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UPMC administers surveys to all 80,000 employees across 20 different hospital systems, doctors’ offices, clinics, and long-term care facilities to understand the employee voice.
it is possible to achieve high scores on perceived growth and development opportunities throughout the economic downturn. The key is to maintain opportunities for simple promotions and growth within the company and communicate them regularly, even if they’re small.
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Growing in our jobs doesn’t always mean getting a promotion or a raise. Growth is about mastering new skills, taking on challenges, and pushing to be better—both professionally and personally.
Results from DecisionWise employee surveys show that managers often fail to challenge employees enough to learn and to achieve higher results. Similarly, many employees don’t find their work challenging enough to keep them engaged. Imagine the untapped potential! On the other hand, stretching, taken to the extreme, can result in unhealthy stress. Growth strikes the balance between boredom and burnout.
DecisionWise defines employee growth as being stretched and challenged in a way that results in personal and professional progress. What’s interesting about that definition is that the words are really active. Engagement is not a state of being just happy, it’s really giving that discretionary effort invested in your hearts, hands, mind, and spirit in your work. Growth is an active process of stretching, challenging, making progress.
In a business context, growth results in both professional and personal progress. In general, most humans are looking for ways to move, grow, progress, and get better. Many of our ideals in the U.S. are built on self-reliance and “doing-it-yourself” in a business context that translates into people wanting to improve.
Growth is a challenge for many organizations. One of the questions we ask on our survey around this topic is, “my work provides me the opportunity to learn and grow and be challenged and stretched in a way that results in personal growth.” Scores from this question tend to be higher than most others. So, in the day to day work, people feel like they are generally making progress. However, when we ask questions about growth within the larger context of the organization, such as, “my organization provides opportunities for learning and growth,” we find that the scores are a lot lower. People’s perceptions are that, “yes, I’m learning in my day-to-day, but I’m not getting from the organization what I’m looking for.”
Traditionally, we have viewed growth as advancement. In the minds of many employees, they think of growth as advancing in terms of a promotion, a title change, and greater compensation.
First, we have to get comfortable with the idea that growth can’t just mean promotion to a management role. Second, organizations have to create growth and advancement opportunities for people, beyond just moving vertically in the ranks. After all, there are only so many management positions.
A common perception of millennials is that they are overly ambitious, like wanting to be the CEO within a couple of years. When you really get down to it, a millennial (or anyone for that matter), is anxious to learn and are looking for experiences.
One of my colleagues discusses growth in terms of being stretched and challenged in ways that build, improve, and strengthen personal and organizational capabilities. The word “capabilities” is a nice way to look at growth. It’s not just limited to moving up in an organization, rather it’s the continual process of becoming better.
When I say, “moving up the corporate ladder,” you probably think of going from an individual contributor to a team leader, to a manager or supervisor, and into executive-level leadership. You are on a management trajectory and increasing your influence, increasing your span of control, getting a new title, getting more pay, and so on. Unfortunately, those promotions have been associated with growth. Let’s disassociate employee growth from the traditional corporate ladder. In painting a house, if I put a ladder up against the house, I can’t just climb the ladder and paint that one part of the house. I have to move the ladder to different parts of the structure in order to really get full and complete coverage.
When we think about this idea of a corporate ladder, we must reframe those development opportunities and learning experiences at all levels of the organization. For the individual, it’s less about a straight ladder and more about creating a portfolio of experiences.
Several years ago, I hired an employee into a project manager role which was the first job he’d ever worked. At the 90-day review, I gave him some clear redirecting feedback, “you’re doing well here, but here are some things that you need to do as part of your role as you’re stepping up on that ladder.” I told him to come back to me in a week and provide me with a couple of goals based on our conversation. He came back with goals that had nothing to do with his job. They had more to do with my job!
It’s great he had goals for a long-term vision, but it was important for him to get comfortable and explore the surrounding opportunities. There are often opportunities to understand the different businesses of your organization, work with different managers, or figure out new ways of thinking. Collect that portfolio of experiences and help advance your career.
Organizations can create clear policies or organizational structure to make expectations for growth clear. For example, Marriott says if you’re going to move up the ladder, you have to run multiple business units before you are considered for a c-suite role. They make the requirement clear because they value different experiences.
