Shifting Work Motivations: Employee Well-being Takes the Lead
As a leader, do you care more about employee well-being or business performance?
You want both of course because you know that you can’t have one without the other. But employee well-being has taken on a new level of priority in organizations. It’s never been more important than it is now, and it’s never been more challenging for employees to be and stay well.
On an individual basis this is evident in employee engagement survey results, employee feedback, social media commentary on topics like burnout, and conversations with people at all levels of businesses. The service industry is significantly impacted as people in these front-line roles, many of whom continued face-to-face work over the past 18 months, are exhausted. And a recent Monster.com survey showed that 95% of employees surveyed are considering leaving their jobs. Employees are rethinking their roles, adjusting personal and professional demands, and reordering life priorities. This means their motivation for work is shifting.
As a result, companies are implementing new policies to promote employee well-being, such as adopting hybrid or fully virtual work arrangements; giving employees additional time off with pay to destress; offering additional wellness and mental health services; and introducing fun activities to build employee engagement. They’re offering signing bonuses, higher wages, and greater flexibility in working hours and how work gets done. And an increasing number of organizations are thinking about four-day work weeks and reduced working hours, with no reduction in compensation. And they recognize that employees want true diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace.
These changes are being welcomed by many people with evidence that the balance of power has shifted from employers having the upper hand to establish workplace policies, to employees exerting greater influence. All of this while firms strive to retain staff in an increasingly competitive market. It’s also requiring leaders to think differently about how they lead and the strategies they use to support business performance.
The Future of Work
These shifts have been evolving for years but were suddenly accelerated when the pandemic reverberated throughout workplace. And now both the speed of change and the uncertainty of its direction is causing leaders to wonder about the future of work.
They realize employees, who in the past may have been willing to take on difficult assignments, relocate to unfamiliar or unattractive cities, work long hours for extended periods of time, or accept roles that didn’t pique their interest, are much less willing to make these concessions.
Team members’ shifting motivations impact the entirety of their work experience.
- How work is performed such as project assignments, strategic approaches, communication, roles, and responsibilities.
- Where work is performed and the subsequent impact on operating costs, business infrastructure, cybersecurity, collaboration, and teambuilding to support results.
- What they get from work including pay, pleasure, and playtime.
How these elements evolve remains to be seen and companies are alternating between setting the pace and following the lead of others who appear to be responsive to shifting needs and employee requests.
Understanding Motivations
There are several key steps leaders can take to understand the shifting motivations of their teams.
- Listen and suspend judgment. Ask your teams about what’s most important to them in their work. Don’t feel compelled to respond or make any decision yet. Just leverage curiosity to understand their passions and concerns. You can also begin by simply talking with colleagues and employees at other companies or any environment where you’re not viewed as a leader who must respond to employee concerns.
- Go for purpose. Find out what everyone on your team loves to do, what are their strengths, and how can you tailor assignments to align with that. This doesn’t mean that everyone will love every assignment, but every assignment should be in service to what they love. It should build capability, perspective, and knowledge to support their goals.
- Look for the shift. Recognize that the work motivations for each member of your team may have shifted. They may not have changed, but they may have been reprioritized. Assume something is different and dig in to find out what it is.
The adaptability and flexibility we’ve all learned over the past 18 months is really a springboard for our future. Going forward, leaders will be challenged to measure employee productivity differently. In many roles, the question of how much work is performed will clearly be outweighed by how much value is created. This was one of the pre-pandemic challenges in understanding the productivity of remote workers. Our definition of performance that “exceeds expectations” must change. This requires redefining trust, teamwork, and collaboration to measure outcomes differently.
It’s difficult to determine what the future of work will look like, but leaders must be proactive and open to new approaches, transparent about what is and is not effective, and responsive to the individual needs of their team members. Leaders need to understand the shifting motivations of employees, adjust their work models to fit them and remember that they too are employees first. They have the same needs.
Monster.com survey https://www.businessinsider.com/labor-shortage-workers-quitting-quit-job-pandemic-covid-survey-monster-2021-7
Copyright 2021 Priscilla Archangel
Photo by designer491, iStock