Are Happy Employees Motivated Employees ? Copyright © 2006 Bob
Selden,
When was the last time you felt excited, motivated and extremely
keen to be at work? Chances are it was when you had a job or
project that really interested you, you had control over what
you did and the way you did it, and you didn't have any worries
about "over zealous boss" interference or lack of job security.
It's a great feeling and we can all probably relate stories of
how and when we were most "motivated" at work.
But as managers, do we consciously try to provide this same
level of motivation for all of our employees? Or, are we merely
fixated on striving to achieve the deadlines, budgets and
targets that are set for us (and that seem to be getting tougher
and tougher and placing more and more stress on us and our
people), and forgetting what it was really like when we worked
in an environment that was truly "motivational."
My challenge to practising managers, is to think back to when
they were most motivated at work and identify the reasons why
(list them on a sheet of paper as dot points). Then, set about
implementing these same conditions for their own people. (Draw
up your own list now and see how it compares with mine)
I've issued this challenge to managers over the last 20 years in
management development forums and invariably their "motivational
conditions" they identify are:
* Autonomy - the chance to take control over a complete project
or unit of work in which I am really interested * Responsibility
- for setting goals and targets and being accountable for
achieving them * Recognition - for achieving meaningful results
* Development - of my skills, knowledge and capabilities to
their full potential
I then ask them to identify the things that really irritate and
annoy them and (often) change what could have been a motivating
workplace into a drudgery. They are:
* Bosses who do not recognise them for their efforts, or worse
still, take the credit themselves * A lack of feeling of "team,"
ie., "we are in this together" * Constant implied or implicit
threats of demotion or dismissal * Insufficient salary (by
comparison to others in the firm or in the industry)
If these sound familiar, then you're right! Frederick Herzberg
in his classic HBR article "Once More, How do you Motivate
Employees?" (harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu) came up
with two similar sets of lists nearly forty years ago that he
labelled "Motivators" and "Satisfiers."
Do they hold true today? Recent research into the turnover rates
for young employees (20 - 30 yrs) shows that in some industries,
the turnover rate of young employees is as high as 25% annually
due to lack of perceived career development and training, and
limited opportunities for involvement in other areas of the firm
and their profession. These younger people, by comparison to
their predecessors: * Are more opportunistic in taking new jobs.
* Are more mobile. * Have greater expectations. * Are easily
bored. Andrew Heathcote (www.brw.com.au/stories) in answer to
this challenge suggests that managers need to: Communicate: * Be
honest during interviews. * Be serious about performance
reviews. * Do more career mapping. * Create a forum to develop a
greater spirit of involvement. Tailor the workplace: * Provide
more job rotation. * Arrange more rotation between offices. *
Develop specific training. * Introduce variety. * Develop forums
for social interaction. Be flexible: * Consider providing
sabbaticals (so they can travel without resigning). * Increase
the availability of unpaid leave.
So today's younger employee is not so different from the
generation who manage them - maybe they want their motivation
and satisfaction a little faster!
By the way, notice that the majority of items on Andrew's list
are what Herzberg called "Motivators." In fact, the only two that
could be termed real "Satisfiers" are the last two - sabbaticals
and unpaid leave.
But, to return to my initial question, does motivation equate
with happiness? Richard Layard
(www.pfd.co.uk/clients/layardr/b-aut.html ) suggests that work
plays a very important part in our happiness and that a lot of
our happiness actually comes from the work we do. And the job
that we do is affected by how we are allowed to do it. In
addition, he found that in regard to the "Satisfiers": * Not
having a job when you should have one, is much worse than
suffering a sudden drop in income * People who feel insecure
about retaining their job, suffer a loss of happiness (relative
to those who do feel secure) that is 50% greater than the loss
of happiness suffered by people whose income drops by a third.
Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick
(www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/
staff/faculty/oswald/homejobs.pdf) confirms some of the
importance of the "satisfiers":
* Having a lot of job security is important to feeling a high
degree of satisfaction with your job * People with relatively
high incomes or university degrees tend to get more satisfaction
* Women tend to be more satisfied than men * The self-employed
tend to be more satisfied * People who work in a small workplace
tend to be more satisfied than those who work for large
employers * Working at home tends to lead to higher satisfaction
* A job that involves dealing with people tends to bring higher
satisfaction
Herzberg would be very pleased with the results of the amazing
amount of today's research that confirms his contention that it
is important for managers to concentrate on both the
"Motivators" and the "Satisfiers" if one is to have happy and
motivated employees.
The message? Managers, revisit your own list of "Motivators"
Start working on implementing the things on that list of your's
with your employees today!
If you would like to find out how motivated and satisfied your
people are, you can do so with a simple feedback profile such as
CHECKpoint™
(nationallearning.com.au/index_files/EmployeeFeedbackandMotivatio
n.htm). CHECKpoint™ has been developed on the work of Herzberg
and another great social psychologist, D.C. McLelland. It not
only provides feedback on employee motivation and satisfaction,
but also how to maintain these and address any problematic
issues.
Bob Selden is the Managing Director of the National Learning
Institute. He has been an HRD consultant for over 30 years,
prior to which he was a line manager in a financial
organisation. He is an Australian currently living in
Switzerland and is a part time member of faculty at the
International Management Development Institute in Lausanne and
the Australian Graduate School of Management in Sydney. You can
contact Bob at
http://www.nationallearning.com.au/
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