Talking Internal Communication...

Lessons in Theo-logy

A short piece in yesterday's Sunday Times caught my eye. It featured an interview with multi millionaire entrepreneur and Dragon's Den star Theo Paphitis, on the subject of employee motivation. 

It's not a deep article, but there are some nice little lessons in there. Here's a few excerpts (I paraphrase):

• When it comes to keeping people happy and motivated you have a head start - people want to belong, it's an integral part of human nature.
• I ask store managers, 'who are the most important people in this business?' They always get the answer wrong by saying the customer.  It's the workforce.
• My job is to make the working environment as easy-to-understand, practical and stress free as possible. I want them to look forward to coming to work. I want them to feel valued and listened to. If I am able to achieve this then I guarantee the customer will get the best possible service.
• This is an important part of our group ethos — making the customer No 1 by virtue of appreciating your frontline foot soldiers. After all, it is they and not you who have direct contact with customers.

I don't know why I was surprised by it, but I was. I think it's because on TV Theo comes across as seriously hard-nosed and not particularly employee-friendly. I have no doubt Theo is very hard-nosed when it comes to business, but he also clearly appreciates the people dimension.  Most successful business leaders do.

It's a simple, compelling philosophy, which was captured well by one CEO I worked with. He would regularly quote his 'magic equation': 'happy people + happy customers = shit loads of money!'  Most leaders would soften the language a little, but it's hard to escape the simple truth of it. 

More evidence of our failure to engage

The findings of yet another survey published this month suggest that poor motivation is harming UK productivity and holding us back in the global economy.

The ‘What’s My Motivation?’ study, published by the Hay Group, found that just 15% of UK office workers consider themselves highly motivated, with one in four saying they are “coasting” and a dismal 8% admitting they are completely demotivated.

Less than half (48%) of UK employees consider themselves ambitious and just 21% believe they are “very effective” in their roles. On the flip side, a relatively healthy 39% of office employees say they love their jobs.

The survey points towards some interesting regional differences too. Respondents in the Midlands were most likely to be motivated by money (88% consider cash to be the most important factor in job satisfaction), with those in Scotland and the South least financially driven.  Those in the North West were most ambitious. Overall the Scots were found to be the most motivated at 29%.

Putting employees to sleep

Don't worry, I'm not advocating lethal injections for disengaged workers...

The Training and Development Agency for Schools has just surveyed over 2000 graduate employees and come up with its 'Workforce Boredom Index'. According to the study, administrative/secretarial employees are the most bored, followed closely by those in manufacturing and sales. Teachers were found to be the least bored profession (a rather useful finding for the TDA). The main reasons employees cited for feeling seriously bored were lack of challenge, a failure to use their skills and knowledge, and task repetition.

This survey is more fun PR than hard science, but it provides yet more evidence that we're failing to motivate, excite and inspire UK employees. Whilst some jobs are inherently boring, there's nearly always scope to 'spice up' the day-to-day work experience and engage and motivate employees. No matter what they do for a living, most people want to do a great job, have a good time and find fulfilment at work.

Communication that's focused on delivery not dialogue, low levels of involvement, zero consultation, invisible leadership and poor line management are all to blame for creating high levels of employee boredom. As internal communicators it's part of our mission to tackle these issues and, in doing so, to help stamp out workforce boredom.

Move over Mr Motivator!

I was pushed for time when I published my last blog post so I didn't even try to address the all-important  'so what?' question. That's why I was delighted to see fellow blogger Andrew Miller pick up the baton on his InsideWork blog. 

Employee motivation is a fascinating and complex subject and one that internal communicators should find inherently interesting.

I agree with Andrew's point that what motivates us changes as we mature and as our own circumstances (social, economic, phychological..) change.  And I agree with David Ferrabee that the classic rewards (money and stuff) aren't usually the answer. The popular theories of motivation provide evidence for both.

There's a big generational aspect to motivation.

Born in 1971, I'm a fully paid-up member of Generation X. Most of the senior business leaders I work with are Baby Boomers (born 1946-64). We generally get along okay.

But the twenty-somethings who started entering the workplace a few years ago - known as Generation Y (born after 1982) - are something else. Their world view is different. They appear to be more interested in work-life balance than in a long-term career. They've never known a world without computers. They're not particularly worried about job security. They love to travel. They're impatient. And they're more skeptical than us (they grew up in a low-trust world). All this makes motivating them much more challenging. Money is, it seems, less important than flexibility, time off, scope for self expression and learning opportunities.

One thing is certain - when it comes to motivating employees, one size definitely doesn't fit all.

For a quick guide to the main motivational theories, have a look at the following links:

• Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
• Herzberg's Two Factor Theory
• Adam's Equity Theory
• Vroom's Expectancy Theory
• McClelland's Motivational Needs Theory