When the United States economy was dominated by farming and manufacturing work, the motivational emphasis was on getting paid for more output: The more widgets you produced, the more money you earned, but that employment model is on the downswing, says Tim Kilpatrick, a revenue cycle consultant with Dell Services.
Today’s business atmosphere is more about quality, and so, the burden is on managers to find new ways to motivate their employees.
[See also: Healthcare employers battle low employee morale.]
During an early riser session on Wednesday during HFMA’s ANI: The Healthcare Finance Conference in Orlando, Kilpatrick will explain how managers can motivate their employees.
Kilpatrick’s presentation, “Using Psychology to Motivate Revenue Cycle Teams Toward Better Performance,” may be categorized for revenue cycle teams but the lessons in it are for everyone.
Psychologists, Kilpatrick explains, have learned that human needs go beyond the basics, like feeling safe and having enough to eat. People’s needs also include having a sense of purpose, connection to a social network, feeling like they have control and they have opportunity. For today’s companies to be successful, says Kilpatrick, it is imperative that managers understand and be empathic to those needs.
“You got to take money off the table,” he says. “You got to pay them what they should be paid. The motivation people have everyday is something else.”
Managers should take the time to listen to their employees to learn what motivates them, and then leverage that motivation in the workplace.
Maybe an employee’s goal in life is to be a great father or mother, Kilpatrick suggests. An employer who offers flex time to employees so they can have time with their kids – go to their soccer games or be at home when school ends for the day – gets employees that are motivated to work harder because the employer is helping them reach their goal – to be good parents. Not only will they be harder working employees Kilpatrick says, they’ll stay with the company because they think they won’t be able to find such quality employment elsewhere.
“There’s no self-fulfillment without pursing a dream or idea. There’s no innovation without pursuing a dream or idea. If there’s no innovation or self-fulfillment, there’s no prosperity,” he says.