EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION AT ICICI AND SBI BANK

This chapter presents the motivation of employee and respondents profile. It also presents
the results of a nova and test performed between employee motivation and respondents
profile.

Motivation levels of employees can significantly go up or down with change in their official
designations. Looking at it relatively, how important are designations when placed against
other factors like pay package, relationships with peers, overall work responsibilities, etc. in
modern day organizations. Most service sectors such as telecom, banking, hospitality, retail,
etc. has a lot of people working in areas where they directly have to deal with customers or
clients at such times if the designation is attractive as it instils confidence in the individual and
equips him/her to handle the situation with confidence. No wonder workplaces today are
coming up with interesting roles like chief executive officer, executive operations so on. Also
with designation there is a certain level of authority that is given and the individual feels
elated to work with that kind of authority. The following table presents the designations of
sample employees at SBI and ICICI.

Work Motivation

The world of work has changed dramatically over the past decade. Organizations are being
assessed against international standards and best practices. This is due to downsizing and
expanding, increasing globalization, workforces diversifying, new organizational forms and
benchmarking. All these changes have a profound influence on how organizations, including
banking organizations, attempt to motivate their employees in order to have a competitive
edge. The importance of employee motivation and job satisfaction is growing all the time in
the organizations. Motivation is believed to lead to an increase in employees’ work
performance. That in turn leads to an increase in overall organizational productivity levels.
Furthermore, motivation is said to improve employee job satisfaction. Many researchers have
been made to find out the effect the job satisfaction and motivation have in the productivity
of the company.
According to Oosthuizen (2001), motivation is one of the key factors in getting employees to
increase performance. He further adds that “in today’s competitive world and market it is
essential that an organisation have positively motivated employees to improve productivity
and efficiency”. Furthermore, Stroh (2001) outlined that some employees do not produce the
quality of work or maintain a consistent level of work outputs, which they are capable of. This
may be attributed to many factors, including the underutilization of their skills, lack of a
challenge, or unstimulating leadership styles. This could result in motivation levels
decreasing, and hence overall job satisfaction levels decreasing.

Research shows that employees are motivated by various factors, which in turn should satisfy
certain needs and expectations. Managers are continually challenged to motivate a workforce
to do two things. The first challenge is to motivate employees towards helping the
organization achieve its goals. The second is to motivate the employees towards achieving
their own personal goals.

Overview motivational factors:

The purpose of this study is to research the different motivational factors that affect
employees motivation in the SBI and ICICI Banks. The banks represent one from public sector
and the other one being from private sector. Based on previous research it is viewed that
employees employed in the public sector will prioritize work motivation in different ways than
their counterparts employed in private sector. It is also observed that public sector and
private sector employment differ at a number of levels.

Today's work environment is undergoing a major shift; factors such as globalization, growing
economies, and improved technology are constantly presenting new challenges and creating
new opportunities for people. With these changes, people's perceptions regarding their jobs
are also changing. In this grow-or-die marketplace, the success of any organization relies on
its workforce. Satisfied and committed employees are the most significant assets of any
organization, including banks. As banking institutions are the backbone of a nation's
economy, the efficient management of human resources and the maintenance of higher job
satisfaction levels affect the growth and performance of an entire economy.
The Indian banking sector is a fast-growing financial service sector that has seen tremendous
progress following liberalization. The Indian banking system can be broadly categorized into
"scheduled commercial banks" and "non-scheduled commercial banks". Scheduled
commercial banks can be further classified into public sector banks, private sector banks (old
and new) and foreign banks. Over time, differences have been observed between public
sector banks and private sector banks in terms of various operational and efficiency
parameters.

A quantitative method was used to gather data for the research. The measuring instruments
included the Work Satisfaction and Motivation Questionnaire developed by De Beer (1987)
and a self-developed questionnaire. The self-developed questionnaire was used to determine
the personal information of Sample respondents. It includes variables such as age, gender,
experience, designation, education, salary, job security and so on.

Income Distribution

Employees are most valuable assets of any organization. They are motivated in many different
ways, such as by recognition, promotional opportunities, and by money. Money has been
recognized as a chief source of satisfying the needs of people. Money not only satisfies
psychological needs but also the security and social needs. Every employee want to earn fair
wages and salaries, and employers want their workers to feel that is what they are getting.
To that end, it is logical that employees and employers alike view money as the fundamental
incentive for satisfactory job performance. The use of monetary or other financial incentives
in the classic “work performance paradigm” is based primarily on reinforcement theory.
Reinforcement theory focuses on the relationship between a target behaviour like work
performance and its consequences on pay. The following table depicts the annual salaries of
sample employees in banks.

Job Security

Job motivation and job security are issues both of which are related to working. Motivation
factors do change though as the economy goes up or down. During these tough times, job
security is a major concern for employees. They have to try their best, even when job security
is uncertain, for the sake of keeping self-esteem intact and knowing they are doing the best
job possible. It is observed that job security is one of the most effective factors on job
motivation due to its eliminating employee’s future anxiety. Job security, which is crucial for
an employee in terms of keeping his or her job or finding a new job, is also important for the
employers since it enables them to keep their employees or find new ones. The following
table depicts the job security of employees at SBI and ICICI.

Table of Job Security

Banks Total
Job Security
SBI ICICI

Uncertain 0 150 150

.0% 100.0% 50.0%

Certain 150 0 150

100.0% .0% 50.0%

Total 150 150 300

100.0% 100.0% 100.0%

Shifts

Work that is scheduled outside “normal” daylight hours (i.e. 9 am to 5 pm) is called “Shift
work”. Shift work schedules can vary from one workplace to another. Workers may rotate
through shifts or remain on a single shift (i.e. permanent nights). The modern expectation of
a regular work schedule is a 45-hr workweek, 8-hrs a day, Monday-through-Saturday. With
the introduction of shift work, a 6-day workweek may change to a 4 or 3-day workweek
depending on the length of a single shift. Studies have examined the differences between
various workweek schedules. When comparing a 6-day/8-hr work schedule to a 5-day/10-hr
work schedule, most studies found that employees are more tired at the end of a 10-hr shift.
Studies also found employees to be more fatigued following a 12-hr shift when compared to
an 8-hr shift. The table below shows shifts in work.