Do People Work More if they are Paid More?

For generations, there has existed a mystifying approach to motivating employees based on the idea that an employee who makes more money will give more effort on the job.  While this position has some merit, especially for those individuals driven by a need to compete and win, it does not hold true for the majority of the working population of the US.  And this position is not just a personal opinion.  To show the science behind the facts, let’s take a look at two well known motivational theories; Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory and Vroom’s Expectancy Theory.

Victor Vroom first proposed his Expectancy Theory while at the Yale School of Management in 1964.  He said that “a person will decide to behave or act in a certain way because they are motivated to select a specific behavior over other behaviors due to what they expect the result of that selected behavior will be”.  Basically he is saying that people behave in a certain manner based on their perception of what they expect to happen because of their behavior.  If a person doesn’t see a personal win for whatever action they are engaging in, there is no motivation for them to keep doing it.

There are two main applications for this theory in the workplace.  First, employers must relate rewards directly to performance.  Second, employers need to ensure those rewards are wanted or desired by the recipient.  Just throwing money at employees in terms of reward and compensation is a waste of resources if the employee is not seeking extra income.  What if the employee is seeking a different shift, a different work environment, a more challenging role, greater responsibility, or broader job responsibilities?  The employee probably won’t turn the money down, but the cash will do nothing to drive the employee’s performance forward.  On the flip-side, merely promoting someone into a position of higher responsibility without providing any financial incentive will do little to demonstrate this promotion is a reward.  This situation can lead employees to feel taken advantage of or disrespected by the employer.

Frederick Herzberg conducted his own research on what motivates employees and drives performance.  He based his theory on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and said that “individuals are not content with the satisfaction of lower-order needs at work, for example, those associated with minimum salary levels or safe and pleasant working conditions. Rather, individuals look for the gratification of higher-level psychological needs having to do with achievement, recognition, responsibility, advancement, and the nature of the work itself”.

His Motivation-Hygiene Theory was developed from data collected from interviews with a large number of engineers and accountants in the Pittsburgh area. From analyzing these interviews, he found that job characteristics related to what an individual does (the nature of the work performed) apparently has the capacity to gratify such needs as achievement, competency, status, personal worth, and self-realization, thus making him or her happy and satisfied. However, the absence of such gratifying job characteristics does not appear to lead to unhappiness and dissatisfaction. Instead, dissatisfaction results from unfavorable assessments of such job-related factors as company policies, supervision, technical problems, salary, interpersonal relations on the job, and working conditions. Thus, if managers wish to increase satisfaction on the job, they should be concerned with the nature of the work itself, the opportunities it presents for gaining status, assuming responsibility, and for achieving self-realization.  If, on the other hand, management wishes to reduce dissatisfaction, then it must focus on the job environment; policies, procedures, supervision, and working conditions.  He found that those factors which led to job satisfaction (achievement, interest in the work, responsibility and advancement) had little to do with job dissatisfaction.  He found that those factors which led to job dissatisfaction (company policy, practice, supervision, compensation) did very little to contribute to job satisfaction.

Herzberg found that Motivators such as challenging work, recognition, and responsibility, give an individual positive satisfaction based on the intrinsic conditions of the job itself.  He also found that Hygiene factors such as job security, salary, wages and benefits did not give positive job satisfaction.  What he found that was that if these factors were considered to be missing or inappropriate, dissatisfaction in the job resulted from their absence.

So what does Herzberg’s Theory mean to an employer?  First, it means that you won’t motivate people by money alone. Employers need to provide workers with basic conditions such as appropriate wages and benefits, provide them with policies and procedures aimed to help them do their jobs effectively and provide them with a safe work environment.  Without these basic conditions, no employee will ever be satisfied with his or her position.  To really motivate employees, employers need to focus on the intrinsic components of the job itself while ensuring the employees’ basic needs are met.

The Gallup Organization released a survey last week which showed that 71% of workers are now either disengaged or actively disengaged at work.  In comparison to last year’s result of 46% of workers being either disengaged or actively disengaged, this shows a dramatic increase in the amount of individuals who are simply marking time at work.   Want to make sure you don’t have a workplace which mirrors this survey’s result?  Then instead of just throwing money at the problem, follow these seven suggestions:

1.       Make sure your compensation system is aligned with the jobs and responsibilities associated with the job at hand.

