Friday, May 27, 2011

Enterprise Rent-A-Car - A success story in motivation

Motivation is the desire to achieve a goal or a certain performance level, leading to goal- directed behavior. Motivation is particular to an individual so it is important to find out what factors drive each person. Some employees may be motivated by working in a team whereas others could be driven by a desire to make a difference. In this blog I will be throwing light on how Enterprise Rent-A-Car (Enterprise) has succeeded in creating the right environment for motivating and engaging its people through the development of good communication channels, appropriate training and honest and timely feedback.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car provides a car rental service for customers. It was founded by Jack Taylor in 1957 in the basement of a car dealership in St Louis in the USA. Today the company has over 750,000 rental cars in service globally. The company runs on a very strong customer service and only a highly motivated staff will provide this quality of service. The company uses a simple customer satisfaction survey – the Enterprise Service Quality index (ESQi) - to find out how satisfied its customers are. It is based on two simple questions:          
  1. Were you completely satisfied with your rental experience at Enterprise?
  2.  Given the opportunity to return to Enterprise, would you?

Enterprise knows that to perform well on the ESQi it needs to have motivated employees. Motivational theorist Frederick Taylor believed that workers needed close supervision and were only motivated by money. However, Enterprise-Rent-A-Car has identified a number of factors which are non-financial and which provide high levels of motivation for its employees. According to Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs model, there is a hierarchy of needs that people want to fulfill through their work. At the lowest levels they require good pay so their basic needs for food, clothing and other essentials are met. However, in addition employees’ needs include:
  • safety - a need to feel secure, e.g. through job security or personal protective equipment
  • social - a need for affection, e.g. friendly work places based on trust, support and encouragement
  • self-esteem - a need for self-respect and the respect of others, e.g. recognition and promotion
  • self-actualization - the opportunity for personal fulfillment, e.g. learning new skills and working towards personal goals.

As part of its motivation programme, Enterprise managers are expected to ensure that employees are engaged and motivated by:
·         developing good relationships with their staff (this satisfies the social needs of the employee as per Maslow’s hierarchy of needs)
·          providing the right materials, equipment and information
·          encouraging employees to identify personal development targets (this satisfies the employee’s self-esteem and self-actualization needs)
·          recognizing and rewarding good performance. (satisfies employee’s self-esteem needs)

Enterprise also recognizes that motivated employees benefit the company by:
·         working with passion
·         coming up with new innovative ideas
·         moving the company forward.

Enterprise takes good care in developing and sustaining a positive work environment.  Enterprise‘s culture is based on having motivated people working every day to deliver the best service for customers. Managers and team leaders provide a culture through:
  • Good relationships – managers take care of their employees. They try to find out about the employee’s expectations .They give clear directions and the team has fun together.
  • Clear communications – clear goals and expectations are set and plans are shared. Reasons for doing things are clearly explained so employees can see how they fit into the big picture.
  •  Adequate resources – managers make sure that materials, equipment and information are provided and fit for purpose.
  • Encouragement – employees are praised for doing the right thing. Frustrations and problems are acknowledged. The focus is on working towards goals.
  • Recognition – effort and good performance are rewarded. By establishing best practice, it is possible for Enterprise to measure branch culture against the benchmarks or standards it has set.

Developing a motivating culture takes time and effort. Enterprise managers and team leaders are given in-depth training. This allows them to develop a strategic, long-term approach to building a culture of customer care through motivated people. Everyone at Enterprise takes part in Motivation Training. This gives employees an understanding of motivation principles and techniques, so everyone‘s goals are in sync with the corporate goals as well.

Team leaders need to understand the needs of the people they manage to ensure they apply the right motivating factors for individuals. During training, managers learn to assess the motivation culture of their branch. For example, a branch with highly motivated employees may demonstrate this by:
  •  answering the phone before the working day starts
  • working together as a team
  • regularly attending social work functions together
  • arriving early every day
  • organizing and preparing the office at the end of the day.

Employees are aware of the benefits of high levels of performance, such as recognition and promotion, but also the consequences of poor performance.

Frederick Herzberg showed that real motivation comes from within. Factors like good pay and working conditions (his ‘hygiene factors’) stop employees from being dissatisfied. However it is the opportunity to set personal targets and to develop oneself that are the true motivators. Within Enterprise, a number of de-motivating factors have been identified. These include:
  •  a lack of organization or structure
  • a lack of feedback
  • a lack of understanding why a task is important
  • a lack of consequences for poor performance.                                                                             
Managers are therefore trained to identify and work to reduce these within their branches. This may be by effective communication, training or clear guidance on job standards.

Recognition, one of Herzberg’s motivators, is important for employees to feel they are valued. To address this, Enterprise has introduced a system called ‘The Vote’. This aims to support and encourage the development of exceptional customer service. It works on the basis of co-workers providing assessment on themselves and each other. All employees in rental branches rank everyone in their team, including themselves, in terms of their customer service efforts. They provide a constructive explanation of the rankings given. These are then fed back to all employees. The names of the best performer and most improved employee are communicated to all employees in the region. This is a way of recognizing those employees who are delivering exceptional service and identifying those who may need additional motivation.

‘The Vote’ helps to achieve high ESQi scores because:
  •  everyone is involved in suggesting improvements to others
  • only constructive feedback is allowed
  •  progress reports are issued regularly to remind fellow employees on how to improve.
  •  improvement is valued as much as overall performance.

 A motivated workforce does not just happen. People need to be encouraged. This requires skilfull management and managers trained in motivation. Systems also need to be created which encourage employees to be more engaged with their jobs.

The table below shows how Enterprise highlights the differences between engaged employees and those who are not motivated:



Enterprise managers look for employees showing signs of disengagement so they can take immediate action. For example, they may remind employees why they are valuable.

They may also ask questions like:
·         How does your task and position fit your goals?
·         What could we do better?
By actively listening to the employee’s ideas, they may be able to make changes that will motivate the employee. Enterprise encourages managers to motivate their teams
throughout the working day. This involves:
·         making sure the team understands the objectives and target for the day (taking into account any constraints such as short staffing)
·         monitoring progress at mid-day and giving constructive feedback on how to make the rest of the day run smoothly
·          thanking and acknowledging each person’s achievement for that day and creating enthusiasm for the next day’s work.

Enterprise managers recognize that motivation is personal to the individual. If employees feel that they are being treated fairly, they will be more likely to give their best. Motivation comes from within an individual. Enterprise managers therefore need to find out about the personal goals and aspirations of their employees. What motivates one employee will not necessarily motivate another.

By
Sonu Soney Joseph

12 comments:

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