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Is a workforce that’s “satisfied” with their jobs enough?
Not if you need an engaged workforce that takes ownership of what they do and is expected to consistently perform at a high level.
“A recent study by the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) found that even though employees may be satisfied with their jobs, it does not automatically translate into having an engaged workforce,” writes Colleen Coates.
I found it interesting that 83 percent of employees interviewed said they were “satisfied” with their current positions, but only 68 percent said they felt passion and excitement in their work. What’s more, only 53 percent felt tuned in at work. Not great statistics if your organization needs engaged employees to maximize their contribution to the enterprise.
The survey identified a couple of things that were problematic (my word not theirs). “While employees reported being fairly satisfied with key attributes such as the work itself, relationships with co-workers and their immediate supervisor, areas where considerably less satisfaction was apparent included career advancement and development opportunities, job-specific training and management recognition of employee job performance.”
These are all areas that we’ve talked about before as important to creating an engaged workforce. It was also interesting that “…54 percent of respondents said that the aspect of the work experience that was most lacking was communication between employees and management,” writes Coates.
In project management terms, this sounds like a classic visibility problem to me. Typically we talk about visibility in terms of executive visibility into the work done by project teams. I think that falls short of creating a transparent work environment where people feel like they know what’s going on. Along with advice to managers that suggests that they need to listen more, she identifies a few other areas that might help employees feel (and act) more engaged:
- Provide Information: “As the saying goes, information is power. In the absence of real information, employees could just make it up or pick it up on water-cooler gossip,” says Coates. I have to admit, that’s sometimes been the way that I’ve found out about things over the years. What’s more, I’ve seen lots of employees just “make it up” when information about what we’re doing and why isn’t forthcoming. This can be disastrous when a critical project is at risk.
- Encourage Involvement: According to Coates, “It is this simple: Unless employees are involved and have a say in key changes that directly affect them, they will quickly tune out.” I am convinced that the people closest to the work understand it the best and should have a voice in how they do their work and who they do it with. A command-and-control project management methodology just doesn’t work—at least it doesn’t work at fostering an environment where people feel engaged and motivated to perform at a high level.
- Listen, Really Listen: “Why is it that whenever there is a formal inquiry into an organizational catastrophe, it always seems that someone knew something was bound to go wrong,” she asks. Many times it’s a “shoot the messenger” mentality where the barer of bad news takes the fall for the bad news. Coates suggests that it might be as simple as “nobody asked.” I couldn’t agree more when she argues, “If employees feel listened to and believe they can speak up without fear of retribution, they are much more likely to point out problems before things get out of hand.”
- Engage your managers first: Of course I’m probably speaking to the choir here, but an engaged workforce starts with engaged managers. “An engaged manager focuses on their people, enables them to get the job done, treats each team member as an individual and encourages them to stretch beyond their capabilities.” I couldn’t have said it better myself. Engaging the workforce requires that everyone feel that sense of engagement, from top to bottom and bottom to top.
Communication is the key to an engaged workforce. “This is actually good news,” writes Coates, “because it’s never too late to make strides toward improving communications.”
What do you do to make sure there are no communication problems with your team?