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Survey Results ~ What matters most to employees

8/27/2014

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Picture
By Michael Kline
as seen in the Conway Daily Sun  

At the top of my list of frequently asked questions from employers: What do you have to do to motivate employees?
 

My short answer: Care. My long answer will be the upcoming book “Giving Away the Store”. Meanwhile, here are a few thoughts to get us started. To say you could “give away the store” and still not have motivated employees may be true – or not. Have you read any studies or statistics about employees motivated by having a store given to them? Me either. Have you tried it? I have and like a reality TV show, we’ve had our share of ups, downs, high drama and surprises through a number of failed attempts and one success over the years, but more about that later.  

We have an overwhelming amount of data that proves money is sometimes the answer and sometimes not. A major 2013 Human Resources survey shows the top issues that contribute most to job satisfaction are (in order of most popular answers), pay, the ability to use skills, job security, relationship with immediate supervisor, overall benefits package, employer’s financial stability, and finally in 8th place, is the work itself. This proves everything and nothing. First, let us dig into some details – pay is much more important to hourly wage employees, and does not even rank in the top 5 answers for executives. Wages ranked much lower just 5 years ago. Changes in the survey results in recent years seem to reflect the lack of raises seen by hourly wage workers. We should also keep in mind that surveys show the results of groups of people – not the individual, real people we have working for us. The survey shows that pay was the most important topic for 60% of respondents, but all the top 8 topics listed above were rated as very important by over 50% of respondents, so all these topics are very important and any one of them could easily impact turnover, productivity and engagement either positively or negatively. With so many factors ranking so similarly, we must accept that it is a package. All the pay in the world will not make someone like their immediate supervisor – it is often said that we take a job to work for a company, but we quit a job to quit working for a particular boss. Managers with high turnover would do well to ponder that as valuable feedback.


I hope we can agree that job satisfaction contributes to productivity, customer satisfaction, sales and service levels, turnover, and a wide variety of factors leading to your organizations ultimate success or failure. We know what contributes most to job satisfaction for most people. What resources do you have available to offer them?  Do your employees have the opportunity to use their skills or are they micro-managed?  Have you had a conversation with them about their skills and areas of interest? Not only is this a free benefit, chances are it will greatly benefit you. How is your relationship with your employees? How do your employees get along with their immediate supervisors? Are your messages about teamwork, communication and positivity actually reflected in reality or is it just lip service? Know that many business owners and managers are the last to know how their staff really feels about them. I have learned this myself, the hard way, so I know how easy it is to miss the signs. What about the work itself? Are people allowed to do work that is most interesting to them? Is there a fair mix of passion work balanced with some of the drudgery work that comes with most jobs? Most of us don’t do our best work if it’s all drudgery. Can you afford to pay above average wages? Before you answer, consider the cost of turnover, training, and low productivity. I am a big fan of raises and bonuses that are tied to some sort of productivity, so long as the plan is very carefully crafted to not create destructive unintended side effects. If you simply cannot afford higher wages, then make sure you excel in the other top areas we have just reviewed. You could give away the store and still not motivate employees if they do not have the whole package. I know, because I have been living through the real-world research of giving away the store.

How to create the whole package and how to know exactly what matters most to your own staff will involve some work on your part and some serious conversations with your staff. Are you ready to have such a conversation? What would that include and how would you start and end it to not cause more harm than good? How would you ask for and get truly honest feedback? These are actually complex nuances of communication that our team of "conversation experts” love to explore with clients. Contact us if you would like some help in this area. In our next article, we will talk about the real-world effort to give away the store and the lessons learned.


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Three things you must do to live the life you want

8/13/2014

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Picture
By Michael Kline
as published in Conway Daily Sun  

I want you to imagine you are standing at the beginning of a grand buffet – the kind of buffet that cruise lines are famous for. The kind of buffet where you get embarrassed for some people as you watch them balance a second plate on the edge of the first plate, as they stuff a roll in their pocket, like they may never see food again. This is the kind of buffet where you realize you are, in fact, becoming that person! Got the picture? It is a grand, endless onslaught of irresistible delights and calories, the likes of which you have never seen before. 

Welcome to life. Picture this buffet as a metaphor for life. Life is not like sitting in the Portsmouth Pease Airport looking for a vending machine to offer sustenance. No, life is the grandest of all grand buffets, yet most people are starving to death. Regardless of resources, education, money, connections or talents, everyone is invited to the buffet. The hard part is now to figure out what you want. At some point, early in our lives, some of us take whatever presents itself to us. We get a job we don’t really like, but we need a job. At this point, we stop looking for a job because we have one. In our buffet metaphor, we only got as far as the salad; lots of lettuce and cheap rolls. With this mind-set, we’ll be lucky if we get a taste of Jello for dessert before we die. Remember the whole buffet is ahead of us – if you are willing to invest a little time, and postpose gratification for a moment, there’s a carving station at the other end of the line. There is crème brulee for dessert, just beyond the Jello. Knowing you can have anything you want, knowing you cannot fail, knowing every resource will appear just when you need it, what would you do? What would you experience? What would be so personally fulfilling that you would be happy to do it for free?  One of the most enjoyable areas of my work is helping people identify their top character strengths, combine it with their passions and create a vision for the world they want to live in. When people are complaining about life (or anything for that matter), it simply means they have something else they would prefer but are not willing to pay the price (or take the risk) to get it. It is high time we decide what we really want.  

So step 1 is to decide what you want. Step 2 is to make it your “Must”. Go ahead, get demanding. Declare what it is you will do/have/experience, and that you will settle for nothing less. Yes, you will sound unreasonable. When we say you “should” do/have/get something, we generally don’t. When we say we “must”... do/have/get something we generally do. You make exactly the amount of money you must make and not a penny more. If you’re scraping by on minimum wage or if you’re making $200k per year and putting a good amount into retirement, you are only making the amount that you call a “must” for you. You have exactly the kind of relationships you must have and nothing more. You have exactly the amount of free time for yourself you must and not a minute more. If you declared that you “must” have another 30 minutes a day for yourself, chances are good you will. Decide what you want and what it will take to get it. Whatever resources you will require are your new “musts”. I know you say the word must on a regular basis for things that are stressing you. You say I “must” go to work now, or I “must” get something done. We use the word must too frequently for negative things, and not enough for the positive things we really want.  

Step 3, kill your judge. We all have this inner judge and mine is a jerk. He’s always judging me or someone else, or the situation. Frankly, I’m sick of him and he’s sabotaging my biggest plans. I bet he sounds very familiar, like maybe we’re related?  It does not help us to have world’s harshest critic reminding us of our insecurities and weaknesses ever time the smallest thing goes awry.  Tell the inner jerk to shut the hell up. I believe there is no separation between us as humans, but if you want to be separate from someone, separate yourself from the judge in your mind. Say: “I have a judge, I am not the judge”. Observe the judge when you hear the thoughts judging yourself, or someone else, or the situation. Simply observe – “Oh, the judge thinks we don’t know what we’re doing”, or “the judge thinks I’m not going to finish this project”. It is much easier to dismiss the judge’s judgments when you observe them, shine a light on them and recognize them for what they are – just the opinion of some jerk, who doesn’t even exist! Everyone has this judge, and everyone has the same doubts – you are fine! Forge ahead. Practice discernment, and use your head for sure, but point out the judge and dismiss the judgments. You are perfect, and fully ready to succeed! Decide what you want, make it a must, and dismiss the judge.

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    Michael Kline

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