INCREASING MOTIVATION OF EMPLOYEES OF UKRAINIAN ENTERPRISES IN CRISIS CONDITIONS

Abstract

Purpose. Effective personnel management is one of the most important tasks of a modern enterprise. In recent years, methods of motivation in the world have undergone significant changes due to the impact of the covid pandemic and military aggression against Ukraine. Many companies were not prepared for the need to suddenly change approaches to personnel management due to new realities. The purpose of the study is to analyze the problems of increasing employee motivation and measures to solve them in conditions of pandemic and military invasion into Ukraine. Design/methodology/approach. The study tested the hypothesis regarding the emergence of problems motivating employees of Ukrainian enterprises and a decrease in the level of their work efficiency due to demotivation, in particular due to the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic and military aggression against Ukraine. The results of our own survey of Lviv employees, as well as successful examples of motivating employees in the world and in Ukraine, in particular in the conditions of a pandemic and military invasion, from open sources of information are presented. The following research methods are used: analysis, synthesis, generalization, analogy, comparison, systematization, graphical methods of data display. Findings. The factors and causes of demotivation were investigated. According to the results of our survey, the following most important demotivating factors were determined: unfair remuneration, lack of recognition and lack of meaning in the assigned tasks. The gamification method, which increases the employee's professional self-esteem, job satisfaction, a sense of the importance of the work performed, success, and creates a desire to work harder and better, is analyzed in detail. To improve the employee motivation system, a monitoring and gamification technique was proposed. With the help of it it is possible to monitor the motivational factors influencing the productivity of an individual employee and the department as a whole. As a result, the motivational picture of each employee is formed and his satisfied and unsatisfied needs are determined in order to create an effective system of both material and non-material motivation. It is shown that in connection with the Covid pandemic (since 2020) and the war in Ukraine (since 2022), existing problems of increasing employee motivation became particularly acute and new ones emerged. The war led to new regional features of the Ukrainian labor market, the outflow of qualified personnel abroad, the freezing and reduction of average wages in most industries. At the same time, concrete examples showed that Ukrainian business is able to adapt to modern crisis realities and many employees even acquired new useful competencies. Accordingly, it is recommended to make the motivation systems particularly flexible and aimed primarily at the resilience (psychological resistance) of the staff: communicate with employees as much as possible in a safe atmosphere, try to hear them – understand verbal and non-verbal messages, encourage and explain the purpose and content of their work. Practical implications. The hypothesis regarding the emergence of problems motivating employees of Ukrainian enterprises and a decrease in the level of their work efficiency due to demotivation, in particular due to the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic and military aggression against Ukraine, was confirmed. Originality/value. According to the results of the survey, the following most important demotivating factors were determined: unfair remuneration, lack of recognition and lack of meaning in the assigned tasks. The negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic and military aggression against Ukraine on the motivation of employees is analyzed, and recommendations and successful cases for overcoming it are given.