Understand that there must be a 50/50 proposition of creating engagement between the employer and employee. 50% from the individual and 50% from the organization. In the ideal situation, a manager is looking out for your best interest, however, this is not always the case. Many employees enter their first job and expect their manager to tell them what to do, to give them opportunities, promote, and advocate for them. Most likely, you will have a good, but busy, manager that will dialogue with you, support you and connect you to opportunities. Ultimately, individual growth is your responsibility.
I was recently working with a newly promoted leader who was lamenting that her team “complained” on their survey responses about growth opportunities. She said, “All I’ve been doing is working with them on these growth opportunities. I’ve been trying to figure out how do I give more to them. They want to grow and I’m trying to help. I’m in a bit of a panic.” In her mind, she had defined growth as a vertical path and was worried about taking all the right steps and almost forcing people to get there. My comment to her was, “don’t work harder on their growth than they are willing to work. You just can’t do that. They’ve got to own your own growth path and lean into it.” As managers, we try to fix everything. We try to take everything on for ourselves. The reality is people have to find their own way.
So again, as an individual, it’s up to you first to say, “here’s what I’m looking for, here’s what I would like and I’m asking for this.” It’s the manager’s responsibility to say, “let’s do this first” or “this would be a good step,” and then for you to lean into that and do it, helping to create that collection of experiences for your career.
During the first six months of employment, employees should just be primarily learning their job function. Organizations are doing a lot with technology to quickly onboard employees, but during this time we should not create individual development plans. What I find is that you should wait to have those growth conversations until after the first six months, when the employee has had a chance to learn their job and get good at it.
For employees who have been with the organization beyond 6-months, you want to help them find what is called the zone of proximal development, that right spot between the stress of being pushed too far and complacency.
I tell my team, “look, I’m going to stretch you and push you, but know you’ve got a life preserver. I’m not going to let you drown you.” And for each person that’s a little bit different. So, you’ve got to pay attention to the signs. You’ve got to be in constant dialogue so that you aren’t pushing them beyond their capability.
Growth often appears as being an opportunity area more than any other Engagement MAGIC® key: meaning, autonomy, impact, and connection. I think that’s partly because it’s so personal. Collectively you create growth opportunities based on the 50/50 manager/employee relationship.
In rapidly growing organizations—individual growth might not be a priority; however, the overall growth of the company can be reframed as a growth opportunity.
I worked with one upcoming startup that’s been around seven years or so and they said, “we don’t have time for growth. We’re so busy. Our company has grown 500 percent over the last couple of years and we project we will triple the population of our employee base in the next three to five years.” My response to them was, “You’re getting opportunities to step into new roles, to have new responsibilities. That’s growth.” Part of it is thinking about how we frame the opportunities around us.
Employees want opportunities to grow and often that growth opportunity is created by reframing existing situations. Instead of saying, “I know you have a lot on your plate and I’m sorry to ask you to do this…,” Reframe the statement as, “this is a great opportunity for you to leverage your ability to network with people. Here’s a project that I really need your help on. Is this something you can help me solve?”
It’s changing that mentality from, “it’s up to me as the manager to solve everything.” When someone comes to me with a problem, I might instead turn it back and say, “what do you think we should do? Would you be willing to take that on?” Creating those portfolios of experiences and reframing existing opportunities is where growth will occur.
Finally, think of growth as this idea of movement, of constant challenging and stretching on a day to day basis. In our meetings that we have, how do we have the conversations that help each other grow? What do we need to start doing? What do we need to stop doing? What do we need to continue? Let’s make it part of the conversation. Growth then becomes less of a formal experience that people go through and becomes part of everyday development and learning.
Listen to the podcast recording on growth.
Further Reading: Are Growth Opportunities Important In Your Job?
Consider surveying your employees to see how meaning is impacting overall engagement.
Growing in our jobs doesn’t always mean getting a promotion or a raise; these are components of satisfaction. Growth is about mastering new skills, taking on challenges, and pushing to be better—both professionally and personally.
In this Engaging People Podcast episode, Kristin Chapman, Principal Consultant at DecisionWise, explores how individuals can experience growth in their careers, as well as how managers can foster an environment of growth in their organizations.
Results from DecisionWise employee surveys show that managers often fail to challenge employees enough to learn and to achieve higher results.
Similarly, many employees don’t find their work challenging enough to keep them engaged. Imagine the untapped potential! On the other hand, stretching, taken to the extreme, can result in unhealthy stress. Growth strikes the balance between boredom and burnout.
