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THERES MORE TO EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT THAN OFFICE LUNCHES

ARTICLE

By Reiss Motivation Profile Asia Pte Ltd

In a Towers Walton survey, it was revealed that only a small portion of employees in an organization is engaged 35% to be exact. The rest are disengaged, detached or felt unsupported. As HR managers and bosses, how can you engage your employees such that they feel appreciated? Heres a typical scenario: Jeremy, by nature, is an active, out-doorsy guy. He is most driven to work in jobs that require him to be physically active. Hence, his job as a driver at the logistics company that meant he spent many hours on-the-go suited him well. He performed well as a driver, and he was named the best employee of the month 3 times in the row. 6 months into the job, the HR manager decided to offer him a chance to upgrade his career as a reward for his good performance. Jeremy was offered a new position within a company a stock-taking and inventory position. With the promise of earning more money, Jeremy took it up. But within 2 months, Jeremys productivity dipped, and his confidence dived further as he made mistakes. As the result, he became disillusioned. His supervisor did not understand why Jeremys performance was below expectations. He knew that Jeremy was a good employee and had good work attitude, so he assumed that Jeremys problem is that he was unfamiliar with the new job, and did not have the right skills for the job. He advised Jeremy that the job will get easier as he became more familiar with it, and told Jeremy he will support Jeremy by sending him on intensive training courses on inventory and stock-taking. With some training, Jeremys productivity improved temporarily, and both the supervisor and the HR manager assume that he will be able to perform well in the inventory job, just as he did as a driver from henceforth. But 6 months into the inventory job, Jeremys productivity dipped once more. He began to resent being sent for training, and started becoming increasingly uncooperative at work. The supervisor, having lost patience with Jeremy, started issuing warning letters to Jeremy, resulting in Jeremy looking for a job elsewhere. What went wrong here, and what would be done differently? (1) What Went Wrong: Jeremy was assigned a job that did not suit his nature. As a person who is active and loves the outdoors is better suited for jobs that require him or her to be outdoors and active, instead of assigning the staff to an indoor, sedentary job such as stock-taking and inventory does not activate the persons natural strengths and inclinations. What Could Be Done Differently: If the HR manager wanted to offer an expansion of roles, complementary roles that required Jeremy to be outdoors and active, such as a delivery position, would have been more suitable. In addition, if Jeremy was a sociable person, a sales representative position, for example, could also work. (2) What Went Wrong: The HR manager assumed that upgrading ones career equated to an indoor job in an office environment. While this may hold true for the HR manager, it wasnt true for Jeremy. We can tell from this assumption that the HR managers nature is the opposite of Jeremys someone who enjoys being indoors, in the comfort of an office, and is probably not a very active person.

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What Could Be Done Differently: As bosses and HR managers, it is crucial that we do not impose our assumptions and preferences on others. Each employee is unique and will have his or her own preferences and strengths. Get to know what drives your staff in order to identify the carrot that would work best for each of your staff. Having said that, the conventional way of getting to know your staff would be to spend time with them, observing them, and understanding what drives them. While this will work, especially when an organization is small, what happens when an organization grows from 50 to 500, and from 500 to 5,000? What would then be an effective way of getting to know your staff? This is when bosses and HR managers can turn to profiling tools to help identify what drives employees. A scientifically-proven motivational profiling tool, such as the Reiss Motivation Profile, can be useful. The Reiss Motivational Profile identifies the 16 basic desires that every human person will have. An example of a basic desire is the need for physical activity. In our scenario above, Jeremy is a person who has a high need for physical activity. He is motivated to get things done when the task involves physical activity, or leads to physical activity. (3) What Went Wrong: Jeremys supervisor assumed that the support Jeremy needed when he was not performing in his inventory and stock-taking role was to go for skills training and to give him a period of training and learning his new role. We can tell that from this assumption that the supervisor has not deeply understood the longer-term, underlying causes of Jeremys difficulties, which surfaced 6 months on when Jeremy considers quitting the organization. While skills training could make Jeremy more competent to carry out his new roles, over time, as the inventory and stock-taking role do not fit into his natural desires, Jeremys true potential and abilities will remain untapped and unused. What Could Be Done Differently: No one is born with the natural ability to identify another persons motivations and drives, even though it is expected that people in managerial and supervisory positions are able to do so as the result of experience in working with others. This is an assumption many bosses and HR managers make. A better way would be to send managers and supervisors to be trained specifically on how to engage and motivate staff based on their true desires and motivations, and how to use profiling or motivational tools as means to help them identify their employees strengths and natural abilities. ! "#$%$&#$! '()*! +,-.('++/! *+0)&*+/! 12%1! '()! )#3+*/1%#3! +%42! (5! 12+,! 6+..7! 8)1! 12&/! $(+/! 8+'(#3! &3+#1&5'&#$! 12+&*! 9/1*+#$12/:! %#3! 96+%;#+//+/:<! =.&$#&#$! 12+! #%1)*+! (5! 12+! >(8! 1(! 12+&*! &##%1+! ,(1&?%1&(#/! %#3! ?%.)+/! *+/).1! &#! %! 2&$2+*! -*(8%8&.&1'!(5!%!5&1!12%1!;++-/!12+!+,-.('++!&#1+*+/1+3!%#3!42%..+#$+3<!!

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