4. Section four: Over to you
It is here that we draw together some of the key themes of the book, and I ask you to consider all that you can do to re-humanise your workplace and to support others to do the same. I am passionate that work is about treating people like ‘people not paperclips’, and that our current people processes, practices and ways of working serve to cause or at least to exacerbate this. This section is a call to action for you to actively shake up the system with me, to be a fellow change agent with a ‘people not paperclips’ plan.
Each of the sections outlined above will be broken down into a series of relevant chapters, which will share a mix of research, stories and sometimes just my own viewpoint. There will be a summary at the end of each chapter to support you in making the connection to what comes next. Each section can stand alone, so do dip in and out as needed. There will also be a toolkit at the end of each chapter or topic area, and this is to bring a more practical element into the book. It might just be a series of questions to reflect on having read the chapter or may be a set of proposed actions you could take to apply the research and thinking within your own organisation. Not all of these toolkits will feel relevant to you, but I would suggest you stay curious and try to give them a whirl.
I’ve already introduced myself and why I am writing this book; why now and why me. In terms of my style, you are likely to find it very informal. I am seeking to bring forward some big topics in an accessible and interesting way. Whilst this is a business book, I hope your experience of reading it will feel more like having a catch up over a coffee than listening to a speech in a business conference or lecture theatre. If nothing else, I’ve sought to retain my authentic voice throughout this book, which at times will slip into an informality. I’ve spent most of this book-writing process knee-deep in imposter syndrome, but I want to take this opportunity just to remind myself and you as a reader that any informality, storytelling or viewpoint-sharing should not be perceived as a lack of knowledge. It’s there, I promise you, but I chose to write a book that I hope you will be able to read on a commute to work, rather than assign to the dusty ‘textbook’ shelf. I’m a Chartered Occupational Psychologist, Senior HR Professional, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development and a Certified Executive Coach. However, the most important thing I bring to this book is my deep faith in humanity and the role that compassion can play in our experience of the workplace. We in HR can play a huge part in the future of work. We’re people, not paperclips.
SECTION ONE
SHAPING THE FUTURE OF HUMAN RESOURCES
Chapter 1
What really does motivate people?
Introduction
In this chapter, we will explore why people may not report being ‘happy’ or ‘engaged’ at work, and we will draw on thinking from behavioural science to determine what might actually motivate our people. We will discuss the concept of ‘meaning’ at work; what is it, and where can we all get some? And we’ll touch on the ever-debated topic of money as a motivator. The toolkit in this chapter is there to support you in exploring what motivates your people (your employees, or perhaps your own team, or further still, yourself). This is a hugely broad topic that is central to how we build people-focused cultures and put the human back into our HR plans.
Drawing on behavioural science to respond to our ‘global epidemic’ of disengagement
Apparently, we’re operating within a ‘global epidemic’ of workplace disengagement (Gallup, 2018). It all sounds pretty awful. Where do we go next? We’ve been investing in ‘employee engagement’ interventions for at least a couple of decades, and nothing much seems to have shifted. If we’re trying to create sustainable change in our workplaces, and I’m assuming that’s the end game, I’m still pondering to myself, ‘What is engagement?’ and ultimately, ‘How is it going to help us to achieve that?’ ‘Do we need to go back to the drawing board, and ultimately back to the evidence?’
Employee engagement is nothing new. And so much of it is based on shaky evidence. If we’re pondering ‘where next?’, I wonder if we should look to a couple of fields that have existed all along. It could be that drawing on existing and refined tools and models from the world of occupational psychology could support how we ‘engage’ and motivate our people? There’s a difference between seeing employee engagement as a programme of interventions and seeing it as a long-term outcome built through a deep understanding of the needs and motivation of real people. To pretend we can create ‘business success’ on the basis of employee engagement interventions such as responding to a survey at a snapshot in time, or through free fruit and table tennis tables, is, quite frankly, bonkers. I would suggest we need to slow down, stop over-egging our interventions, and reflect on the evidence out there.
So, what factors might create meaning in the workplace?
Many years of ‘climate surveys’, providing a snapshot of employee feedback or ‘mood’, suggest that line managers, and probably also the HR teams, so often fail to understand what will retain and what will cause an employee to leave an organisation. Tony Schwartz (2016)4 suggests that satisfied people who report finding meaning in their work typically also report feeling ‘in charge’. Schwartz noted that satisfied people he observed achieved a measure of autonomy and discretion at work, and they used that autonomy and discretion to achieve a level of expertise. They learned new things, developing both as employees and as people, and they experienced what Schwartz termed ‘growth’.
When asked what motivates them at work, employees reliably answer the same things, in generally the same order. When managers are asked what they think motivates employees, they too generally answer consistently, but just with completely different items.
The key engagement factors, often cited by employees:
1. Appreciation of work done – a simple thank you or recognition for their contribution. Our reaction to this in HR has been to build systems that can pop a thank you to people on email. I’m far from being a luddite, but I do find it interesting how we are just itching to depersonalise what could just be a simple human connection with a few simple words thrown in.
2. Being involved and influencing how work is done – another one that makes perfect sense but is missing in many work environments. I’ve witnessed this lack of involvement many times and it is particularly prevalent in middle management, where managers may feel disconnected from strategy development or planning but be expected to ‘do’ what is set by others.
3. The organisation extending care and loyalty – we can codify compassion into HR policies, but ultimately what really engages employees is their line managers and colleagues responding to their individual, personal and emotional needs when it really matters. Showing empathy and compassion is what makes us human, and is the basis of healthy human relationships, so why would we expect any of the factors that sit below to come before it?
Key engagement factors, as very often envisaged by line managers and HR professionals:
1. Pay – in the eyes of many organisations, engagement rests solely on a cost of living salary increase, with occasional ‘rewards’ for good behaviour.
2. Job security – that old adage: ‘as long as we don’t sack them/make them redundant, they’re singing