Are growth opportunities important in your job? Employee engagement is essential to a thriving and effective organization, and growth is one of the most important keys to employee engagement. If people aren’t challenging themselves and learning new skills, complacency takes over and the infection of disengagement creeps in. The growth opportunity definition can be described as the chance to grow significantly. Whether that growth be in your career, personal life, or hobbies. Opportunities to grow are key to overall satisfaction and success.
“The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.” – Harvey S. Firestone, founder of Firestone Tire & Rubber Company
Growth, as it relates to employees and work, is being stretched and challenged in ways that result in personal and professional progress.
According to the book, ENGAGEMENT MAGIC®: Five Keys for Engaging People, Leaders, and Organizations, Growth is the third key and the one that injects life into the employee engagement formula, Meaning, Autonomy, Growth, Impact, and Connection.
Opportunities in the workplace give employees a sense of getting better at something and always expanding into new areas. It is a universal human need. We become bored, distracted, and disengaged when we feel that our work is routine and repetitive. People crave work experiences that challenge their minds and their skills, and that offers them the chance to rise to the occasion and excel even in high-stress situations.
To promote personal and professional growth opportunities, we organize monthly knowledge-sharing workshops. The topic of each workshop is left entirely up to the employees and can include both professional, as well as personal ‘life’ skills. Some of these workshops have included topics like advanced Excel tips and an intro to Adobe Creative Suite. However, we’ve also devoted a monthly workshop to team-building activities including an introduction to rock climbing seminar. As long as there is enough interest and an expert available to lead the workshop, no topic is off-limits.
Employees have really enjoyed the growth initiative and challenge of working outside their current areas of expertise while learning new skills and engaging with colleagues.
At Taher, we have multiple programs to help our employees grow personally, physically, and professionally. We have access to our licensed dietitians for input on meal planning and what foods to eat. Included in that is our Healthy-is-the-new-cool initiative that encourages employees to volunteer. The program also exposes them to new foods and experiences like our visit to The Fish Guys to show where we source some of our seafood and try some amazing new dishes!
We are a technology company composed of engineers, programmers, and designers. In the last 9 years, we have tested 27 different techniques, from tradeshows, brainstorming sessions, motivational speakers every 2 months, and more, to encourage the professional growth of each person who is part of our team.
After all these years and experiments, we concluded that the best opportunities for personal growth and commitment to the company are in educating employees on new technologies that will improve their careers and our organization.
Recently our company has encouraged every employee to better learn Artificial Intelligence through online training at Udacity. Once the course is complete, we allot Fridays to work on newly learned skills, personal interests, and projects that will benefit the company.
Through continuous education of new technologies and the challenge of putting them into practice, employee engagement and growth have noticeably increased within the organization.
The results we have seen with this technique have been amazing.
At our company, we constantly put in the effort towards helping our staff become more skillful and better equipped for their careers. We often assess our team to define which skills we lack that could make our business more efficient or effective. Instead of hiring new specialists to target one specific skill, we empower our current employees and pay for their advanced training in the areas that would be most beneficial to our business. Not only is this much less expensive than bringing in someone new, but our most engaged employees typically jump at the chance to learn a new skill, as it gives them a way to increase their career development with no personal expense.
As a bonus, once an employee has gained knowledge in a new area, they train and assist other team members. This means that for each employee we support in gaining new knowledge, we can ensure that these new skills will be exponentially valuable to our operations.
We send our employees on business retreats that are designed to provide training as well as a little rest and relaxation. We are also offering to pay tuition for classes that are related to our industry. Additionally, we are sending our employees to national or international conferences where industry experts will be speaking.
By providing opportunities like these, we are showing our employees that they’re worth the investment. Offering growth opportunities like these are valuable to our employees. They understand that expanding their knowledge base and skillsets translates to promotions and increased income. These opportunities also help our employee engagement and our recruiting process. Job seekers see these benefits as a bonus to our other company perks.
I used to work at a public relations firm in Beverly Hills, where I was the definition of MISERABLE. I now work as the Public Relations and Marketing Coordinator for Arbor Financial Group in Orange County.
