Non-Financial Benefit As A Motivating Tool For Employee Productivity In Hospitality Industry

Introduction

1.1 Background to the Study

All organizations are concerned with what should be done to achieve high level of productivity through staff motivation using the right kind of incentive. Most organizations in the past have been using financial incentives but their workers are still agitating for increment in salaries. Consequently the effect of non financial incentive becomes a burning issue in human resource management (Okoh, 2008). The issue of adequate motivation and consequently workers productivity is a product of a person’s set up of needs, goals, drive and experience. By implication, this means that factors which govern motivation, job satisfaction, workers productivity and attitude to work differ from one society to another. However, the entire issue of the implication of adequate motivation on workers productivity is embedded in the various theories of motivation. People are motivated by various factors at different times, according to Wilkinson et al, the first factor is the combination of the individual perceptions of the expectations other people have of them, and their own expectations of themselves. This happens because people come into work situations with various expectations. People work together in large organisations like bank, factory where they are expected to follow orders, which they may not approve of. In addition, they may have to obey instruction from supervisors they had no hand in selecting. This is the type of situation where the worker might have no opportunity for self-expression. The basic question that now arises, relates to how to create a situation in which workers can satisfy their individual needs while working towards organisational goals. How can workers in corporate organisation in Nigeria who’s workers feel that their salaries are low when compared with their contemporaries in other organisation?

As such a lot of theoretical concept, principles and techniques of management have evolved in response to these challenges/ but most scholars suggest that more conceptual and empirical work is required to show the link between financial and non financial incentive and staff productivity is still vague but some studies have documented in their work that financial incentive is readily perceived as having a high instrumental value that makes putting forth extra effort worthwhile and its has a long term effect in terms of labour turnover rate because of comparative value for alternative employment while non financial incentive has less initial impact as the pragmatics of financial gain, they seem to have a steady, sustainable impact(Egbe,2008). Despite the growing body of literature and empirical study on the effect of non financial incentive on workers productivity, the subject matter still remains complex. The objective of this study is to determine the non-financial benefit as a motivating tool for employee productivity in hospitality industry.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The hospitality industry is one of the widest and most active sectors in the Nigerian economy. In recent times, it has been of growing concern for the management of hospitality industry to motivate their staff to perform and do better in terms of their service and contribution towards achieving organizational targets and objectives. This is majorly because manufacturing output is the major driver of economic growth in most developing countries (Ekpo, 2011) and the people who create those manufacturing outputs are the employees of those firms, therefore, if they decide to not perform their duties optimally due to lack of adequate motivation, it will have a strain on the organization as well as the Nigerian economy. Lack of motivation has hindered employee performance in this sector and urgent attention is needed to eradicate this. According To Akinola & Akinbobola (2014), a major challenge confronting the Nigerian hospitality industry is how to evolve appropriate motivational strategies to generate high level of performance from its employees, without compromising company’s profit motives.

Organizations have failed to implement recognition as a form of motivation and this is a very crucial factor towards employee motivation in the workplace. Essentially, from the reviewed literature it was concluded that lack of recognition will lead to low morale, high staff turnover and low productivity. According to Rizwan & Ali (2010), employees take recognition as their feelings of value and appreciation and as a result it boosts up morale of employee which ultimately increases productivity of organizations. Therefore, from this, it can be said that if employees don’t get recognized properly, it will result in low morale which will affect their productivity in the workplace. According to Warren (2007), most people leave their job not because of under payment, but because they feel overlooked and neglected; which is as a result of lack of recognition for good performance. In the absence of absence of recognition, employees get dissatisfied and do not perform to the standards (Saira et al, 2014).

