Public Sector Worker Incentives

[phockzie]

Hi.

I work in the public sector IT industry and would like to improve the working moral of my work mates. We have a rapidly growing stack of jobs coming into our team, and everyone is under the impression that the stack might as well keep growing because it makes no difference whether the is 10 jobs or 200, no one will get fired or promoted or rewarded.

I am at the bottom of the grading scale in our team with 5 other staff in the same boat but would like to lead us all out of this rut and also hopefully into a better position for myself as I know we have some great skills in all areas of IT but just don't see the point of working hard. I am currently doing ITIL V3 foundation and would like to study more.

I'm also frustrated because I have seen incompetent people employed into positions that I have gone for and failed to gain because of the lack of trust and faith in existing staff. There are even staff who should be threatened with unemployment to perhaps make them get off their arses and do some work, which frustrates me even more when things are so bad in the private sector at the moment.

How do I get staff motivated and rewarded in a sector where employees can not be rewarded with cash or promotion for good work because there is no cash and no jobs to move up into, and "Thank you" has been worn very thin?

Has anyone been in this situation where things have been improved by incentives or anything else in the public sector?

Thanks.

(only slightly off topic ;))

[jiberjaber]

Its all about the service. You give good service it will be rewarded, unfortunatly you may be experiancing the layers above you not recognising this. If you were trying to motivate them, maybe you need to seek to understand what they view success as and try and frame the rewards of service delivery in their terms to see that as success......

I believe this post is sponsered by 7 pints of Double Maxim (a very rare find) but hopefully it makes sence :)

[Stuart]

hmmm....

Its very difficult to motivate people without offering some kind of reward its the nature of the culture we work in. Some may say that the motivation is that you still have a job and that given the current climate I suspect a few more larger hurdles in the economy are still to come.

I moved from commercial sector to public and though we are trying to be more commercial I feel we have a tendency not to think things through properly and end up with more policies ontop of policies.

Back on track.....

It depends what ultimately motivates people to do a good job. In sales its hit target = lumpsum cash reward. In a service sector it would normally be maintaining a % KPI level = reward.

Is the reward cash, vouchers, nights out, office away day's anything that ultimately keep's moral up and focus on the goals at hand. I would start by asking the staff what would they like and build a model based on that. This way you hopefully get a plan that people buy into and can see it working and how they can benefit.

Setting targets usually uses the SMART principals

Specific | Measurable | Achieveable | Realistic or Relevant | Timely

[andylinney]

Phockzie, I'm a manager in the charity sector, where there's even less cash and oppurtunity for monetary reward.

Morale for us is always a big issue, and sometimes a 'thankyou' is all we have to give.

We get round this though by making the working environment as pleasant and as fun as possible, by giving people support in their roles, offering training and development ( which is almost always to our own detriment as once a volunteer has developed to a certain point, they inevitably leave us and find paid employment. At the moment 1in3 will leave to paid jobs within 6 months and we even provide assistance with interview prep, application forms and references).

Focus on support, development and feedback. Never stop saying thank you no matter how tired it feels, people need to know they're valued. Also take a look at the environment you're working in, you can make simple changes that make all the difference on a day to day basis.

Good luck!

A.

[Edders]

Concentrate on your self not others
make yourself stand out. do work that's not part of your normal work load. pick up odd project's and do it all your self without help from others (within the team) make sure you get all the credit. suggest service fixes / improvements like for instance create in your own time a user creation script. and then suggest to your manager you've been working on this idea and here's a test script to try out ect...
the real thing is there is no real way of moving up without moving out.
other than to make you're self stand out ready for the next opportunity. as I said don't spend time on things that won't work like motivating those who don't want to be motivated its wasting your time and your unlikely to motivate them.

the above sounds cynical but its true.

as for the ITIL stuff its only any use if
a) you already use ITIL
b) you are planning on using ITIL
c) you think you should be using ITIL and now have the potential to make it you "Project" to incorporate ITIL practices into your environment.(see you've just given yourself a nice Project that top Management will love)
Edders

[David Drew]

[quote=phockzie;238620]Hi.


How do I get staff motivated and rewarded in a sector where employees can not be rewarded with cash or promotion for good work because there is no cash and no jobs to move up into, and "Thank you" has been worn very thin?

)[/quote]

TBH - thank your lucky stars you are in the public sector and not in something like construction.

Head down, weather out the storm & when the economy improves go for a well paid IT job in the private sector. But the balance is - secure job, not well paid, public pension & little recognition, or, well paid, vulnerable and a pension scheme incompetent greedy bast**ds have gambled away for personal gain.:(:(

Sorry...not the answer you wanted.

David

[Janek]

I'm with David, thank your lucky stars you have a job. . . . . .keep it until things improve.

Oh, and ITIL, that's another expensive IT fad that has little application in the real IT world, it'll be replaced in a few years by something else that's even more expensive and time wasting, usually invented by the Yanks. Sorry, that's my 30+ years in the IT industry speaking, I'm a sad grumpy bas***d :)

[phockzie]

[quote=David Drew;238648]TBH - thank your lucky stars you are in the public sector and not in something like construction.

Head down, weather out the storm & when the economy improves go for a well paid IT job in the private sector. [/quote]

I have been keeping my head down in this place since i started work after college, that's 15 years, and i'm 33. I have stepped between different jobs within the organisation. I just like to stir the place up every now and then. I am not after promotion, and I know I have a comfortable position. I am however on protected salary after a redeployment and will lose money in about 2 years time, so I am trying to get back up to the level of job I was doing.

My biggest concern is that our job queue is getting unmanagable and I know we can keep the work down if everyone in our team saw that it was being noticed.

Thank you all for your answers.