The difference between the two companies is night and day. Arbor promotes growth. They commonly send their employees to conferences and trade shows to help us network and grow! This past April I was sent to the National Association of Professional Mortgage Women Conference in Las Vegas with two other Female Co-Workers. Two other employees recently visited Michigan for the UWM Fast Track Growth Seminar for Mortgage Professionals and they said it was an amazing experience.
Working for a company that promotes growth and has an open-door policy is truly amazing. The Principal of the company sits each employee down and asks where they see themselves growing within the company. I think it’s a total game-changer working for an employer that is so in tune with employee’s personal and professional growth. I don’t see myself ever looking to leave this company––I’m very happy here.
One thing I’m very grateful for is that our CEO promotes and funds our professional development on the job. We have a program in which we take a course online either in our field or in any niche of our interest, and then we present what we’ve learned every quarter. This opportunity has enabled me to learn things on the job that I’ve never actually thought about, and it has made me a better-rounded employee overall.
It’s mandatory for employees to take continuing education classes. I don’t care about the subject matter. It can be business-related, learning a new language, or something else. Being an education company, I want my employees to always be learning new things and keeping their brain active.
We encourage employees to attend tradeshows each year. We either attend or exhibit at 3-5 trade shows a year. I use this as both a bonus and an educational opportunity for members of my team to see what else is out there. It’s usually pretty eye-opening for them to see industry trends first hand.
These were all great examples of leaders and employees seeing growth opportunities within their organization. It’s interesting to see that most of the comments focused on intellectual growth or advancing skills. Not many mentioned growth as related to advancing in position or pay.
As stated in the book, ENGAGEMENT MAGIC®, “Growth does not necessarily equal promotion. In fact, when we (DecisionWise) survey employees about growth, their responses aren’t focused on near-term promotions. However, a significant percentage of managers automatically assume that employees equate growth with job promotion and a fancier title.”
Growth opportunities are essential to employee engagement. They go far beyond a higher position or a better parking space, these opportunities enable individuals to grow as a person and become their best selves.
Further Reading
How 15 employees see MEANING in their jobs.
AUTONOMY is crucial for employee engagement.
How employees see IMPACT in their jobs.
Finding CONNECTION in your job.
Lack of opportunity for personal growth or career development is the number one reason that employees leave a company. So what’s it like in your organization? Have you implemented growth into your employee retention strategies? Do your employees grow or go? According to a survey by Glassdoor and Harris Interactive, more applicants—52 percent—wanted to hear about growth opportunities when interviewing for a job than about any other perk. The same survey also found that one-third of employees left a job because of—wait for it—lack of career growth—than for any other reason. Only 8 percent left because of their managers.105
When professional growth opportunities are absent in a retention strategy, you get stagnation, boredom, and finally attrition. People work on autopilot. They aren’t present; their minds are not on their work. Errors happen. Quality drops. Indifference sets in. Work becomes routine. It may still get done—how many times have you driven a familiar route mindlessly, only to end up safely at your destination with no memory of getting there?—but nothing new happens. Innovation grinds to a halt.
We analyzed survey results from over twenty thousand employees who had left a large biomedical company and its subsidiaries during a period of five years. We compared attrition numbers with engagement scores, and the results were intriguing. Typically, employees enjoyed a high level of growth during the first six months of employment. However, at the nine-month mark, these companies experienced much higher than average levels of attrition, and engagement levels plummeted. What was happening?
Upon further investigation, we learned that during the first six months, these employees were constantly learning. This made sense; the job was new to them. However, at about the nine-month point, employees had learned the basics of the job and were no longer as challenged as they were during the first six months. At that point, their levels of engagement dropped sharply.
What was even more interesting was that once employees hit the fourteen-to eighteen-month mark, engagement and retention increased again until the two-year mark. What was happening at each of these points in time that impacted both engagement and retention? Simple—it was about growth.
Employees were learning and growing the first six months, but at about the nine-month mark they stopped. They also had little concept of where to go from there. They couldn’t see any growth opportunities awaiting them. They felt stagnant. Those who stuck around for fourteen to eighteen months suddenly began to be presented with further growth opportunities, such as new assignments, promotions, and different team roles. They were, once again, growing. Engagement increased.
This pattern remained constant until the two-year mark, at which time employees began looking outside the organization for new opportunities and challenges. Some of those who remained fell into the same patterns of stagnation and disengagement.