2.       Satisfy employees’ basic needs of being able to afford to live on the money they make, the job provides an environment that allows the employees to do their best work.

3.       Supervisors are skilled in leadership skills, not just management skills.

4.       People are put in positions which allow them to do more of what they do best every day.

5.       The rewards for a job well done are aligned with the desires and motivations of the individual.

6.       Employees have access to additional means of adding value to their contributions such as additional training or exposure in the organization.

7.       Recognize employees for a job well done in a manner appropriate to the accomplishment and the individual.

Best regards,

Scott Brown, MSOL

Chief Engagement Officer, The Hardie Consulting Group

Scott Brown, MSOL,  is the Chief Engagement Officer at The Hardie Consulting Group, an Orlando based consulting firm specializing in leadership development,  employee engagement, and transforming organizational potential into organizational performance.  He is an award winning speaker and an internationally recognized thought leader who has helped countless organizations learn how to meet shifting customer and employee expectations.   Follow him on Twitter @ScottBrownMSOL and visit his company’s website www.HardieConsulting.com to learn more about what Brown can do for you.

Have You Doomed Your Change Management Initiative?

Leading researchers estimate that change initiatives succeed only about 30% of the time.  While a 30% success rate might get you into the Hall of Fame in baseball as a hitter, it will get you into the Hall of Shame as a business operator.  The reason why change initiatives fail is as varied as the types of change initiatives themselves.  How many of these roadblocks to effective change are you guilty of allowing in your organization?

1.       Over-informing about the change:  Do you have a meeting to prepare for the meeting, then have the meeting, then have a meeting to recap the meeting?  If so, your initiative is getting worn out before it ever gets going.

2.       The Congress Effect:  As your initiative passes through committees, work-teams and the silos of corporate America, has it been “marked” by everyone to ensure their “needs” are met?  Sounds a bit like Congress, and how quick are they to change course?

3.       Driving Forward while only Looking Back:  Company history and values can be instrumental in defining your brand and keeping you true to who you are, but if you are stuck in the rut of “it’s how we’ve always done things”, you’ll never move forward.  To see how tough it is to only look back, try pulling your car into your garage forward, while only looking behind you. 

4.       Fear of Commitment:  Have you implemented twelve change programs over the last month?  If so, congratulations, you have a “Flavor of the Month” problem.  Not committing to an initiative and abandoning it too soon is a sure fire way to tell your people to “just wait a bit, next month we’ll try something different”.  And that is no way to gain commitment from your team.

5.       Reinstituting the Caste System:  “Because I have a title and it is higher than yours, I must know more than you and therefore my idea is better than yours” is one of the quickest ways to alienate your people.  Want to know how to really impact a process?  Try asking the people who work in the trenches every day.  Humility can be the best medicine.

6.       Welcome to My Silo:  The larger your company gets, the greater the chance you will have strong silo’s in your organization.  All these silos do is to impede true progress by placing individual needs ahead of the needs of the organization as a whole.  You’ll never get everyone to the same place at the same time.  Want to learn how to dismantle your silos?  Pick up Patrick Lencioni’s book Silo’s, Politics and Turf Wars.

7.       What’s the Rush:  Effective change needs to have a sense of urgency associated with it.  If there is no urgency to change, then the pain of staying the same will never outweigh the need to change.  To get people moving, there has to be a reason to move.  Why do you think retailers have limited time offers?  It’s to create movement.

8.       Help!  My Hair’s on Fire:  The opposite effect of not creating a sense of urgency is creating a sense of panic.  People don’t think straight when they are concerned about self preservation. This effect can happen either by having to many change initiates moving at once, having conflicting initiatives or waiting until too late to start the change process.

9.       The Pie Isn’t Done Yet:  Don’t wait until the change is perfectly planned to get moving.  It will never be perfect.  Conditions will change, adjustments will need to be made and people will adapt.  Analysis paralysis will keep you watching and waiting until it is “perfect”, which the initiative never will be.

10.   Yes Sir, Whatever You Say Sir:  Not having the guts to push back and say “no” will lead you to try to be all things to all people.  You can never satisfy everyone.  Someone will be disappointed and won’t agree.  But is your job as a leader to make the strategic decision to move in a certain direction and not be afraid to ruffle some feathers.  