There is also inadequate training and career development opportunities in modern organizations and this is also an issue of motivation. Recently our society is driven by technology and the employees at the workplace are also driven by technology. Hence, technical training at the workplace becomes very essential. Along with technical training, soft skill training is needed to perform well at the job. A properly designed training program will definitely make the employees more productive (Ganesh & Indradevi, 2015). Also, in recent years, business organizations are characterized by turbulences of organizational change, stiff competition and market globalization resulting from technological advancement (Motlokoa et al, 2018). However, few employees have the requisite skills, knowledge, abilities and competencies needed to work effectively. As a result, many require extensive training to acquire the necessary aforementioned requisites to be able to make substantive contribution towards the organization’s growth (Asfaw et al, 2015). If employees are to experience flexibility and effectiveness on the job, they need to acquire and develop knowledge and skills, and if they are to believe that they are valued by the organization they work for, then they need to see visible signs of management’s commitment to their training and career needs (McDowall & Saunders, 2010). In addition, every organization faces many challenges regarding changed nature of work and workplace environment due to technological advancement or any other factor. This rapid change requires competent, efficient, skillful, flexible and knowledgeable workforce for attainment of organizational goals and long term profitability. For developing such skills and competencies in employees, training plays a vital role along with motivation and encouragement (Sadaf et al, 2014). Lack of provision of adequate training and development from the organization may lead to conflict between the employer and employee. One might clearly imagine how failure to provide training and education by the organization could result in conflict between employer and employee. Such conflict could potentially lead to any number of complicated scenarios, including but not limited to formal complaints by the employee which eventually become actual law suits against the organization, all of which could cost the industry time, energy, and money. When businesses withhold opportunities for training and development, they also fail to demonstrate an understanding of how to identify organizational conflict (Truitt, 2011). Another arising issue is that in most of the cases training is considered for new employees only being that it is good to invest more on development of their skills so that they can increase their productivity, but is important to note that ongoing training of current employees is as important as of new employees; it helps them to adapt their daily routine work according to rapidly changing job requirements and to improve their performance on current job and prepares them for an intended job (Sadaf et al, 2014). In their study, the highlighted that most companies are encountered many problems regarding their employees like absenteeism, turnover, lack of commitment, motivation and capabilities, having insufficient knowledge and skills etc. These problems arise because of overall absence of training, ineffective training programs, fail to plan training and develop its model and also fail to implement the model in training programs. Imran & Tanveer (2015) also highlighted an issue regarding training and career development stating that it is an undeniable fact that in response to the changing work practices if employees are not provided with chances to enlarge their professional experiences then this may lead them to skill obsolescence. In order to maintain sustainability, organizations must see continuous employee training and development as invaluable (Nda & Fard, 2013). Training and development is very essential at all employee levels, due to the reason that skills erode and become obsolete over a period of time and has to be replenished (Nishtha and Amit (2010).

The issue of promotion is very sensitive in any organisation and, as such, it is expected that it should be treated with high standard (Odeku, 2013). He further highlighted that a lot of issues usually arise regarding promotion in the workplace, especially if it is perceived that there have been unfair practices during the promotion process. Undoubtedly, this will definitely affect the employee who is aggrieved with the process and may also impact the workplace environment by making employees not want to put in their best because of the perception that, when it comes to uplifment, the employer might act unfairly. If employees perceive that their hard work and contribution to the organization is not opening promotional opportunities for them, when in actual fact, they deserve such opportunities, it will affect their work performance and by extension their profitability.

Fringe benefits are critical in any organization (Urbancova & Syndrova, 2017). However, Dixit and Bhati (2012), argue that poor compensation packages have been a major factor affecting employees’ performance. A good choice of fringe benefits shows that the organization appreciates the human potential and is willing to invest in its employees (Daly, 2012). However, the fact that organizations do not provide any fringe benefits is an issue which needs a solution because lack of fringe benefits will de-motivate employees which will affect their performance.

Workers leave organization due to the fact that they are not motivated enough (Maduka & Okafor, 2014). The literature reviewed for this study found that most manufacturing organizations make use of monetary incentives most especially increase in salary to encourage their workers to perform better and very few make use of non-monetary incentives. According to Whitley (2002), pay does not seem to boost productivity levels in the long term and money does not improve performance. Effective non-monetary benefits can change a person‘s attitude in the workplace which itself brings a positive change in the environment and also enhances employee performance (Rajendran, Mosisa & Nedelea, 2017). However, not enough studies on the effect of non-monetary incentives on employee performance have been carried out in the hospitality industry.