For these companies, the solution was clear: Step up efforts to create growth opportunities at the nine-and twenty-four-month marks. Employees, in turn, had to choose to take advantage of these opportunities. Those who did showed clear levels of engagement. Those who did not generally left the organization. That, reasoned these companies, was “good turnover.”
Among some organizational leaders—executives and managers alike—there’s a great deal of fear that by helping employees develop professionally, they’ll only be preparing them to leave for greener pastures. It’s the “help them grow and watch them go” syndrome, and it’s simply not valid. As Beverly Kaye and Julie Winkle Giulioni write in Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go,106 career development has become the “killer app” of employee engagement, which in turn leads to higher revenues, greater profitability, increased innovation, and a host of other happy outcomes.
Giving employees an environment where they can elect to develop professionally is very much the lesser of two evils. Is there a risk that by doing so you’ll merely train your best people to leave for better jobs? Of course. But consider the alternative. Would you rather have unmotivated, unskilled people, numbed by routine, at the heart of your company, interacting with your customers?
Doesn’t it make more sense to help your people develop skills that make them worth keeping—and then hold on to them by creating a culture in which they have the autonomy, respect, and freedom to see how far they can stretch without fear of failing? Based on our research, it’s not even a choice: While some growth-minded employees leave, most engage and stick around, and the organization benefits.
A growth-positive workplace is especially important to Millennials, who will form the next-generation workforce. A 2012 survey of nearly eight thousand college students conducted by Achievers and Experience, Inc., showed that the most important factor to them in choosing a place to work was career advancement opportunities, beating salary 54 percent to 51 percent. Also, “interesting and challenging work” tied with salary, 51–51, as the most important factor.107
Clearly, while pay and other hygiene factors need to be there, employees want growth and development not only to advance their future career prospects but also because it makes work more enjoyable and rewarding. Human beings are curious individuals who want to learn, adapt, and evolve; the circumstances don’t matter as much.
Even hourly employees want to be challenged and grow through their jobs. In a 2012 study of 2,743 employees in an international manufacturing company, our team found significant differences between the attitudes, beliefs, and values of hourly versus exempt employees. For example, only 51 percent of hourly employees felt that they had a voice in the organization and could speak up without fear of retribution or negative consequences, compared to nearly 70 percent of exempt employees. Only 39 percent of hourly employees reported receiving counseling in their careers, compared to 54 percent of exempt employees. Yet consider how important the role of the typical hourly employee is to a company’s well-being:
When was the last time a manager in your organization worried about training an hourly employee so well that he became too employable to stay?
Yet by denying growth opportunities to all workers because of this irrational fear, some managers are preventing some of their most valuable people from getting better at their jobs. It doesn’t make sense.
These days, we’ve noticed a trend we call the “tour of duty.” A person comes to an organization, finds tremendous opportunities for professional and personal development, becomes more valuable, and leaves. However, because management encouraged his growth and gave him what he needed to get better, the relationship remains strong. A few years later, he comes back for a second tour, occupying a higher rung on the corporate ladder and often bringing with him an even better skill set.
That’s why the “grow and go” mentality is self-defeating. In the end, growth leads to engagement, and employees who find deep, satisfying engagement in an organization are more likely to form mutually beneficial long-term relationships with that organization . . . even if they’re working somewhere else.
105 Glassdoor, Harris Interactive, “The Age of Social Recruiting.”
106 Beverly Kaye and Julie Winkle Giulioni, Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go:Career Conversations Employees Want (New York: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2012).
107 Jacquelyn Smith, “What Employers Need to Know About the Class of 2012,” Forbes, April 3, 2012.
The tours-of-duty concept spotlighted in the May 27 issue of Chicago Tribune and the June issue of HBR is fascinating. Back when I was in my prime (i.e. childhood), employees hoped to stay with one employer for many years—if not life. Life-long employee-employer relationships were not only desirable, but also common. Today’s global economy—both job and fiscal—is much different than that of our parents’, which has forever changed the way employers and employees cooperate. From an employer’s standpoint, expecting employees to be with the company for life is unreasonable, even illogical, and potentially constraining. To employees, staying with one company for an entire career would be both personally and professionally disadvantageous.
At DecisionWise, we have witnessed the tours-of-duty concept first hand. Our CTO, Dave Haws, first joined our company in 2006. Around the end of 2008, he took on different projects and opportunities with a different company (no hard feelings). When February 2012 rolled around, Dave rejoined the DecisionWise team and was handed what he calls a holy-grail opportunity for someone in his industry (really, Dave, we’re flattered).
