It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up
~ Muhammad Ali
The Dilbert Paradox
There is an effect called “The Dilbert Paradox”. The paradox is based on three observations:
- Nearly all managers will tell you that talent is the key to organisational success.
- Organisations spend millions on recruitment.
- Organisations invest heavily in training and development.
If engaging and keeping talent is the most prominent management issue why is the Dilbert cartoon so popular? Dilbert points out the ridiculous nature of everyday work. It shows how fed up, and downtrodden most employees feel. The cartoon is very popular and resonates with most of us, so it must contain more than a grain of truth.
Now here is the paradox… Why do we spend all this energy hunting down the best and brightest people? Then confine them to a 9am to 5pm existence, doing jobs that bore them?
That, in a nutshell, is the employee engagement problem.
Egg Sucking: What Is Engagement and Why You Need It?
What is engagement?
en·gaged adjective
- busy or occupied; involved: deeply engaged in conversation.
- under engagement; pledged: an engaged contractor.
- mechanics.
- interlocked.
- (of wheels) in gear with each other.
- architecture (of a distinct member) built to be truly or seemingly attached in part to the structure before which it stands: an engaged column.
To be engaged is to be inextricably joined to an organisation. It goes beyond motivation or job satisfaction. Engagement is something that an employee offers, it can’t be mandated in a job contract.
Why do I want it?
Engaged employees stay for what they give; the disengaged stay for what they get.
Blessing White
I had a boss once who likened his work force to a bunch of people paddling a canoe up the Amazon. At the front of the canoe were the engaged. They were rowing hard to the beat, pulling the canoe upstream in perfect harmony. At the back of the canoe were the idle. They were trailing their hands in the water, lying back, watching the world pass them by. My boss wasn’t too worried about either of these groups; he would say “they are what they are”. He obsessed about the guys in the middle of the boat. They were the people who hadn’t made their minds up yet. “If I can get them to paddle as hard as the guys at the front just think how fast we will go.”
We can argue about his analogy, but he has a point. Engagement is everything. Surveys have proved that point repeatedly:
- Engaged employees outperform average employees by 20%. (Corporate Executive Board)
- Companies with high employee engagement have 19% higher operating income. (Towers Perrin)
- 54% of disengaged employees think that their work lives negatively affect their physical health. (Gallup)
So engagement is essential, and if companies can engage their employees it is a win-win. Organisations get employees who will “go the extra mile” and do their best work. Employees get jobs that are worthwhile and that inspire them.
Where Can I Get Some?
I used to work in a factory that made sweets, lots of sweet for a while. It was a hot, humid, dirty, noisy environment and it was hard physical work for a flat rate of pay. I have also worked in a large modern airy call centre. It was a beautiful building with large vibrant work areas. Everybody had their own space, there was as much free coffee as you could drink, the team managers had “fun budgets”. All you had to do all day was chat. It wasn’t hard work, and everybody could earn significant bonus payments.
The call centre was a far more pleasant environment at face value, but attrition rates told a very different story. Average tenure in the call centre was about 3 years. In the factory it was closer to 14 years. Why? I think it comes down to 4 things:
1. Pride in the job:
Imagine you were working late and somebody asked you what you were doing, what would you say? Legend has it that a cleaner in America was asked this very question in the 1960’s. She could have replied that she was “washing the floor”, but she worked for NASA. She responded that she was “helping to put a man on the moon”. I guess they were very clean floors.
Let’s be honest, it is easier to be proud about what you do when you make sweets for a living instead of collecting debts. Some organisations have an easier job creating that sense of pride by the very nature of the industry they are part of, but that isn’t the whole story. If you go to a Timpson’s shoe repair shop the employees are invariably enthusiastic and raring to go. If you go to an out patients clinic, or a police station the same is not necessarily true.
Pride doesn’t just come from the industry you work in, it comes from the way you are managed and led. There is an often-quoted phrase. “People don’t leave their jobs, they leave their managers”. I have had lots of jobs and lots of managers, some of them good and some of them bad. I have kept the same job through changes in manager. It is true; the manager makes the most significant difference.
