Not all bosses have a natural flair for that sort of evaluation, however. Consulting firms can help employers jump-start employee performance. Saville & Holdsworth, a Boston human resources consulting firm, offers a motivation questionnaire on its web site that provides a good starting assessment for employers grappling with rustout, although it appears to suggest the obvious that competition, fear of failure, or the pursuit of profit can make a difference in employee motivation.

Academics who study job motivation disagree on which is the greater related article incentive to productivity - money or demands of the challenge. Money as in salary, season contribute bonuses, commissions, stock options, to job burnout matching retirement or investment have been considered the great motivators.

Working conditions and fringe benefits were an important consideration, too. But research now puts an equal emphasis on ensuring that workers have feelings of achievement and recognition, responsibility, growth, advancement and an enjoyment of the work itself. Dissatisfaction and indifference set in when workers feel there is no opportunity for meaningful contribution. Workers need a reason to increase productivity, and that reason is often overall job satisfaction.

There are different ways to achieve that. One, known as job enlargement, consists of making jobs more challenging and interesting by adding to a worker's responsibilities and tasks. Another, called job enrichment, consists of spicing up the tasks with variety, and of increasing a worker's participation and involvement in the job.

American Psychological Association reports that bosses can use new studies on how people learn to decide which workers would be best suited, best motivated and most productive in which jobs. The studies seem to indicate that ability, personality, interest and motivation determine how well a person learns under stress. And, a worker's sense of mastery and his desire to improve were just as important as honing a skill in determining how well that worker would learn a complex task in a stressful situation.

Workplace and human resources experts say that many managers tolerate mediocre performances from employees simply because they don't understand that a slow erosion of motivation and contribution has taken place, and because they don't realise that they can take steps to rekindle a worker's fire. And rustout often reflects badly on the employer.

While one rusting worker might mean that the individual has lost enthusiasm for his job, widespread rustout could indicate more systematic problems in the management style. In the end, employers are often well advised to directly address rustout. Both the boss and the employee need to pinpoint the source and understand that rustout can be reversed. Firing rusty employees doesn't guarantee that the reason for the rustout won't occur again with new workers.

Rustout can be particularly acute in careers where technology changes quickly and constantly. Workers whose job and responsibilities are continually reorganised, and who are expected to frequently master new skills, can lose the will to keep up. They can begin to feel like the technology is more important than they are. They can begin to worry that they won't have a place in the company of the future. All of which can rob them of a sense of purpose.

US job scene optimistic

Last month, the US saw the creation of over 400,000 new jobs, writes the New York Times. As a result, the unemployment rate edged down to another 24-year low and wages surged, according to government reports.

At least for the moment, the traditional worry that more jobs and higher wages will surely bring inflation and higher interest rates is being set aside. For once, what was good for workers was also seen as good for Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 98.97 points for the day, at 8,149.13. Bond prices plunged early in the day but recovered somewhat.

The yield on the 30-year Treasury ended the day up .003 at 6.08 per cent.Looking at the job report, economists and analysts saw evidence of optimism for household incomes, corporate profits and even holiday retail sales. ``We're in the best of all possible worlds,'' said President Clinton's chief economic adviser, Janet L Yellen. ``This was just stunning job growth.''

The addition of more than 400,000 jobs was twice what had been forecast by most economists. The jobless rate declined by 0.1 per cent from October, to 4.6 per cent in November, the lowest since October 1973 - before the Arab oil embargo. Without signs of inflation reviving, economists say, there seems to be scant threat to the current economic expansion, which is now almost seven years old.

Hourly earnings did climb a hefty 7 cents, which analysts said would encourage holiday shopping, but this was not thought likely to overly concern the Federal Reserve, which meets on December 16 for the year's final deliberations on monetary policy. Over the latest 12 months, earnings rose 4.1 per cent, the same as in October. Using the most recent monthly measure of consumer prices, the real gain in wages - that is, adjusted for inflation - is running at 2 per cent, the highest level in two decades, according to David Wyss, chief economist of Standard & Poor's DRI, a research firm.From around the country, employers and workers attested to the booming labour market, reflected in the third-biggest monthly increase in payrolls this decade.

John Stollenwerk, president of the Allen-Edmonds Shoe Corp in Wisconsin, described how he snapped up seamstresses and other workers who had lost their jobs when a company in Milwaukee closed down. ``We sought these stitchers the way the crusaders sought the Holy Grail,'' he said.

One of the employees, Maria Gonzalez, said simply: ``They hired me quick.'' Friday's report also showed that Hispanics have benefited particularly from the current labour shortage, which is most pronounced in the Midwest.

The unemployment rate for Hispanics tumbled to 6.9 per cent in November from 8 per cent in October and now stands at its lowest point since this rate was first calculated in the early 1970s.

Another labour force record was set as the the proportion of the working-age population with jobs -- the so-called employment-population ratio -- climbed 0.3 to 64 per cent.

``A booming November employment report,'' was the way James McCormick, an economist at J P Morgan, described it to clients. ``The message is that the economy is still strong, the labour market is getting increasingly tight and wages are accelerating.''

By region, the improvement was greatest in the West, where the jobless rate fell 0.4, to 5 per cent. Elsewhere, unemployment was only slightly lower or unchanged -- with the Northeast at 5.1 per cent in November, the Midwest at 4.2 per cent and the South at 4.5 per cent.

Not only did payrolls swell by 404,000 last month, the growth for September and October was revised up by a combined 34,000 to bring the three-month average to a staggering 330,000. The gains were heaviest in services and retail trade, but factories added 44,000 jobs, the third big increase in four months, and construction jobs jumped 29,000, despite unusually cold weather during the survey week.

Retailers, facing a shrinking labour pool, were nonetheless able to recruit workers for the holiday season. Department stores put 31,000 more people on payrolls while other types of merchants like toy stores, gift shops, book stores and mail-order outlets added 27,000. Restaurants and bars hired 30,000 more people, the first big increase since July.

Despite the stock market's slide in late October, the finance industry added 15,000 workers last month, the third consecutive double-digit percentage gain. The monthly employment figures, based on the payroll reports of a sample of 390,000 employers, also showed an 18-minute lengthening of the work week and a bit more factory overtime.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.