Keeping Employees Engaged in Spite of Repitition

[Michael Gibbs]

I feel like I am facing a lot of challenges regarding employee engagement and I would love to get some feedback from some of you regarding what I might be able to do. Here are some of the challenges that I am facing:

- My workforce is all most entirely student workers (part-time, minimum wage)
- We do a lot of repetitive tasks (fixing the same problems with customer machines over and over again...and fixing the same customer's machine over and over, too)
- This is not the permanent career choice of many of my workers. Some of them are in unrelated majors with unrelated plans for the future (Psych, Communications, etc.)
- My ability to offer them anything outside of their salaries is severely limited. My direct supervisors is always open to new ideas int his area, but securing budgeting or approval for new projects is usually a hassle with a lot of red tape.

As you can see, my staff has a lot of factors going against being engaged. All things considered, though, they remain surprisingly engaged, but I know that there is a lot of room for improvement from both them and myself. Any thoughts about how to correct (or at least address) some of these situations would be much appreciated!

[Joe Hungler]

A few things that jump to mind are:
1. Have a process where they can suggest changes. They may not stay long, but most people I know in jobs similar to what you describe don't understand the company's thought process and often has ideas to streamline or simplify.
2. Be clear about when they can make decisions and own them and when they have to run things up the ladder. The more decisions they can make, the better.
3. Let the more experienced be invovled in training or orienting new staff. Maybe a buddy system for the first couple of calls. Let them know it is an opportunity to build managerial experience.
4. Sounds like you already do this, but listen to them. Ask them what their goals are, what skills they want to get out of this job. Become the place that gets people to the job they want if they work hard and accept your coaching. it won't help you keep your people, but it will help you keep a steady stream of talented and motivated people coming through. When you orient/train them, let them know they are learning networking/customer services skills, diagnosiing skills, communication skills etc, and then make sure you adjust the training so they get the repair basics they need, but also these skills. If they learn to engage the clients, I'm sure it will help your business. I bet a percentage of the repairs are due to user error.
5. Let them know why the job is important. Their job is to Make Someone's Day every time they walk in. Not sure what kind of machine you are talking about, but I know if my computer or the copier is down, when the guy comes in and makes it work, it pumps me back up. Check out the book FISH for some good ideas here. You could easily use their 4 principals to engage them (Play-should be easy with young staff, ask them how it can be added; Be there-teach them to focus on their clients as well as the machines; Make their day-fix the machine with a smile; Choose your attitude-let them know it's their choice if they have a good day or bad day).

Good luck.

[Michael Gibbs]

Joe,

1. Your idea for suggesting change is good and it's something that I'm always on the lookout for. Whenever I do employee evaluations, I always ask for input about what they like and dislike about the way that we do our work and how we can do it better. I also try to start casual conversations during the work day to get their input and ideas. In spite of my efforts, I am usually disappointed with the outcome. Do you have any suggestions for other ways that I could get their input.

2. I definitely want them to make as many decisions for themselves as possible. Over the past few weeks, I've realized that I need to move away from having policies and written procedures and instead try to convey to them the principles behind those policies so that they can use the same frame of reference that I use when I have to make a decision that is in a gray area. Is this what you had in mind or did you mean something different?

3. I definitely want to move towards having the more senior staff handle more of the new employee orientation and training. I think that it's something that they can easily handle, it will give the senior staff members a chance to grow, do something different and it will help the new staff members get to know the team quicker.

4. You're absolutely right. My dream for the section that I supervise to become a nursery where the future IT staff are first introduced to IT at the school. The department I supervise is the only department in all of IT at my school that is made up mostly of student workers, so it is a natural place to create a talent pool that can be used by the other areas of IT. I read The Dream Manager over the past few days and it has renewed my passion for this exact thing. I can't wait to start talking to my staff, figuring out what they want to get out of their jobs, and beginning to do my best to tailor their opportunities at work to help them achieve their short term goals and set them up to achieve their long term dreams.

