Monday, June 08, 2009
Carrot and Stick
I would love to hear from some of you about how you motivate your staff... or what is motivating to you as a staff person. Our program is state funded in a state with no cash and no prospects for getting cash, so I have to be clear when I hire new staff that whatever wage they start at is the one they will finish at. We don't do "raises."
Therefore, I have no carrot to motivate people. Back in the "old days," we used to tell staff that raises were merit based. If you did a good job, you got an annual raise until you reached the top step of your wage scale.
Also, because we can't offer monetary incentives (raises) to work here, it is difficult to hire staff in the first place. Therefore, I have no stick, because if I fire staff, I have no way to replace them. Discipilnary actions are sort of a joke if you can't do anything about them.
Don't get me wrong... if a staff deserves to be fired, I will fire them! I have fired them. But I am not going to fire a staff because they are consistently late turning in data collection or they don't really follow client's ISP's when it comes to instructional strategies, etc. If what they are doing clearly does not harm a client in any way, all I can do is try to make them feel guilty for not doing their job correctly.
You can only give verbal praise and certificates of achievement so many times to a staff person before they lose their reinforcing value. I don't even have money to give a small gift certificate for coffee now and then when someone does an outstanding job. And guilt trips lose their effectiveness once the staff person realizes that you have no recourse and won't fire them for being a mediocre staff.
Thank goodness I have staff members who, for the most part, care about the clients they work with. They just don't go out of their way to be consistent with instructional strategies and data collection. And I don't know how to fix that.
Of course, if enough cuts are imposed on our program by the state, none of this will make any difference anyway. But still, I am interested in how you motivate people.
Therefore, I have no carrot to motivate people. Back in the "old days," we used to tell staff that raises were merit based. If you did a good job, you got an annual raise until you reached the top step of your wage scale.
Also, because we can't offer monetary incentives (raises) to work here, it is difficult to hire staff in the first place. Therefore, I have no stick, because if I fire staff, I have no way to replace them. Discipilnary actions are sort of a joke if you can't do anything about them.
Don't get me wrong... if a staff deserves to be fired, I will fire them! I have fired them. But I am not going to fire a staff because they are consistently late turning in data collection or they don't really follow client's ISP's when it comes to instructional strategies, etc. If what they are doing clearly does not harm a client in any way, all I can do is try to make them feel guilty for not doing their job correctly.
You can only give verbal praise and certificates of achievement so many times to a staff person before they lose their reinforcing value. I don't even have money to give a small gift certificate for coffee now and then when someone does an outstanding job. And guilt trips lose their effectiveness once the staff person realizes that you have no recourse and won't fire them for being a mediocre staff.
Thank goodness I have staff members who, for the most part, care about the clients they work with. They just don't go out of their way to be consistent with instructional strategies and data collection. And I don't know how to fix that.
Of course, if enough cuts are imposed on our program by the state, none of this will make any difference anyway. But still, I am interested in how you motivate people.
Labels: Staff Motivation