Take some time to really analyze your organization.  Which of these obstacles do you see in place?  Which ones do you see that didn’t make the list?  What are you going to do about it?  Remember, your people are your organization.  Don’t be afraid to ask for help from the very people you count on every day to deliver your business to your customers.  Show the vulnerability to acknowledge that  you don’t have all the answers.  You’ll be amazed by their contributions.

Best regards,

Scott Brown

Chief Engagement Officer, The Hardie Consulting Group

Scott Brown, MSOL,  is the Chief Engagement Officer at The Hardie Consulting Group, an Orlando based consulting firm specializing in leadership development,  employee engagement, and transforming organizational potential into organizational performance.  He is an award winning speaker and an internationally recognized thought leader who has helped countless organizations learn how to meet shifting customer and employee expectations.   Follow him on Twitter @ScottBrownMSOL and visit his company’s website www.HardieConsulting.com to learn more about what Brown can do for you.

What is the big deal with employee engagement?

American organizations are mired in a quicksand of epic proportions.  This tragedy is not caused by foreign competition, government regulation, or economic fluctuations.  No, it is a crisis which organizations have complete control over, yet more often than not choose to pay little if any attention to addressing.  What is this diabolic force?  The quicksand threatening the well-being of countless organizations, not just in America, but across the globe, is employee disengagement, and Gallup estimates it is costing the American economy between $450-550 billion annually.

In their annual study of employee engagement from around the world, Gallup has found the number of fully engaged employees has held relatively constant for decades.  While on the surface this sounds  like a good thing, in reality it is anything but positive news.  Unfortunately, the number of workers fully committed to their jobs and organizations continue to hover at roughly 30% of the American workforce.  This paltry amount of highly productive workers leaves the other roughly 70% of American workers to be either disengaged (i.e. apathetic towards their work) or actively disengaged (i.e. working in a way that actively works against the organization’s success).  Can you imagine how successful your business would be if those numbers were reversed?

So what does your workforce look like?  Can you spot the 30% of your staff that is driving your success?  Or do they get lost in the 70% of your people keeping your organization stuck in neutral?  The better question to ask is "When was the last time you really looked at your people, focused on identifying who is committed to your success, and who is trying to sabotage your results?"  Whom do you see doing the brunt of the work?  What do they look like?  Who do you see zombie walking through their career day after day?  What do they look like?  And who do you see sucking the very life out of everyone they come in contact with?  What do they look like?  Now for the million-dollar question - Do you know why some of your people are highly engaged while others are actively disengaged?

Perhaps no decision you will make in your role as a leader has more impact on the engagement of your people than who you place in managerial and leadership positions.  Employees generally quit bosses, not organizations.  In a 2013 survey, Gallup reported that "the relationship with your boss" was cited as the number one overall reason why people leave a job.  They found an employee’s relationship with his or her immediate supervisor easily trumps working conditions, compensation, and career development in determining whether an employee will stay or leave a job.

In the same survey, Gallup further reported, “Poorly managed work groups are an average 50 percent less productive and 44 percent less profitable than well-managed groups”.  Shocking and mind boggling. isn't it?  Do you know what is even worse than having an employee quit?  Having them stay despite despising working for your organization.  They may have quit mentally and emotionally, but can't quit physically until they find another job.  During this time, they are capable of sucking the life right out of your company.

Think about those people who you have entrusted to manage your people.  Whom do you see inspiring and motivating others to do their best?  Whom do you have that is content with being average and staying under the radar?  Most importantly, whom do you see that is driving their best people right out the door to work for your competitor?  Do you know why some of your managers are wildly successful while others are masters of complacency or are even undermining your success?  More importantly, what are you actively doing to address this disparity?

Your people are the very lifeblood of your organization.  Your people are the face of your brand to your customers, your suppliers, your vendors, and your community.  You owe it not  just to yourself, but to your organization to figure out how to ensure everyone in your organization is fully engaged in his or her work.  You need to figure out what it is that drives some employees to accomplish amazing feats of ingenuity and productivity.  What makes them different from everyone else?  And what makes their work environment ripe to encourage such amazing accomplishments?