For the literature examined for this study, there is huge attention being given to studying the effects of non-monetary incentives like job promotion, recognition and training and career development on employee performance as a whole but no in-depth study has been done to determine the effects the above incentives will have on specific employee performance factors, therefore further research needs to be done in the area of establishing the respective effects. It is from the foregoing that this study seeks to examine the effects of non-financial benefit as a motivating tool for employee productivity in hospitality industry.

1.3 Objectives of the Study

The objective of this study is to determine the impact of non-financial benefit as a motivating tool for employee productivity in hospitality industry. Specifically, the study aims;

To determine if there are functional non-financial benefits for employee in hospitality industry

To evaluate how the non-financial benefits affected the employee productivity in hospitality industry

To investigate How related are non-financial benefits and Employee productivity

To explore the specific non-financial benefits have been adopted by the hospitality industry so far

1.4 Research Question

Consequently upon the research problem and research objectives stated above, the following research questions are considered pertinent:

Are there functional non-financial benefits for for employee in hospitality industry?

How has non-financial benefits affected employee productivity in hospitality industry?

How related are non-financial benefits and Employee productivity?

What specific non-financial benefits have been adopted by the hospitality industry so far?

1.5 Hypothesis of the Study

Ho: There is no significant relationship between non-financial benefits and Employee productivity in the hospitality industry.

Hi: There is a significant relationship between non-financial benefits and Employee productivity in the hospitality industry.

1.6 Significance of the Study

The present study is significant in the following ways;

The management of hospitality companies most especially in Nigeria would find the outcome of this study highly relevant in explaining and emphasizing the need to incorporate non-monetary incentives as part of the total reward package of the average employee. The information would be highly useful in encouraging and motivating employees especially those who work hard and perform well to keep up such performance. The management team of this study’s case study will also benefit directly by having access to information on how to better motivate their employees to enhance their performance in the workplace.

This study will provide information that will benefit the manufacturing companies located in Nigeria on how to not only motivate their employees with pay but also with the non-monetary incentives that will be chosen for this study and also highlight the importance.
Since the manufacturing sector is one of the highest contributing factors to the Nigerian economy, the government needs to seek ways to ensure production activities go on and the people who will ensure this are the human resources (workforce). The outcome of this study will serve as a pointer on how to make laws that will have the interest of employees from this sector in view. This study will expose how adequate non-monetary incentives can motivate employees to perform better in the workplace. With the review of relevant literature and data gathering to ascertain their views on non-monetary incentives, it will inform the researcher to make commendable recommendations that will enhance and contribute to knowledge the interest on the present study focus..

1.7 Scope of the Study

The study covers an empirical investigation of the non-financial benefit as a motivating tool for employee productivity in hospitality industry. Hence, the participants for this study will be obtained from the staff of LandMark Hotels .

1.8 Limitations of the Study

This study was constrained by a number of factors which are as follows:

Financial constraint, was faced by the researcher ,in getting relevant materials and in printing and collation of questionnaires

Time factor: time factor pose another constraint since having to shuttle between writing of the research and also engaging in other academic work making it uneasy for the researcher

1.9 Definition of key Term

The key terms below were used in this study

Financial Incentives:

Monetary reward or compensation use to motivate workers.

Non Financial Incentives:

Other incentives apart from monetary rewards.

Performance Incentive:

Rewards that motivates worker to put in more efforts.

Productivity:

The rate at which employee work and their yield in their organization.

1.10 Organization of the Study

This research work is organized in five chapters, for easy understanding, as follows.

Chapter one is concern with the introduction, which consist of the (overview, of the study), historical background, statement of problem, objectives of the study, research hypotheses, significance of the study, scope and limitation of the study, definition of terms and historical background of the study.

Chapter two highlights the theoretical framework on which the study is based, thus the review of related literature.

Chapter three deals on the research design and methodology adopted in the study.

Chapter four concentrate on the data collection and analysis and presentation of finding.

Chapter five gives summary, conclusion, and recommendations made of the study.