When I sat down to talk to Dave about his tour with our company, and his career path afterward that eventually led to his return, I was expecting to hear an echo of the HBR article: that during his time with us he had been able to see a project through completion and wanted to start working on newer, bigger projects. And that’s basically what Dave told me, but not for the reasons I expected. You see, Dave—and likely millions of employees just like him—would rather not leave a company after seeing a project through completion. Employees are looking for consistent growth; if they can find it in your company, they’ll stay.
When I asked Dave about his opinion of the tour-of-duty concept, he explained, “Tours of duty have a lot of overhead. A better solution would be to find another challenge for an employee. Smaller companies can switch an employee’s projects or tasks; bigger companies can move employees to new teams. Jumping from team to team would be more effective.”
Employees are looking for challenge, for growth, and for continued development. Just because today’s companies are failing to provide adequate growth levels does not mean that tours of duty are the new ideal standard. Au contraire, if companies want to hire and maintain human capital—the most valuable resource (and quite possibly the highest expense) in nearly every company—then they need to start promoting continual growth and development within the organization.
Growth is also one of the five essential elements for employee engagement, which explains exactly why the average employee-company monogamous lifespan has been steadily declining over the years: employees are becoming disengaged. Engaged employees are those who find a healthy portion of meaning, autonomy, growth, impact, and connection in their jobs. Employee diets deficient on any of these five ingredients are recipes for disengagement.
Are you currently receiving an engaging level of growth and development opportunities in your job? Respond to the following statements, with ratings from 1 to 5, 5 being strongly agree and 1 strongly disagree:
Share your results in the comments; I’d love to hear your stories.
Related Post: Growth and Development Opportunities and Employee Engagement
Related Post: Do You Have a Fixed or a Growth Mindset?
Related Post: Growth and Development Opportunities in Tough Times
Related White Paper: ENGAGEMENT MAGIC®: The Five Keys of Employee Engagement
Last week I had the good fortune to work with a very successful organization that has operated in the retail space for over 100 years. The average tenure of the company’s executive team is 15 years, with its Vice President of Operations (let’s call him David) having been at the company during the extent of his 25-year career.
David told me a remarkable story of joining the company as a janitor (his official title in 1988), working as an hourly employee during the night shift. I asked him about the factors that contributed to his advancement, to which he responded, “I have always had good bosses that believed in me.” In his 25 years within the organization, David not only advanced but also held various positions that allowed him to see every side of the business. Because of his experiences, David is able to quickly relate to both the hourly maintenance staff and the board of directors. The point of this story is that hourly workers comprise a potential pool of talent that is too often overlooked and underdeveloped.
In a 2012 study of 2,743 employees within an international manufacturing company, my team and I found significant differences between the attitudes, beliefs, and values of hourly verses exempt employees. For example, only 51 percent of hourly employees felt that they had a voice in the organization and could speak up without fear of retribution or negative consequences, compared to nearly 70 percent of exempt employees.
Relating to growth and development, the differences between hourly and exempt staff members are more pronounced: only 39 percent of hourly employees reported receiving counseling in their careers, compared to 54 percent of exempt employees. More interesting still, hourly employees perceived more career opportunities than their exempt counterparts.
The results of this study bring to light two fundamental realities: (1) hourly employees, who often have the most insight into the day-to-day operations of an organization, think that their voices don’t matter; and (2) hourly employees have desires to progress in their companies, but they are not receiving the guidance needed to advance their careers.
Engaged and committed hourly employees can have a significant impact on an organization’s success. Keep the following characteristics of hourly employees in mind:
The reasons above suggest that engaging hourly employees is essential in gaining competitive advantage in markets where hourly workers are a significant demographic. Organizations that provide the conditions for these hourly employees to thrive wll experience lower talent-acquisition costs, improved operational performance, and best-in-class customer experiences—they will be known as employers of choice that provide opportunities for people like David to advance.
Related Webinar: Employee Engagement and the Hourly Employee
Related White Paper: ENGAGEMENT MAGIC®: The Five Keys of Employee Engagement
Ouch. Yes, these are actual headlines. For those not receiving these regular alerts in your inboxes, a quick internet search will verify the proliferation of similar warnings.
