From throwing up their hands in despair to overcompensating and turning their office into a goofy playpen for coddled employees, and everything in between, executives have left no stone unturned in trying to build capabilities overnight to attract and retain an increasingly disengaged workforce.
A recent survey by Deloitte shows that today, twice as many employees when compared to a few years ago, are motivated by work passion than career ambition. This dire change in employee motivation has been a cause of concern for HR Leaders and Business Leaders alike because of its far-reaching consequences on productivity, and thereby the business, which has driven the unconscious shift from Customers First, to Employees First.
I’ve often felt that while it’s important to pay employees well, most perks don’t work in the long term. What people really want is autonomy, the chance to get better at what they do, and a purpose that connects them to something larger. Employees don’t see the fun and work as two separate things anymore. They are willing to put in any amount of discretionary effort if what they do seems fun, which predictably leads to higher productivity and lesser turnover.
So what are companies like Google, Air BnB, and Amazon doing right, that’s making their employees love coming to work every day? How are they striking that balance between fun and work, which makes their workplaces great? How have they managed to offer work to most of their employees that coincides with their individual strengths and passions?
Let me tell you, it’s not rocket science. The way to look at Employee Engagement is not by singling out each employee and trying to mold every aspect of his job to his liking, but to build a supportive and energetic culture as a whole, that creates a kind of infectious joy and passion among the workforce to work towards a common goal.
The key to building a culture that multiplies that kind of positivity in a workplace lies in 3 Cs –
Building the Spirit of Community – When there exists a culture of open communication between colleagues and senior and junior management alike, employees begin to feel more comfortable at a workplace, which helps them voice their opinions and ideas and develop mutual trust and respect, prompting them to collaborate in making decisions or taking actions. When individual goals unify towards a common goal, every employee begins to sense the bigger picture and his or her unique role in achieving it.
Acknowledging Contribution – Ideas, especially the best ones, take persistence to see them through to results. When an employee is only judged against performance metrics and quarterly T vs. A, short-term failures will begin to gain more focus than long-term learnings. Acknowledgment of effort has a significant impact on boosting employee morale.
Provide Careers not Jobs – As Maslow rightly said, what motivates a person, changes with time. While at first, an employee may only be looking to satisfy his physiological needs, one or two years into an organization, it won’t be enough anymore. From Safety to Belonging, to Esteem, to Self-Actualization, an employee’s needs from a workplace undergo gradual evolution. And organizations need to be equipped with skillful managers who can identify and act at the right time to help the employee gain visibility of what the organization has in store for his development and where his skills can be put for use best.
In order to build a culture that resonates with the employees, making them accept it as their own, organizations need to come out of the deadlock of waiting for things to happen and rather make them happen. Creating a culture that’s open, transparent, and driven, requires intention in order to enable employees to thrive, so always remember – Don’t just Identify Potential, Unleash It.