And you can only imagine how many of the problems we see are the result of user error. ;-)

5. I agree with you that principles like those you mention would be very helpful. I am adding FISH! to my list of books to read in the near future. Thanks for the recommendation!

Thanks for all of the tips, Joe.

Mike

[Joe Hungler]

Mike,

You are certainly taking full advantage of everyone's responses here. If you are paying that much attention to your students, I'm sure they are engaged. I agree wholeheartedly with Terrance's post below.

As far as how to get feedback, particularly from college students, I have two suggestions.
1. Buy pizza (or food of choice) once a month or so and have a roundtable. First of all, every college student appreciates the free food. More importantly, they will feel relaxed and comfortable-willing to talk about their frustratoins and what can be done to fix them. They will be more willing to listen when you tell them why thier job is so valuable. Be sure not to have a flip chart out and make it feel like a classroom though. I think that by giving them free food and listening to their opinions, they will feel valued. It is also important to be authentic and honest here. Don't be afraid to tell them that want them to have input, but feel like you are not asking the question the right way. They already know we aren't perfect, so we should be honest about it. Also, be honest when they say that they don't want to do some of the grunt work. It has to happen. Put it back on them for a solution, but there are parts of every job that people don't like.

2. Think about how they communicate. Ask one of them to design an internal web forum, twitter page (not sure if that can be kept private) private facebook page or whatever (I'm still learning web 2.0) where they can voice their opinon. This is how they are used to communicating. Ask them what makes sense here. They will probably enjoy solving the problem.


I wouldn't move too far away from written policies-just add value when they are presented by telling them the principals. Having the written documents (easily availible on a cd/server/intranet) still matters. No one memorizes all of them. I refer to mine regularly to make sure I stay out of legal hot water. Plus it feels more transparent this way which is the expectation of employees today.

Good luck with the orientation process. Ask a Manager and the Happy Burro and my blog all have good posts up to help you develop your orientation process.

On the user error question, can you take x% of their time and dedicate to formally training the users? We are getting ready to do this since the majority of our staff barely can handle outlook, never mind the server and other tools. It would give your more experienced techs a change of pace and some great experience, it would cut down on the grunt work and the users would be more efficient and less frustrated. The key would be to teach them to train as if they weren't a techie. Have them think about the FAQ. Then talk to some of the non-technical users and try to figure out how to make the training interesting and non-threatening. Most non-tech types learn very differently than the average person who is in tech support. Learning that communication skill could be as valuable as anything you teach them.

I'll have to check out the dream manager. Thanks for the tip. I've enjoyed the conversation that you've started.

[Michael Gibbs]

Joe,

I appreciate your encouragement. There are a lot of disengaged workers that I know of at my employer and I really want to get my head wrapped around this problem and the ways that I can fight against it. I can't thank you (and everyone else!) enough for your help and insights.

As for your recent suggestions:

1. Getting them together with food is a great idea. I did this about a month ago at the beginning of the semester before things got too chaotic. I would like to do it again sometime soon. I also agree with you that it's SO important to foster the ability to have deep and honest communication. Right now, much of the interaction that I see happening is on a rather shallow level. Few of the people that I work with talk about their deeper motivations for work, their dreams in life, their beliefs about the best way to get their jobs done, etc. As a result of reading The Dream Manager, I have realized how important it is to tap into these deeper topics and I can't wait to do my part to start these conversations.

2. One of the things that we are trying to increase usage of is an internal wiki. We set up the same software that powers Wikipedia and are using that to build an internal knowledge base, but we could easily devote a section to brainstorming...I'm picturing something like a page where employees just go and leave a line or two when they think that there has to be a better way to do whatever they are doing.

Also, I am in no way moving away from the written policies. I agree with you that they have their purpose and they need to be there to protect my, my staff, and the customers (and my boss would never let me!). I would just like to get my staff to move beyond the "this is how we do it because it's how we've always done it" mentality and try to understand the "why" so that they can then enter the "why not" and "why can't we" realm where real progress can be made.

I agree with you that user training would be a great task for the more experienced techs. Some of my staff have gotten very good at this, but it is an area where most of them can improve.

