Week 11 Application Assignment – Sheila de Vera

For this week’s application assignment, I interviewed Sophia Garcia, program manager at WIC (Women, Infants, Children) about how she motivates and uses rewards systems on her staff of 26 employees.

What are your responsibilities at WIC?
WIC is a supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children. It is a federally funded public health nutrition program serving the low income population. We educate the community on healthy eating and provide breastfeeding support and education. Programmatically, I develop and implement nutrition and breastfeeding education activities.  Fiscally, I am responsible for developing and maintaining the budget. I am also responsible for managing professional and paraprofessional staff. I collaborate with other community organizations involved in nutrition and physical activity so that our efforts are greater.

Why do you like working there?
I believe in WIC’s mission of providing nutrition education, breastfeeding support and education, and health care referrals to the community identified as high risk (low income, less likely to have medical insurance, seek health care, higher risk for chronic disease and lower education).

What motivates you to perform your best?
Program goals - we have a monthly caseload we need to meet. We are monitored to ensure we are meeting our caseload. Our caseload is tied to funding, so if we do not perform at a certain level, the program is at risk of losing federal funds. I also have a personal desire to do my best. I value hard work. I gain new experiences and skills and grow as a person, professional and personally, when I push myself to do my best.

What do you think motivates your staff to perform?
Their salaries, their value in helping moms, children and families in the community and their contribution to our program goals are drivers that motivate my staff.

How do you use rewards systems to motivate your staff?
As a county entity we do not have the means to provide monetary rewards such as bonuses, gym memberships etc. However, the county has a salary step increase that employees can earn as long as they have a satisfactory annual performance evaluation.
In my program, I use staff recognition. Along with my team of supervisors we recognize staff that provides excellent customer service both to clients and their fellow co-workers. To motivate my staff I also try to empower them by providing staff with the knowledge and tools to do their job. I give them opportunities to gain new skills and projects/tasks to apply the skills. I find that this helps with job satisfaction by indirectly increasing motivation and morale.

I also try to include staff in many of the program decisions I make by asking for their feedback and solutions. I encourage workgroups that include front line staff since to give the opportunity to voice their opinions and concerns since they are the ones who will likely feel the impact of the changes that are made.

How do rewards systems affect morale and productivity?
I see that it increases only temporarily so it needs to be on going. I incorporate team building activities regularly into our bi-monthly staff meetings to help keep the momentum.

In the “Employee Motivation: A Powerful New Model” article, the authors described 4 drivers that affect motivation: the drive to acquire (goods, experiences), the drive to bond (feeling of belonging), the drive to comprehend (to understand the world around us), and the drive to defend (protect our loved ones, our ideas). How are you addressing these drivers amongst your staff?
Acquire goods, experiences: Like I said before, I try to give my employees the opportunity to gain new skills and projects that will allow them to apply these skills.

Feeling of belonging: I am open to staff feedback on program decisions and want them to communicate their solutions on how to improve processes here.  I also want them to see the impact of their contributions.

Understanding the world around us: I try to address this by discussing our mission and goals for the program and how each one of us contributes to meeting the goals. Also, I am transparent with staff and share what is relevant to them whether it involves program issues or fiscal/funding issues. I feel that the more informed they are the better they can perform.

Protecting loved ones, our ideas: I make a concerted effort to encourage my staff to have a say in how the program functions.  I have to develop policies and procedures and by asking for staff input and feedback it allows them to voice their ideas.  It is my responsibility to manage the program so that we are performing at the required level to avoid a reduction in funding and staff. 

References

Garcia, S. (2012, November 24), interview.

Nohria, N., Groysberg, B., and Lee, L. (2008) Employee motivation: A powerful new model.          
     Harvard Business Review.  pp. 1-7