We all know employee engagement is important. We all desire
great stats or an improvement in performance. We set off on a mission to
measure levels of engagement, with the best intentions of encouraging an
engaged workforce and thereby improving productivity. We send out surveys
promising that ‘we value your opinion’. We then responsibly convey the results
to management and the company and then… we don’t know always what to do about
the problem areas that employees have identified.
Every individual in your organisation is a human being (yes,
it’s true) with their own needs. Maslow talks about the various levels of
individuals’ needs and many people have related his theories to the workplace. Hertzberg
reckons that you have to have the basics in place (or else you’re in trouble)
and he goes on to say there are other groups of factors that actually get
people moving. What else do we know about keeping people happy, motivating them
and ensuring their needs are met? Well, we know that everyone is the star of
their own story. People experience their own reality and whether or not they
think they need it, everyone enjoys personal recognition and acknowledgement,
even of the smallest achievements or events.
So in a nut shell, people are complex creatures and the environment
in the workplace affects all individuals. I’m sure we all agree that the aim is
to develop an environment where people are motivated and energised, where responsibility
and accountability are habitual, where employees collaborate and are truly involved
in their work and thus (drum roll)… a culture of high performance is created.
Which brings us precisely back to the beginning of this topic and why we
measure employee engagement. The problem here lies in how to tackle the problem
areas that have been reported and how do we maintain a level of consistent
happiness amongst our staff members.
If we explore the levels according to Maslow, the
organisation can address the basic needs through ensuring employees have the
fundamental equipment and resources required to their job as well as ensuring a
safe and comfortable office environment (which may include aspects such as safe
parking facilities for example). Communicating job security and ensuring
remuneration packages are market related are other aspects of basic needs. Managers
should encourage friendships amongst co-workers as this is an important part of
an individual’s daily life and assists in addressing one’s social needs for belonging.
A company culture that supports and encourages these relationships can be facilitated
through encouraging peers to acknowledge each other’s work as well as finding
out more about each other, organising and attending team get-togethers and so
on. Good relationships amongst co-workers means a more collaborative workforce,
and one that deals with conflict management in an emotionally intelligent
manner. A need for esteem, status, recognition and commendation of one’s work
should be catered for and attended to on a frequent basis. One award at the end
of the year is not sufficient for most, but particularly not for our millennial
generation who favour frequent feedback and need to feel that their efforts are
noticed, appreciated and are contributing to organisation. The need for self
actualisation, albeit a very personal feeling or state, can be addressed in the
workplace through aspects such as creative success or challenging work. A
feeling of satisfaction around an impressive achievement or one’s contribution
to a cause can certainly influence a person’s current state of self
actualisation.
Bearing in mind that all needs require attention and simultaneously
for that matter. The satisfaction of one need does not mean that it replaces or
removes the need for attention to another. Where the absence of something may
lead to dissatisfaction, the presence of something else does not necessarily
lead to satisfaction, but rather avoids dissatisfaction. The power of a truly
engaged workforce can have an enormous impact on the productivity and success
of a business and an actively disengaged employee is something worth actively preventing.
Some questions to keep in mind include: How are you
addressing the results from your engagement survey? What are you going to put
in place to encourage engagement through the right culture? How do you plan to prove
ROI on your implemented solution?
Amanda Mohr (BCom Industrial Psychology, Honours)
Amanda is part of our Behavioural Specialist team here at Workpoints. She is our client advice giver, our multitasker and our personal shopper.
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