Chose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life
Confucius
Confucius was wrong, chose a manager you love. Does your manager let you take pride in your job? What would your employees say about you?
2. Relevance:
A study by Blessing White found that… “Departments closest to the clients and most critical in driving short-term strategy are likely to have the most engaged employees”.
In his excellent book “The Three Signs of a Miserable Job”, Patrick Lencioni talks about “Relevance” as a critical driver of employee engagement. Employees who know who their customers are, what they are giving to them and why they are doing it tend to be far more engaged in their work. Their job is vital to someone, it is worthwhile.
Having a clear customer-focused mission engages people so much more than a woolly one. Take these two corporate mission statements:
To make, distribute and sell the finest quality all natural ice cream and euphoric concoctions with a continued commitment to incorporating wholesome natural ingredients and promoting business practices that respect the earth and the environment.
Ben and Jerry
The Company’s primary objective is to maximize long-term stockholder value, while adhering to the laws of the jurisdictions in which it operates and at all times observing the highest ethical standards
Dean Foods Corporation
Where would you rather be first thing on Monday morning? A clear, compelling purpose that is relevant to customers and employees alike — not just stakeholders — pays dividends in many ways. Employees can’t be engaged unless they have something to engage with.
3. Belonging:
I remember walking through a large corporate head office when I was a graduate trainee. The Operations Director walked past me (one down from god). As he passed by with his entourage, I nervously backed into the wall. He stopped, looked me in the eye, said “Hello James, I hear your project is going well” and carried on his way. I was elated; it was almost as good as being smiled at by the pretty girl in Logistics.
We are a tribal species; belonging is all-important. Do you know the names of everybody who works for you and what they are doing?
4. Authority and empowerment:
The same Blessing White study showed that managers are more engaged than non-managers. It went on to suggest that this is because managers get to make decisions and control the work they do. This isn’t terribly surprising. It is unlikely that people will engage with something that they have limited control over and can’t influence. People follow football teams, but that isn’t the same as engagement.
How can you give that sense of authority and empowerment to the people who work in your teams? How do you give them the opportunity to:
- Develop their jobs
- Use personal initiative
- Become involved in decision-making
- Drive direction
Organisations that drive “Quality Circles” engage their teams in fixing problems that are relevant to their day-to-day work. Once given the opportunity to improve their lives some of the guys in the middle of the boat will start to paddle like crazy.
Homework
Carry out a self-appraisal:
- Write down the names of the two best and two worst managers you have ever had.
- Next to each name write a list of the characteristics that they showed.
- What could you do to change your character, to be more like the best and less like the worst?
- Focus on one activity (listen more, find time for your staff, delegate, whatever would make you a stronger manager) and write a note in your diary to do something about it every morning
Next, do a team assessment:
- Get your employees in a room. Ask them to work through the answers to the following questions:
- What was the best job that you ever had?
- What was it about that job that was so engaging?
- What did it feel like, what did you do, how did people behave?
- Think about your current job, how would you compare that to the best job you ever had?
- What would need to change in your current job to make it compare to the best job you had?
- Write down the answers on a flip chart or use a disposable paper tablecloth to scribble them on as the conversation plays out.
- For the last point, “what would need to change”, pick something to work on and then actively chase it down as a team.
A final point. If you don’t think the environment you work in is open enough to have these discussion you could always make a small start using an internet poll. Try http://www.esurveycreator.com/
Next week’s lesson will discuss trust and how important it is to your operation.
Thank you for reading
Related Posts:
- Good boss, bad boss: You can never do enough for a good guvnor
- Why do you have a boss?: What is your managers job?
- Forced fun, is it working yet?: How do you define fun at work?
- Employee recognition, bragging rights and bling: There is more to engagement than recognition, but don’t hold back.
More Information:
- Employees first, customers second: Vineet Nayar’s TEDx talk
- The Three Signs of a Miserable Job: Patrick Lencioni explains why millions of employees dread going to work
- Work Rules!: Laszlo Bock, Google’s head of HR, explains why 2 million people apply to work at Google every year
Post Script
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