CASE STUDY OUR ENGINEERS ARE JUST NOT MOTIVATED You are a consultant to the manager of mechanical engineering for a large company (8,000 employees, $200 million dollar annual sales) that manufactures industrial equipment. The manager has been in this position for six months, having moved from a similar position in a much smaller company. Manager. I just can't seem to get these people to perform. They are all extremely competent, but they just don't seem to be willing to put forth the kind of effort that we expect and need if this company is going to remain successful. Consultant. What type of work they do? Manager. Primarily designing minor modification to existing equipment lines to keep up with our competition and to satisfy special customer requirements. Consultant. How do you evaluate their performance? Manager. Mainly on whether they meet project deadlines. It's hard to evaluate the quality of work since most of it is fairly routine and the design are frequently altered later by the production engineers to facilitate production processes. Consultant. Are they meeting their deadlines reasonably well? Manager. No, that's the problem. What's worse is that they don't really semmed to concerned about it. Consultant. What financial rewards do you offer them? Manager. They are well-paid - some of the best salaries of mechanical engineers that I know of anywhere. Base pay is determined mainly on the basis of seniority, but there is also a companywide profit-sharing plan. At the end of each year, the company distributes 10% of its profits after taxes to the employees. The piece of the pie that you get is in proportion to your basic salary. This kind of plan was used in the company I used to work for, and it is seemed to have a highly motivating effect for them. They also get good vacations, insurance plans, and all the usual goodies. I know of no complaints about compensation. Consultant. How about promotion possibilities? Manager. Well, all I know is that I was brought in from the outside. Consultant. If they are lackadaisical, have you considered firing them? Manager. Are you kidding? We need them to much, and it would be difficult and expensive to replace them. If I even threatened to fire any of them for anything short of blowing up the building, my boss would come down on me like a ton of bricks. We are so far behind on work at it is. Besides, I'm not sure that it's really their fault entirely