It makes me want to throw in the towel. Has two-thirds of my workforce (and yours) really checked out permanently? Quick! Hire additional security. Change all of our passwords. Change the locks on the building. Warn your customers!
Not so fast…
Let’s separate fact from predictions of total chaos, corporate anarchy, and Employee Armageddon… at the very least, misinterpretation or bad employee data collection.
The Employee Engagement Facts
Most of these headlines are based on surveys of a few hundred or a couple thousand employees, and most of them do not include more than a few companies. Even if these results were truly accurate interpretations, we certainly can’t extrapolate these findings to represent all employees in the United States, let alone the world. Let’s take a more comprehensive look, using the DecisionWise 2012 employee engagement database of over 12 million responses (across 60 countries).
We have found that the numbers above are actually fairly accurate—to a certain point. We have also found that, on a 5-point scale, only 30 percent of employees are “Fully Engaged” in their jobs. This means, they scored an average of close to “5” (Strongly Agree) across ALL survey questions (we typically like surveys in the 35-40 question range).
However, another 46 percent score in the “4” or “Agree” range. These are your “strong and steady” employees. Just because they didn’t mark “5” on all questions, are they really disengaged? Hardly. Yet, statistics like the headlines above lead us to believe that those employees not currently interviewing elsewhere are building arsenal bunkers and making preparations for mutiny.
Now, the reality…
When we look at those employees who are truly disengaged—those that provide average favorable responses between “1” and “2” (Strongly Disagree and Disagree) on a 5-point scale across all survey questions—we find that less than 8 percent of employees fall into the category of being Actively Disengaged. This leaves another 16 percent as our “undecided vote” (we call them the “opportunity group”). Hardly the end-of-companies-as-we-know-them scenarios the headlines seem to indicate.
The Employee Migration
So, what about the employee exodus? Are two-thirds of my employees looking for other jobs? Probably.
I work very hard to ensure we hire “the best” (as your company probably does, as well). At DecisionWise, we average over 80 applicants for each person we hire. I work even harder to ensure we create an environment in which they can choose to be engaged. They are, truly, the single biggest factor in making this company succeed, and I’ll do all I can to keep them on our team.
But, someday, they will leave. And I hope to be able to help them do so. Here’s why…
If my Chief Technology Officer, Dave (who is a rock star technologist and employee), were to get the call from Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, offering him the top technology spot, would he entertain the idea? I would at least hope so. If our project and client services head honcho, Kristin, were to be offered the lead position in solving the North/South Korea situation, would she jump ship? Of anyone, Kristin could probably make a resolution happen. So, she’d be feeling pressure from me.
In fact, which of us wouldn’t leave if all conditions—including environment, pay, duties, location, team, title, family impact, schools, company, clients, etc.—were perfect elsewhere. Who wouldn’t, if it became available, take the spot as the Zamboni machine driver at the local ice rink (okay, maybe that’s just my thing)?
It’s called “growth.” It’s called “being responsible for my own career.” Hopefully, my team (and yours) can find that internally. But the fact is, someday, every employee will move on.
Engaged or disengaged?
Lest I be branded a heretic and booted out of the profession, I need to be clear. Should we be concerned about employee engagement? Absolutely! Is it even more of a concern than in the past? Without a doubt! Do we need to focus on and measure it? Clearly!
So, does this mean the headlines about employee engagement are lies? Not quite. It means they are misinterpreted and misapplied. Apply some common sense to what you’re reading. Walk out onto the shop floor or past the cubicles in your office. Do you really think that 2 out of 3 of your employees are doing all they can to get out of there because they hate their jobs? Not by a long shot.
Give your team the benefit of the doubt. They “get it.” They want to succeed, and want to be part of a successful organization. You may be surprised at what happens.
Related Post: Are Employees Really that Disengaged in Their Jobs?
Related Post: How Disengaged Employees Could be Sabotaging Your Company’s Success
Related Webinar: The Profile of a Disengaged Employee
Here’s a challenge . . .
I bet I know you. I can even predict your behavior. I know what you can and can’t do, even though you and I may have never met. How can I be so sure? Well, I can’t. But I have a pretty good idea.
Let me show you what I know . . .
So, when this challenge presented itself, did you react?