Thanks for all of your feedback, Joe.

Mike

[Terrence Seamon]

Hi Michael,
You have received a lot of good input already. So I'll just throw in a thought...

- Who are the Customers? and why are these Machines so important to them? If you can help your workers see the value in what they are doing for your Customers, that will go a long way toward establishing a sense of meaning and purpose.

One other thought is that You are your most important Engagement Tool. Though you feel that your "ability to offer them anything outside of their salaries is severely limited," if you look at it another way, you have an abundance of resources to offer.

Terry

[Michael Gibbs]

Terrence,

I agree with you that I need to find a way to show my workers the value of what they are doing. My manager has a phrase that he includes in the majority of the e-mails that he sends out to the department: "We do more than fix computers". I know how true this statement is, and while I'm sure that my staff would understand that concept on a higher level if I were to ask them directly about it, but I don't know how many of them have that as their motivation on a daily basis.

I also think that you're right that I have a lot more to offer them than I realized previously. The tremendous response to this forum post is proof that I have a lot that I could be doing at this moment, regardless of support from my boss, organization, or funding (or lack thereof!).

I can not thank you and everyone else enough for all of the wisdom that all of you have shared in this thread. I really appreciate the fact that all of you took time out of your busy lives to allow me to gain from your knowledge and experience.

Mike

[James Bullock]

First, you can't ever step in the same stream twice. The water has moved on. So, if it is novelty that leads to engagement, find what's new as you do the same thing again.

A bit less Zen, why does the designated task have to be the subject of engagement? The trick is to find another payoff. Doing what sounds like IT support, there's also at least communication with other people, teamwork, diagnostics and problem solving. I'm sure for many employees you can find something they're interested in working on. Even with more purely repetitive work, there's Toyota-style Kaizan - reflect on the process & procedure to make that the subject of change.

Some folks will get a payoff from touching the people they are helping. I remember a vivid scene in Studs Terkel's book "Working" describing a guy dancing as he collects tolls at a bridge. Asked why he's so happy just collecting tolls he replies: "You say I'm collecting tolls. I say I'm helping people get to work." Or that scene from the movie version of "The Razor's Edge" where the boat owner who becomes a guide talks about washing dishes. "For me, this is a spiritual practice."

Doing the support work can become an exercise to develop or express something else. That's pretty easy once you find what matters to the people you want to engage. If you let them, most of them will tell you what that is.

- Jim

[Jay Forte]

Michael,
My suggestion is for some job sculpting...some customization. My perspective is that each employee has additional talents that they bring to the workplace - outside of their jobs. As you get to know them, you have a better idea of what their talents, values and interests are...you now know the things that activate them emotionally (what activates their passions). The next step is to be clear about the needs of your business. The companies I work with are guided to perform a mini strategic review. Basically, review what is going on in the economy, demographics, trends, regulation; then review open business items that have not been completed. Now you are familiar with the interests of your team and the needs of the business. Start matching - not only do business items get addressed, but they are completed by employees who are passionate about the particular task. Here are some examples:
*an employee who is in customer service also loves to write. The company has been hoping to create a newsletter (paper and on-line) for two years. By adding the responsibility to this employees, not only is the newsletter now under way, but it is done by an employee who loves to write. This re-engages the employee by using them in an area that is in line with their passions. If the task is in line with the employee's talents and interests, the do not see it as extra work but rather a bonus.
*an employee is a salesman but also is drawn to teaching. The company has yet to create new product education for employees and customers. This employee can now create the materials and start to present it to both employees and customers. It matches his interests and the company needs it. The employee finds it engaging and the business benefits.

Job sculpting or customization is a great way to activate employees into activities/tasks that excite, energize or engage them. Just be sure that it also has a business benefit and everyone wins.

I have more information on this in my new book, Fire Up Your Employees and Smoke Your Competition; How to Invite, Incite and Ignite Employee Performance. You can see chapter downloads on the site www.FireUpYourEmployees.com. Chapter 8 is the chapter that introduces this and you can see it in the free download section of the site.
Jay