Are your employees enthusiastic? Motivated? Do they feel fully engaged in their work? Juice Inc.* looked at the tricky issue of engagement in the “Five Drivers of Engagement” (2008) study, which analyzed the factors to consider for employees to feel like putting their skills and energy to work to achieve corporate objectives.
Imagine that as a manager, you have an hour of unscheduled time in front of you. You can either do something that will increase your productivity by 10%, or take 10 minutes with each of your employees to do something that will increase THEIR productivity by 10%. Unfortunately, many managers get the answer wrong, believing their primary role is to execute on technical tasks versus energizing their employees. And yet, the question to ask employees is simple: What do you need to feel energized in your role?
Many studies have already shown the conditions required to create the most productive teams, the most highly effective leaders and the most high-performing employees. . . and all converge toward the same idea: what matters the most to employees are their emotions. What managers say and do can either produce these emotions or destroy them. Why place so much importance on feelings? Because we feel things before we think and intellectualize them. We make decisions in an attempt to satisfy our emotional needs. According to the Corporate Leadership Council, emotional engagement is therefore four times more valuable than rational engagement in driving employee effort.
The study identified five fundamental states employees require for optimal performance: security, belonging, freedom, significance and purpose. These form the basis of the five drivers developed by Juice:
1. I fit: My role is a good match for my talents and interests.
2. I’m clear: My role is well defined, I know what my manager expects from me and I’m clear on leadership’s strategy and objectives.
3. I’m supported: My manager encourages me, I have the resources I need to succeed (e.g. time, tools, training) and I’m getting career and growth opportunities based on my abilities and aspirations.
4. I’m valued: I am recognized and appreciated by my leaders, and my managers respect my work/life balance.
5. I’m inspired: I feel a connection with my company’s values, and I am motivated to exceed my objectives.
Aiming to satisfy these five drivers motivates teams to be highly engaged in their work, in a pleasant environment where it is therefore easier to get results. Managers need to define specific roles for each employee and ensure clear expectations as to results, make their employees accountable, energize them, anticipate their needs, and spot and catalyze talent.
The theory has held up in practice, with results tested in many organizations over three years, in the field of organizational psychology and the business community. Conclusion: Employees with the lowest rate of satisfaction in the five drivers defined were four times more likely to quit their jobs (61%). When rated on productivity, employees who measured high in the five drivers were almost three times more effective (90%) than those who measured low (37%).
* Since 1998, Juice Inc. has been working with organizations to improve performance by releasing Intelligent Energy. Its clients include Bayer Canada, Bell, Canadian Tire Financial Services, CIBC, Deutsche Bank, Kellogg, Kraft Foods and Purolator.