinkets) beyond what is negotiated in the Union Contract and you are forbidden from providing awards out of your own pocket, unless they are extremely small (not sure of the $$ amount, but less than $10).  This is to protect employees from being "bought off" by their manager.  In addition, managers have to purchase food, drinks, etc. for office parties (Xmas, end of year, summer picnics, birthdays) out of our own pockets.  There's no money provided for these "team" activities.  Rewards come from the perks of working in the government as I alluded to above, as well as health insurance (we still pay a portion); the thrift savings plan (gov't contributes up to 5% of your salary if you contribute that amount); guaranteed retirement (in addition to Thrift Savings) via Federal Employees Retirement Service, as well as health care insurance for life.  There is tremendous flexibility in working hours -- start times can be anywhere from 6-10 a.m. and quitting times from 2:30 - 6:30 p.m.  You can "flex" out to take care of things in the middle of the day -- an hour or two to go to the doctor and you work an extra hour or two to make up for it.  We also allow people to work at home up to two-days a week and are initiating a telework pilot program for 100 employees to work at home 100 percent of the time for three months.  You can also work 4 9-hour days a week and take off every other Friday or work 4 10-hour days a week and be off every Friday (or whatever other day you want).  And employees can work "credit hours" up to 24 hours a pay period that can be used to take time off. 

We also reward our top performers with choice assignments, such as briefing Senior Leadership, attending national conferences and presenting on the Agency's behalf, or spending up to 4 months on a detail to a different part of the Agency to allow them to experience another part of the program they might be interested in.  We also have a small pool of money that we can give out for "on the spot" activities -- awards are generally $250 or a couple days of time off.

For the government employee I interviewed, intrinsic motivation (Ryan & Deci, 2000) is central to his performance.  This individual views his job as a service, and his motivation is to continue to provide essential services.  He faces subordinates and colleagues who lack that same drive, which is challenging in an environment where traditional extrinsic motivators—bonuses, perks, etc.—are absent.  As an individual employee, he appears to have the characteristics—ability, engagement and aspiration—that mark top talent employees in the private sector (Martin & Schmidt, 2010).  

References

Ryan, R., & Deci, E. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25, 54-67.
Martin, J., & Schmidt, C. (2010). How to keep your top talent. Harvard Business Review, 3-9.

Week 11 - Paul Merrill

Compassion International and Employee Motivation

I had the privilege of interviewing Mark Tatum, the Internet Marketing Program Manager for Compassion International, a charity that helps improve the lives of children around the world who are in poverty. I based my interview questions around the reading, "Employee Motivation, A Powerful New Model."

Q: What are some of the techniques Compassion uses to motivate its employees?

A: Because Compassion is a non-profit and has a really clear corporate goal, which is to release children from poverty, in Jesus' name. That's one of the main ways. We continually see what the results are in how we make a difference. Every week we have a big meeting featuring someone from the field. This week we had a group of students who had graduated form our child sponsorship program. Compassion helps them get through college. They'll give their own personal experiences of how Compassion has changed their lives. We can see videos or stories about how Compassion is making a difference in over a million kids' lives. When I first came, I was surprised at how much time they spent talking about our successes as a company.

Q: How does Compassion create as feeling of corporate culture?

A: I would have a hard time saying what the corporate culture is, beyond what I described as everyone working toward a goal. We have an internal website called The Source and daily emails with stories about what's happening within Compassion. We have events throughout the year as employees, such as getting together to play games outdoors. They encourage doing things together and sharing our successes and our challenges. They continually communicate about our history. It's not them telling us what we should be thinking but them telling us what's happening around the world.

Q: Is there a direct connection between job performance and financial reward?

A: There is not a bonus system or a commission system in place for anyone who's an employee. Of course there's normal job performance kinds of things, so if you're a natural or proven leader, you're given more responsibility. The only way to be rewarded is through getting job promotions and more responsibility at work.

Q: How does management help employees to feel like they are cared for?

A: They have several different specific programs that they do, such as yearly reviews, where we meet with our managers to go over our goals for each fiscal year. We have a couple of scheduled reviews throughout the year, where we talk about our progress toward those goals. For the last few years, we've participated in the Gallup Workplace Survey - the Great Workplace Award. We were one of the few companies in the US to win it this year. They have a series of questions that Gallup asks anonymously of employees each year, to gauge how people feel about an organization and if they understand the purpose. They split it up among departments to follow up on how we can improve.

Q: Is Compassion transparent in how they communicate about work-related issues?

A: Yes. An example is the Gallup survey. Everybody gets to see how each department answers. Compassion is more transparent than any other place I've been, and I've probably been with 11 or 12 different organizations. As far as the problems we're facing - a budget hurtle, an income hurtle, they're fairly transparent as a company.