Not sure what full engagement looks like?  The next time you walk into a business, pay specific attention to the energy radiated by the employees, by the vibe, and by the level of organizational health that is palpable.  Do you like how the company makes you feel?  Does it feel alive?  Or does it feel like it is hooked up to a ventilator in the ICU?  How does it compare to your team or organization?  Are you dismayed by the actions, behaviors, and vibe of the business?  Or are you inspired by what  you observe and feel?  How does it compare to the experience your customers get when they walk into your organization?  Ask yourself, “How do people feel when they interact with my team?  Or even with me?”

Much of what you are feeling is dictated by the level of employee engagement.  Those groups infested by the downtrodden, sullen, and actively disengaged employees are often those groups who experience a revolving door of employees.  They waste more money on their employee turnover than they do on their customer’s experience.  If you pay attention, you can feel the level of frustration and ambivalence in the ambiance, and you can feel the business is unhealthy.  Conversely, when you walk into a business that has a high level of engagement, you can feel the buzz in the air, the excitement and connection to the company from the majority of employees.  Their turnover is low, their productivity is high and their customer experience is exemplary.  Like a moth to a light, you are drawn back to the businesses due to your first hand experience.

It is this disparity between organizations with highly engaged workplaces, and actively disengaged workplaces, that is the focus of our work.  Here, in this blog, you will find a consistent flow of articles outlining our stance on employee engagement, what it is, what it isn't, and what you can do positively advance your workforce's level of engagement.  Mark us as a favorite, then come back on a regular basis to learn how  to distinguish your business from that of your competitors, and how to deliver every increasing positive results by positively influencing the level of employee engagement in your business.

Best regards,
Scott Brown
Chief Engagement Officer, The Hardie Consulting Group

Scott Brown, MSOL,  is the Chief Engagement Officer at The Hardie Consulting Group, an Orlando based consulting firm specializing in leadership development,  employee engagement, and transforming organizational potential into organizational performance.  He is an award winning speaker and an internationally recognized thought leader who has helped countless organizations learn how to meet shifting customer and employee expectations.   Follow him on Twitter @ScottBrownMSOL and visit his company’s website www.HardieConsulting.com

to learn more.

How to Build a Successful Organization

Have you ever had a really bad job, the kind of job that becomes your own personal living hell?  We’ve all had one.  Some of us might have even had more than one.  What was yours, and what made it so bad?  Was it the work itself?  Was it the location?  Or was your worst job so bad because of your peers, your bosses, or even your boss’ bosses?  Do you remember the feelings of angst, disappointment, and frustration you felt?

What do you think your people would say if they were each anonymously asked, “What is your worst job?”  How many of your people would say their current job is their worst job?  The answer might surprise you.

Nobody sets out to create the circumstances necessary to turn any job into someone’s living nightmare.  However, creating these circumstances happens all too often in today’s hyper-paced, ultra-competitive business environment.  Don’t believe me?  Have you checked out the latest statistics on employee disengagement?

Every year Gallup conducts a survey to measure the engagement level of workers from around the globe.  Every year, I read their survey with bated breath, hoping the numbers would change from the previous year, and year I am disappointed to find we still haven’t moved the needle.  Between 2000 and 20012, the number of engaged employees, meaning those employees willing to give all they have to offer to help the organization thrive, has hovered at 28-30% of the American workforce.  Conversely, the number of employees who consider themselves actively disengaged has hovered between 15-20% of the American workforce.

It is these disengaged employees that may potentially consider their current as their worst job ever.  Sometimes they are easy to spot.  Granted, they can be the ones sullen, angry, and leading a workforce rebellion.  But more often than not, they camouflage themselves into the fabric of your organization, hiding behind a friendly persona and “meets expectations” annual personnel reviews.  They might not be sabotaging your organization’s performance; they just might not be doing anything to help promote your organization’s performance.  Many of your actively disengaged employees come to work every day, do the absolute minimum to keep them under the radar, and spend their time thinking of how great it will be to “finally quit this job.”

What happened to make them care so little?

In their groundbreaking book “First Break All the Rules”, Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton famously revealed, “People leave managers, not companies.”  The definitively showed through analyzing feedback from almost 2 million managers and employees that an employee’s relationship with his or her direct supervisor is the single largest determinant of whether or not someone leaves a job or a company.

Think back to your memories of your worst job.  Chances are great that what made your experience so dreadful weren’t the working conditions or the job itself.  After all, very few people take a job doing work they know they will hate, or in a condition they can’t stand.  I am betting that what defined your worse experience had something to do with your relationship with your boss.

