Motivation of Internal Auditors - Anyone have any good ideas?

M

Michael T

M Greenaway said:

Interesting Michael.

I guess the organisation should discover what motivates an individual, and then ensure that the person is suitably motivated.

Difficult I would imagine if the motivation is purely money !!

But Martin - money isn't a motivator. Depending upon who you read (Maslow, Herzberg, etc.) money is pretty far down on the scale of external motivators. Initially, money is a motivator if you are not paying your employees what they are worth. However, above a certain level, no amount of money will make them work any harder or do anything extra for the company. Providing you are being paid what you think your are worth to your company, if your salary were doubled, would you work any harder than you do now? How about if it were tripled?

It's more like the organization (supervisors, managers, leaders, etc.) should provide the type of environment that allows employees to motivate themselves. I'm not saying give them free reign over everything - but address the social (belonging - being affiliated with something worth while), self-respect (self-esteem - the need for recognition, status, accomplishment) and self-fulfillment (self-actualization - the ability use one's talents and abilities to their fullest) needs every person has.

Anyway - that's my take on it.

Cheers!!
 

Mike S.

Happy to be Alive
Trusted Information Resource
FWIW, I think most, but not all, motivation must come from within the person. However, it is infinitely easier for an organization/boss to stifle a person's intrinsic motivation than to generate new motivation in that person. I can think of some jobs I've had in retail years ago where the Manager of the Day was a different person every day. Same work, different manager. Some of those Managers really knew how to treat people and I (and many others) would work our butts off for those guys and gals. But other Managers were jerks and almost no one worked nearly as hard for those guys/gals as for the good Managers. I still see it all the time in my mfg. world.

If I noticed lots of employees griping and saying they didn't give a s**t during an internal audit I think it has to be mentioned. If it didn't clearly tie to a section of ISO, maybe it would not be in the audit report, but it would be in a suplemental report. If it could be tied to ISO (say the heaters were broken and the temp in the work area was very cold and the employees could not get Management to fix it so they were pi**ed, I think that would fall under 6.3 or 6.4, or 4.9 b in 1994). Does this make any sense?:bonk:

Mike S.
 
J

JRKH

Motivation

Lost of good stuff here. Lets see if we can break this down a little.
You are conducting an interanal audit. Is everything being done correctly?
If yes, is the output what you expected?
If yes then you probably don't have a way to bring this up in the context of the audit.

If everything is not being done correctly, or if the output is not what is expected, then you have non-conformances that need to be addressed. In that case you may be able to make an observation that motivation/attitude may be a factor.

It seems to me we are getting back to the old "Operator Error" bit again. If the operator doesn't care, then mistakes are going to happen. When they do the cause has to be addressed. Motivation certainly should be looked at as a possible factor, especially when other factors (training etc) are ruled out.

Since this is an internal audit, I would think you could still bring it up, just be more circumspect about it.

James
 
E

energy

Auditing question

M Greenaway said:

Motivation can be easily judged energy. I am thinking of a case in point where I was auditing the warehouse facility. Every employee I spoke to whined about the conditions they were working under, and such things like promised pay rises based on performance that never materialised, hence they no longer give a ****.
This is very real, how should it be broached in an audit report as it is very detrimental to quality ?

What type of questions were asked that would allow the employee to bad mouth the company in regards to their working conditions and lack of promised pay raises? I think we talked about this yesterday in the thread about best audit practices. You call it lack of motivation. I call it disgruntled employees using you to embarass the company, as if you could do something about it.

And, using Howard's excellent defination of motivation as doing things promptly and well, you can not tell if I was motivated by your being there, motivated all the time or just faking it. Again, I suggest that your view of what is or not is motivation may be skewed by your own make up. If you were to come to me with claims of observed lack of motivation and I were a company Top Manager, I may just take your suggestion about how you would treat an Auditor who is just being a PIA. Remember that method?
:p :ko: :smokin:
 
D

D.Scott

Martin

I wonder if the issues you encountered couldn't be addressed under ISO/QS 4.1.2.2 - Resources.

The requirement is actually to supply whatever adequate resources are needed to ensure amoung other things the performance of work.

This opens a can of worms for management, but at least you have addressed it in the audit.

JMHO

Dave
 
E

energy

Agree

Dave,

I agree with that. The auditor must also have objective evidence to back up his observation. That would make for an interesting closing meeting. Think about it. Lack of happiness displayed in the work place with derogatory remarks about the wages. They could probably drum up a like amount of personnel, on the spot, who would say just the opposite. And, heads would roll, I think. The only losers here would be the "unmotivated". I wouldn't want that responsibility on my shoulders. :ko: :smokin:
 
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barb butrym

Quite Involved in Discussions
if there are no findings then the audit isn't the place to address it, perhaps a stop off in HR for a brief discussion?...or get HR involved in the audit process?


How abou picking 1 result of this lack of Motovation and tracking it on an SPC chart.....pitting one group against another.....contest style?
 
N

Nav

When people were leaving our company we would always make sure they filled out an exit survey. We realized we were asking the wrong people. We changed our thinking 180 deg. and started asking the employees in the company why they were staying. We choose various positions and various years of service. This was not an employye survey, we do that too, but a "just interested" question. We also included some of the "bad mouthers" in the group. It was quite an eye opener and helped many people refocus on the things that motivated our employees.

This then provided a forum to talk about what was important to the company and the care for quality issues.

You might be surprised too. :eek:
 
M

M Greenaway

Many of you have mentioned obtaining objective evidence that lack of motivation was having a detrimental effect on quality - quite right, as with any audit finding.

Energy I got these people talking to me in this manner because they trusted and respected me and felt very happy to confide in me - now I think that is an excellant relationship to build with the auditee. Again its worth mentioning that I am looking to improve the business for everyone sake during internal audit, and I want the internal audit to be a value adding experience for both the auditee and the organisation. Now if an employee has serious problems with their conditions of employment, such that they are seriously depressed, and they tell me in such a manner that I know it is not just bellyaching, should I report it in the Internal Audit ?

I think I should if it is really significant it should be mentioned, and that is what I did in the opening summary paragraph of the report. It was just mentioned, and guess what no-one thought I was a pain in the arse, or a pin head, or anything like it.....in fact, believe it or not energy, they actually thanked me for an excellant and professional audit - again.
 
E

energy

Nice behavior

M,

I admire your concern for your fellow man. Really. Your correct in developing a relationship where auditees trust you rather than fear you. I just feel that something like you describe between the employees and yourself is, and your claim of lack of motivation, is meddling in internal company affairs. It's a dangerous position to be in and can be perceived by Management as collusion between their Auditor and some employees that has nothing to do with why you're there. That's all. I fear for your well being.:rolleyes: You know as well as I do that when the suits put their heads together they can make sugar out of s***. The owner can complain to your boss and you can find yourself defending your position with little or no support.

I like the post that suggested you visit the HR person. You can pretty well measure the type of response you will get by having a little chat about employees not appearing to be well motivated. If you get a scowl, grab your briefcase and screw.:ko: :smokin:

Oops. I glossed over the last sentence of your post and missed that they thanked you and you mentioned it. Fine. My post has more to do with a more "official" stance. So it's over now?
 
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