Recently I spoke with the chief executive of a new public company that is just being spun off from its parent company.
Of all the tasks on his plate, his top priority, he said, is getting his employees engaged in the new company’s mission and helping them see how their industrial products are becoming technology products that play an important role in the lives of their customers.
Gallup tells us 87 per cent of global employees are disengaged. How did this happen? Could it be that by creating efficient, repeatable, scalable business processes, we have engineered the meaning out of work?
We hire diverse people with different skill sets, and we ask them to do the same job the same way as everyone else.
We isolate people, and put them in standardised, uniform work settings that reinforce the idea your personal wants and needs are not important. Regardless of what leaders might say in their speeches, the decisions and policies of facilities and human resources deliver a clearer, stronger message to employees.
Many chief executives are aware of the problem and are working to improve employee engagement, starting with new programmes aimed at well-being or offering flexible work hours. But a new programme may not be the answer.
Tom Rath, author of Are You Fully Charged?, has a theory about happiness. He says if you seek happiness, you won't find it. However, if you seek meaning, you will find happiness.
The same applies to engagement. If you seek engagement directly, you may not find it.
If you lead people to find meaning, perhaps you will. Consider these types of meaning:
Meaningful wor
k
What is my organisation’s impact on the lives of customers and society? How am I uniquely contributing to that purpose?
Meaningful connections
How do companies make it easier for employees to connect with their colleagues around the world?
Meaningful progress How can we help people feel they are making an impact? What will it take for organisations to help people find that kind of meaning in their work – whether they are long-established businesses or start-ups?
Perhaps as leaders we should start with ourselves: How do you think about the significance of your own work? When are you most engaged?
We should reflect on these questions in order to help our employees find the meaning of their work.
– (Copyright Harvard Business Review 2015) Jim Keane is president and CEO of Steelcase, the global leader in the office furniture industry, and a member of the boards of Rockwell Automation and IDEO.
