InfoSAWIT, JAKARTA – The employees or workers are generally divided into four groups, they are, the daily workers, often called as SKU, freelance or often called as BHL, the monthly workers – in brief it is MW, and the last group is the staff who is the head division to the top management.
Boring perhaps is mostly not seen by the plantation management. In the daily appearance, the bored employees will look fine. The management will not realize that ‘in silence’ their productivity decreases and the employees could not finish their works as good as it used to be. If the management does not watch this very carefully, the employees’ productivity will keep decreasing. And the management will realize when everything has gone wrong and bad.
One thing to solve the employees who are bored is by motivating them about working.
The motivation is how to appreciate them within dignity and the employee having big stress will need it so much.
Motivating is proactive action while managing or monitoring is one reactive action. The effective leader will motivate his employees before they are bored or confused with their work to do. If they are bored, they will be lazy or negligent so they should be supervised/ordered to work. On the other hand, the employee having high motivation could manage himself, have initiatives and have many ideas to innovate to increase the team work.
Motivating is a skill. It is almost the same as communicating, using computer, driving, or others. The more practice to motivate others, the more effective the motivation someone tells. There are two things to motivate, such as, we have to be sincere (the employees know that the spirit we give or tell is from our heart or just non sense only). Sometimes we have to be taylor-fit (change) the way to motivate (everybody has different style to motivate. It depends on the personality)
The power of motivation in someone could raise by himself or the supports from the environment. The other aspect is that the culture factor and the values in the company could support the high achievement.
Motivating the work to the plantation employee could be in many forms. Here are the ways to motivate them, such as:
Giving Reward
The employees or work groups having targets or budget determined or have good work (for example, the highest productivity in the harvest time) should be rewarded.
The reward on the work could motivate someone other in the work environment. The reward on a job description or someone’s success to accomplish the work is one motivator to ask the others to do better.
Giving reward on a work to do well should be a standard.
Reward is not only in the form of things but also could be non things.
Though not anyone could be motivated by money, but money or benefit in finance is important to motivate the employees, such as, yearly bonus, the better salary, premium, incentives, and other supports.
The second thing to notice besides giving money is the satisfaction in working or feeling appreciated. If they work well, thank them or make them proud of their work. This is non thing reward for them and one way to motivate the employees to work harder.
Congratulate them directly and in person for those who work well. It should be done in the right time and in special occasion.
If it is not possible to meet the employee who has worked well, the management could do it by phone, text, letter, memo or e-mail. Those forms should not be long but in the reverse, just mention and write what the employee has achieved. The handwriting is the real achievement and the effect of ‘feel safe’ which runs for some time.
The management could meet all employees and give reward to the employee or team to what they have achieved.
The reward, respect, confession and the treatment to the employee as the subject or man who has the will, thought, feeling, and others will have huge moral influence to work.
The reward to the duty or work, for example, the security who was successful to reveal, stop, and get the fruit stealing, should be rewarded. This will make sense of belonging, love and pride of their works to do. This could make them work within responsibility.
Incentive or Motivation which is Material
The incentive or motivation which is material is everything which stimulates the loyalty and efficiency of the employee in the company. The most important thing is that the salary of the employee.
The salary should be given competitively so the employee gets his rights just as fair and same as and might be possible for them to live worthly (for example, their salary is as same as the plantation minimum salary).
The salary should be based on the factors to live, and the regulation in the minimum salary.
The other important factors to notice when making the employee’s salary are, the education level, the experience, the ability and capability of the company, and the economy and the condition of the work.
The education level and the experience should be noticed. Someone passing the undergraduate level should have different salary from someone not passing the undergraduate level. It should happen for the experienced and unexperienced.
If the company get profits, the employee should also enjoy it by having better salary of the profit sharing. And vice versa.
A plantation company could motivate the employee to get better and bigger results by offering the profit sharing to the employee. The next is that the money could motivate them. The numbers of money should have additional values too for them.
The other incentive to give could be giving premium for those harvesting more than what has been targeted or the premium is given to those who are diligent such as, driver, operator who always cleans the tools (heavy tools), vehicles, or before the vehicles operate.
Giving Facilities to the Employee
Giving work facilities to the employee, such as, motor, HT, uniform for the staff, and employee could motivate them to work better.
Giving facilities to have recreation to the employee could raise the sense of working together among the employees. The better they are playing together, the better they cooperate. It does too to the health service. They need special treatment. If the employee is healthy, the more productive he will be than the sick employee. It does too to the service in the welfare (in general perspective) such as, housings should be noticed by the plantation leaders.
The other facility to the staff is the ‘long term day off’.
The plantation areas could be far from the city and the crowded. The staffs from many regions – for certain staff level – working the plantation could have ‘long term day off’. What is meant here is that after working some years as staff, he could have day off and have ticket to his hometown. This could erase the boring when working. Besides it will motivate him to work more in the company.
Objective Promotion
Promotion or have better career level is mostly wanted by every employee for he will have more rights, power than he has now. It means too that he will have a raise.
Promotion could be meant that the employee should be in one higher position, which the job description, authority, responsibility will be more too. This is done to develop the employee for he has shown his work optimally and if he keeps being in the same position, he will be bored.
For example, from the nursery foreman to be foreman 1 or foremen 1 to be assistant
Giving promotion should be based on the work, not by affection. Confirm that the right promotion system is based on the employee’s work. The highest work achievement will have the biggest chance to promote his position.
The promotion will lead the employee to work better and support the other to have the same work. This will raise good competition of working.
If the management does it for affection, or no sanction for the employee having no good work, this will indirectly make the other employee having good work, feel disappointed. His motivation to work will decrease.
The Right Placement
The right placement for the employee is one thing to make him efficient and satisfied to do his work. For example, the employee has a machine background. He will be fit if working in workshop. The employee having no right background will feel bored to do his work.
Training and Education
Training and education mean the series of activity given by the company which are designed to improve or increase the knowledge, skill, behavior of the employee as what the company needs so the employee could do better to do certain works.
The training is more practical, while the education is more theoretical.
Kinds of training and education could be done but depend on the needs. For example, the training about the policy/procedure of the company, training about the special skill, human relations, solving problem, and taking decision.
The training and education which are done systematically and regularly will raise passion to work for the education and training will be the gate for the employee to have better positions in the company.
By: Maruli Pardamean/Palm oil plantation practitioner/Author
