IdeasCount.com

Not Smoke and Mirrors
Employee Engagement, Beyond Tips, Tools and Techniques.

The key to employee motivation, retention and satisfaction is authenticity!

Not “Motivational Tips for Managers”
Not “Secrets of Motivation”
Not “How to get Employees Involved”
And certainly not "Management Techniqes for Engaging Employees"

It’s not about making people think they are important to the organization, nor being sure to reward them whenever you think they’ve done something good.

Authenticity means recognizing that engaging employees is not a “motivational technique” it is a survival strategy. As a survival strategy it has to have the importance, priority and commitment usually reserved for capital planning, product development, expansion planning, product line implementation and other high impact business activities.

One of the real answers to “How can we survive in the current economic environment?” is your workforce needs to be engaged, and have a way to demonstrate it, daily.

People are willing to show up, do what they are told and collect a check, if that’s all they think you expect from them.

People are also willing to contribute great ideas about how things could be done better, if it is clear that is what you expect from them.

• 85% of today's employees feel overworked and underappreciated
(Dr. Bob Nelson, 2000)
• 56% of employees are somewhat or completely dissatisfied with their jobs
(Monster.com, 2003)

How do these two stats express themselves in the day to day work environment?

Which of these two statements more closely describes what you see in your workplace?

A - Engaged, excited people actively contributing to the success of the organization?

Or


B - Distant, uninvolved workers watching the clock for breaks and quitting time?

Of course we will always have some sort of a range, a histogram of variation. Which way do you want your curve skewed, toward A or B? How is it now?
What are you doing to cause it or keep it skewed in the right direction?

How about more deeply engaging the entire workforce in the organization?
How about drawing on the underappreciated intellect of the people who work with you?
How about recognizing that these are pretty smart folks, outside of the workplace?

Remember back in school, the kids who could fix things, knew how stuff worked, loved building things? How about the “wizards”, the A students, that made academic work look easy?
Those kinds of people are all still around, some are “mature” now, and some are the “kids” you are hiring to fill your entry positions.

What if these people brought their whole being to work, not just willing hands or a set of skills, but their ability to think creatively, see issues and develop solutions?
Can you imagine the power of an organization made up entirely of engaged problem solvers? You couldn’t stop it, wouldn’t dare try.

Some of you are thinking “Yea, right like that could ever happen, get back to reality”

"One of the stepping stones to a world-class operation is to tap into the creative and intellectual power of each and every employee."
—Harold A. Poling, Former Chairman and CEO, Ford Motor Company


Each year at Toyota the 67,000 employees submit approximately 700,000 improvement ideas. Over 99% of these ideas are implemented.

In an article in the June 2003 issue of Quality Digest, author Norman Bodek reveals that the savings through a “Quick & Easy Kaizen” suggestion system at Technicolor range from $50 to $200 per idea, with some as high as $30,000. According to Bodek, as of September 2003 Technicolor calculated they were saving $3,000 per employee per year.

“Men and women want to do a good job, a creative job, and if they are provided the proper environment, they will do so.”
—Bill Hewlett, Co-founder, Hewlett-Packard

The Toyota system, in place for 50 years, has gone though almost continual change and refinement during that time. What they have now is a simple system with five key characteristics:

1. It is easy to submit an idea, and quick to get a response.
2. Most submissions are for already implemented ideas
3. Idea implementation usually involves just the submitter and their supervisor
4. Recognition is monetary, but small, almost symbolic
5. Employees, all of them, are explicitly expected to contribute improvement ideas

Compare these 5 points to the traditional “Suggestion Box” approach to involving employees; clearly it misses on all five. No wonder these programs die on the vine.

“Once employees see that what they do makes a difference to the
organization and is valued, they will perform at higher levels.”
—Rita Numerof, President, Numerof &Associates

In a rapidly accelerating, viciously competitive business world, overlooking a powerful competitive advantage is foolish, to say the least. Authentically engaging the workforce in the success of the organization sends ripples of benefits through the business, the community and the world. We all should learn from those visionary organizations that have and are prospering in hard times. It is available to us all, through the good works of the people who know what happens day to day and how to do it even better tomorrow, if we ask them.