There's More to Employee Engagement Than Office Lunches

8/13/2019 There's More to Employee Engagement Than Office Lunches

1/3

THERES MORE

TO EMPLOYEEENGAGEMENT

THAN OFFICE

LUNCHESARTICLE

By Reiss Motivation Profile Asia Pte Ltd


2/3

!"#$%&'() +,-./ 01&22 3")&45)&"6 7%"8&91 :2&5 7)1 ;)%1&2252&5>?"@

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 furtheras 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 Jeremysproblem 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 oncemore. 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.


3/3

!"#$%&'() +,-./ 01&22 3")&45)&"6 7%"8&91 :2&5 7)1 ;)%1&2252&5>?"@

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 tospend 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 Profileidentifies the 16 basic desires

that every human person will have. An example of a basic desire is the need forphysical 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 makeJeremy 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 employeesstrengths and natural abilities.

"#$%$$ '()* +,-.('++/ *+0)&*+/ 12%1 '() )#3+*/1%#3 +%42 (5 12+, 6+..7 8)112&/ $(+/ 8+'(#3 &3+#1&5'$ 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+3 %#3 42%..+#$+3

Documents

There's More to Employee Engagement Than Office Lunches