For five years I have been studying the research on employee engagement, fulfillment, and organizational success to find what it takes to full unleash the full potential of employees to drive the success of the organization.   I have found one factor that keeps revealing itself time and time again in organizations across all industries, cultures, and demographics.  The organizations most successful at engaging their employees to  work towards their success are the ones that consistently align what they believe, with what they expect and how they behave.  These organizations tend to outperform the competitors, produce a higher return for their investors, and set themselves up for long-term success.   Let me say that again –

“The most successful organizations are the ones that consistently align what they believe, with what they expect and how they behave.”

In essence, what this means is that the best organizations are the ones that not only know what they stand for and why they do what they do, but they are also the ones who can clearly articulate their purpose in such a consistent and convincing manner that nobody questions their authenticity.  These organizations articulate their purpose not just through their words, but through the systems they utilize, the artifacts they embrace, the language they use, and the behaviors they exude.  Everything they do, every decision they make, every relationship they cultivate, is based on the premise of an authentic existence.

By so thoroughly aligning their business practices, expectations, and behaviors with their purpose, they leave no doubt with customers, stakeholders, vendors, or employees as to what to expect from the organization.  By removing doubt, each of these vital groups is more likely to be populated with people who share similar values, visions, and purposes.  They remove the risk from relationships because stakeholders know exactly what to expect in every possible situation.  They can proceed with the confidence of knowing that what they think will happen, will actually happen.

This alignment has been paramount to the survival of all tribes for millions of years.  Humankind has always banded together with other like-minded individuals to stave off the dangers of the outside world and ensure their tribe’s health and longevity.  We have thrived for millions of years on the premise that safety ensures survival, prosperity, and growth.

Unfortunately, I have found this alignment is fleeting in today’s organizations.  It is far more likely for an organization to lose sight of who they are in times of crisis, than it is for them to apply their purpose as a barometer for making difficult decisions.  This is why employee turnover tends to spike and customer loyalty tends to diminish during times of extreme change.  It is far too common for organization’s today to “eat their own” in an effort to protect themselves, rather than rallying around each other to protect the many.

This misalignment leaves employees constantly watching their backs because they don’t feel like anyone has their backs.  They are constantly scanning the workplace for threats, keeping an exit strategy in full view, and defending their turf against all invaders.  Can you imagine how poorly of an evolution strategy it would have been for our ancestors to not have a clan or tribe to band together with in an effort to survive and thrive?  We don’t know the decedents of those tribes that didn’t protect their own because they died out long ago.  Misalignment is the surest way to thwart organizational evolution and  risk becoming extinct.

Today’s business world is fraught with a pace and magnitude of change never experienced in our history.  The marketplace is now truly a global minefield where somebody is going to copy what you do, reverse engineer your process, and find a way to do what you do better than you in a relatively short period of time.  These are uncharted waters where there is no blueprint of what to do, leaving too many leaders and managers focused on individual survival rather than on the survival of the collective – the organization as a whole.

Success in today’s business environment hinges upon the relationships organizations establish and nurture with stakeholders, clients, and employees.  Those companies that successfully foster meaningful relationships are the ones that will also foster high levels of employee engagement.  A greater level of highly engaged employees translates into an organization’s ability to turn potential into performance by solving complex problems, and thriving in the face of chaos.

Our promise to you:

Over the coming weeks and months, I will delve into how to “advance workplace engagement”, how to transform organizational potential into organizational performance, and how to prepare your company for the future without sacrificing current performance.

I’m pretty confident that you don’t want your people to think of their time working for your organization as the worst job they ever had or their own little living hell.  Let’s get to work learning how to improve the alignment of what you believe with what you expect and how you behave.  Together, we can ebb the tide of employee disengagement, and prepare you to win your market.

Best regards,
Scott Brown
Chief Engagement Officer, The Hardie Consulting Group

Scott Brown, MSOL,  is the Chief Engagement Officer at The Hardie Consulting Group, an Orlando based consulting firm specializing in leadership development,  employee engagement, and transforming organizational potential into organizational performance.  He is an award winning speaker and an internationally recognized thought leader who has helped countless organizations learn how to meet shifting customer and employee expectations.   Follow him on Twitter @ScottBrownMSOL and visit his company’s website www.HardieConsulting.com to learn more about what Brown can do for you.