Conclusions: Compassion must be a great place to work! They scored high on fulfilling each of the four areas that Nohria and Groysberg (2008) identified as being important drives that motivate employees: the needs to acquire, bond, comprehend and defend. Compassion's highest area of performance seems to be in fulfilling the need of an employee to comprehend the organization's purpose and lesser so, the individual's role within the organization. Their communication of information relating to the cause the organization exists for is excellent.

Reference

Nohria, N., Groysberg, B., & Lee, L. E. (2008, July-August). Employee motivation: A powerful new model. Harvard Business Review, 220-227.

Motivation, such an aggravation. Nik

As I worked through this week’s readings and thought about what from my personal experience I could share (that’s meaningful) about work motivation I reflected back to my job as a technical sales representative at Caisson Laboratories. Caisson is a small competitor in the biotechnology research supply world that is slowly making a name for itself. I started working there when it was still fairly young-about six years ago. At the time it was blossoming; business was expanding and the economic downturn hadn’t hit yet. Caisson had to that point relied on 100% organic growth but was desperately in need of the more stable, predictable growth that comes from a strong sales force. It just so happened I was nearing the end of my undergraduate and looking for an opportunity to start making a name for myself. I interviewed, was hired, and put my nose to the grindstone.

Working fulltime slowed my progress in school, but I wasn’t in a rush to get my degree. I was comfortable where I was and so I spent another couple of years wrapping it up. Work was going surprisingly well and I was making great money for a young 20-something. When it finally came time for me to graduate I was hoping that Caisson would have bigger and better things for me, but much to my disappointment they offered nothing, so I went chasing after different suitors. It wasn’t until a couple years ago when in a management position with another company that I realized what had actually happened at Caisson.

As it turns out Caisson did have plans for me. Apparently though my leaders at Caisson had never seen anything like the Martin and Schmidt (2010) paper. As I look back now they really didn’t understand what it was going to take to keep me engaged as an employee, nor did they know how to convey their interest in continuing to develop me as a part of their staff. Only in passing did the CFO make a comment regarding how the company would like to “keep someone like [me] on staff.”

It just so happens they made mistakes in all six of the areas covered by Martin and Schmidt. After more than two years of the same work I was ready for a change in my daily routine-I was no longer engaged. They never really tested my abilities and as a result where to a certain degree ignorant of my potential. Also I was managed by an individual who had little experience in talent development. In spite of telling me that I was appreciated and doing much better than any other rep they never ‘put their money where their mouth was’ and offered me bonuses for my exceptional performance or a higher base salary. Lastly I was rarely given forewarning about moves the company would make which would affect my work life. And all these are just to name a few, but all likely reasons why I found it easy to move on to greener pastures. In other words, they were providing me with amounted to introjected external motivation (Deci & Ryan, 2000) and I needed more fulfillment, which falls in line with the research on mentoring millenials.

I specifically feel that they could have taken tips from Meister and Willyerd (2010) regarding mentoring millennials. I believe that I could have remained engaged and personally fulfilled as they put it at Caisson Labs, but the management didn’t have the in site to accomplish this. Only the CFO took a personal interest in me and mentored me as he had time. Unfortunately it proved too little too late. As I have thought about it more after reading the other papers I realize that all of them had relevancy in the explanation to my leaving Caisson. Nohria, Groysberg, and Lee’s (2008) paper on motivation could have served just as well as any of the others to help me achieve more sustainable motivations. My lack of engagement discussed earlier could have been remedied by following the examples given by Heymann and Barrera (2010) from the box or cookie factory.

In short I have realized that motivation is a very important piece to the puzzle. My personal experience more than anything has proven that without proper motivation the employees that a company needs most are likely to leave at the most in opportune times. When I left Caisson struggled to rebuild the sales force. It was leaning on me like a crutch to get it through and unfortunately the knowledge and abilities I had developed weren’t effectively passed on to the next generation, but that is a story for another day.

·         Heymann, J., Barrera, M. (2010) Engaging Employees in the Company's Profits and Their Own, Harvard Business School, pp. 1-28 (full article)

·         Ryan, R., and Deci, E. (2000). Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology. No. 25, pp. 54-67 (full article)

·         Martin, J., and Schmidt, C. (2010). How to Keep Your Top Talent. Harvard Business Review, pp. 3-9 (full article)

·         Meister, J., and Willyerd, K. (2010). Mentoring Millenials. Harvard Business Review, pp. 17-20 (full article)

Week 11 - Brian

Interview with Sean T. (last name withheld per his request) - T-Mobile Retail Sales Representative

In my first application assignment, I talked about the organizational design of T-Mobile, my former employer and thought that since we're talking about rewards and motivation this week, it would be great to interview a former colleague since these things play a huge role in achieving sales goals and growing the company, not to mention keeping happy, productive employees on the front line.