This need has been with us for as long as man has been around. While reaction to challenge is a natural part of self-preservation (“Saber-tooth tiger! Run!”), it goes deeper than simply a survival mechanism. We have an inherent psychological need to be challenged—and to prove our ability to meet that challenge.
Consider how you would respond to these two questions that we use on our employee engagement surveys:
Based on the responses to these questions we have found a very clear correlation between growth and challenge, and overall levels of employee engagement.
Cartoons and business sitcoms portray workers that simply “get by,” investing as little as possible in their jobs. In fact, humorous media often depicts most employees as expending more effort in avoiding work than they would if they had actually done the work.
Our experience shows just the opposite. People, in general, not only want challenge—they need challenge. Employment situations are no different. We work with numerous organizations where challenge is not a problem. In fact, “Overcome today’s challenge” could certainly be listed as Bullet #1 in many job descriptions.
While challenge and growth are a part of everyday work life in these organizations, we also see many where the organization or the supervisor is afraid to provide “stretch” assignments to their teams. Innovation muscles quickly atrophy, as does overall engagement.
Remember, positive response to challenge is instinctive.
So, smile, put your tongue back in your mouth, and don’t be afraid to challenge your team. They (and you) need it.
Related White Paper: ENGAGEMENT MAGIC®: The Five Keys of Employee Engagement
Related Post: The Link between Growth and Employee Engagement
Related Post: “Flow” and Employee Engagement
Last summer I hiked through Zion National Park, Utah, with a group of teens. It didn’t take many miles into the hike for me to realize that they were much younger than I, and with that youth came much greater stamina and flexibility in climbing.
Over a period of four days we hiked and climbed some difficult terrain, and for those of us no longer in our teens, the distance seemed double what it actually was. However, the breathtaking views and thrill of the journey far outweighed the difficulty in getting there.
In four days, we logged over 35 miles of trail. At about mile six, I noticed something interesting. When we trekked into those areas most isolated by majestic canyon walls and heavy forest, although the beauty was certainly apparent, these stretches seemed to go on forever. We constantly referred to GPS and trial markings to understand where we were in relation to our pre-determined end point. Other than occasional guesses based on levels of fatigue, it was often difficult to gauge how much trail we had actually covered, as the dense woods masked our sense of distance.
We soon sensed that this lack of positioning was impacting our attitudes toward the hike. Rather than be mesmerized by the nature surrounding us, we instead seemed to be obsessed with understanding how far we had gone, as well as the distance ahead of us. We found ourselves making frequent GPS and map check-ins.
Although our GPS behavior bordered on obsessive-compulsive, we found that it provided us with relief—and renewed energy—when we knew where we stood in relation to where we had been and what remained ahead. When we could see our progress, even though it may not be much, we were excited to continue our journey. When progress was questionable, our packs appeared to double in weight. However, once that calibration had been made, we were good for another half-mile stretch.
As if to further solidify this point, several of the boys commented on the fact that when we were able to clearly see the trail below and above us, we progressed much more rapidly. I believe this more rapid progression to be fact rather than fiction but, even if not, my perception was also that being able to visually note our progress at all times provided that boost we needed on a difficult hike.
Employee Engagement surveys conducted by DecisionWise typically contain the question:
Most days, I feel like I am making progress on important work projects or initiatives.
We find a clear correlation between this question and overall levels of engagement. This relationship (a clear view of progress and motivation) is explained in depth in the book “The Progress Principle,” written by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer. As they discuss the impact of discovering progress, they cite the following example from the book “Work Design:”
“If a programmer labors to create some tricky new code and then runs the program through a series of tests, that debugging process gives her immediate and complete knowledge about how much progress she has made on that job. If she sees that there are just a few glitches, her motivation will surge, as will her joy and her positive perceptions. But if the testing is decoupled from the programming task, if it is done by someone else, that programmer cannot enjoy an immediate uptick… The key, then, is to design each job so that, in the act of carrying out the work, people gain knowledge about the results of their effort.”
Whether developing code, picking oranges, conducting training, treating patients, or hiking “Angels Landing” in Zion National Park, much of the source of our internal motivation comes from our ability to see progress.
Struggling to engage your workforce? Help them see progress.
Related White Paper: ENGAGEMENT MAGIC®: The Five Keys of Employee Engagement
Related Post: 3 Keys to Helping Employees Understand Their Impact
Related Webinar: Measuring the Business Impact of Employee Engagement