Q: What does T-Mobile do to distinguish top performers? How does that motivate you?

A: At the most local level, each store has its own sales leader board and our market manager sends out a daily report showing how each store and individual employee is doing. Naturally, everybody wants to be at the top of the list and equally as important, nowhere near the bottom. There’s a certain level of clout that comes with being atop the leader board every month and with those higher sales (activating new lines), plus selling accessories and features, comes more commission.

Also, when a new service is launched, the company sometimes offers a sales spiff: You might get $10 every time you switch someone to a new plan or something of that nature; this really motivates top performers to sell new services and fatten their commission checks even more, and sometimes motivates lower performers to become top performers through financial gain. There is also a national program that takes the best performers in the country on an all expenses paid trip.

Q: Do you think that these things play into your drive to be a top performer?

A: Definitely.

Q: How so?

A: When the company launches a new product or way of selling that we’re not quite sure about, I think that without incentives, it would be really easy to just stick with what we know and doing that doesn’t do anything to move the company forward. Personally, it’s my goal to be near the top of our market sales report at the end of every month. I don’t get caught up in where I’m at day to day, but as long as I’m there at the end, that’s what matters. Big commission checks don’t hurt either.

Q: How does the company move top performers up the corporate ladder?

A:  There are always new stores opening so if someone is part-time in their current store, there is usually an opportunity to go full-time at another. If someone is full-time in his or her current store, there is usually opportunity to become a manager at another.

T-Mobile also offers a career development program, which offers top performers a fast-track to management by transferring them to a different store where they are promoted to assistant manger (increased hourly pay/store commission structure) and shadow an experienced, proven manager to learn how to run their own store in the future. I’ve also seen people at the retail level hired by the B2B department and others have gotten hired by the corporate office in Washington when they finished their degrees.

Q: Do you think these things work?

A: For sure. I think that when people know that they’re part of an organization that offers a career path, not just a job, they appreciate that. It’s good to know that you’re part of a company that you will never outgrow.

Q: How does the company retain top talent?

A: I think that a solid, rewarding commission structure and a strong culture would be the top reasons that people stay with the company so long. While I was still in college, I worked 20 hours per week and made almost as much as some of my friends who were already working in their degree fields full time. As I mentioned before, providing a career path is huge, too, because there’s always another level for you to strive for.

Conclusion

I had the pleasure of working with Sean for three years as a retail sales rep and he is exactly the type of employee that T-Mobile tries to actively recruit and retain. Although the company typically does a good job at recruiting employees who are intrinsically motivated and take pride in their work, it also trains retail sales reps thoroughly, often for a month or two, before they are able to sell on their own. This creates feelings of competence, often leading to a heightened level of intrinsic motivation in these employees, which makes them feel like world beaters an in turn, become more productive, charged-up new employees. Through commission, spiffs, career development programs and the recognition of upper management, the company also utilizes extrinsic motivating factors to accomplish sales goals as well (Ryan & Deci, 2000).

Through promotions and the CDP program, T-Mobile up-and-comers are placed in “live fire” leadership roles that allow them to be a part of high level market strategy planning and feel like they’re part of something larger than selling phones and accessories. In Sean’s view, and I agree, this shapes a company that reps can see themselves being a part of beyond their college years and beyond their current position within the company, reducing turnover of top performers in an industry that is constantly subject to competitor poaching (Martin & Schmidt, 2010).

In closing, I think that T-Mobile has done a good job at addressing all four basic human needs that Nohria and Lee (2008) mentioned in “Employee motivation: A powerful new model:”

·      Acquire – sales reps are driven to sell, sell, sell and tally huge commission checks in addition to prizes from vendors like phones and accessories and the chance to earn larger corporate prizes. Acquiring a higher spot on the corporate totem pole would also be included here.

·      Bond – strong team cultures within individual stores and markets and nationally fulfill this need.

·      Comprehend – a strong new employee training program and ongoing learning opportunity helps keep employees engaged and allows them to be part of shaping the company’s future.

·      Defend – I think that the daily sales report captures this need quite well. As the month rolls on and leaders (store and individual) start to emerge, other employees fight to defend their individual and store “leader” status and avoid the embarrassment of finishing at the bottom of the list.

References

Martin, J., and Schmidt, C. (2010). How to keep your top talent. Harvard Business Review, pp. 3-9

Nohria, N., Groysberg, B., and Lee, L. (2008) Employee motivation: A powerful new model, Harvard Business Review, 1-7.

Ryan, R., and Deci, E. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25, 54-67.