Uplifting Employees
By Nancy Hatch Woodward
(Reprinted in part with permission from Society for Human Resource
Management.)
Building
trust for managers is a regular occurrence. The good news is it’s the little things that count the most. “The truth
is employees don’t need much,” says Jonathan Simpson-Bint,
president of Future US Inc., publisher of special-interest magazines
and web sites. His San Francisco-based company was named one of the
50 Best Small & Medium Companies to Work for in America in 2006
by the Great Place to Work® Institute and the Society for Human
Resource Management. “That’s what is astonishing to me.
It’s not like you have to fly them places and buy them stuff.
What they want is to be recognized and feel as though they are a
part of something bigger.”
Polls Highlight Low Morale
If
it’s
so easy, then why do so many polls report that employee satisfaction
is at such low levels?
According to a February 2007 Conference Board survey, less than half
of all Americans say they are satisfied with their jobs, down from
61 percent 20 years ago. The decline in satisfaction transcends age,
income and even residence.
Doug Klein, president of Sirota Survey Intelligence, a global professional
services firm that specializes in organizational development and
occupational psychology research, with U.S. headquarters in Purchase,
N.Y., explains that even in companies that are struggling, solid
leadership and management practices can mitigate the effects of external
events like tougher competition or shocks to the industry, such as
what happened to the financial sector right after September 11.
Good Managers = Trust
Good
morale depends on effective top management, says John Gerhard,
executive director of Nixon Peabody LLP. The Boston-based law firm,
recognized as one of Fortune magazine’s 100 Best Companies
to Work for in 2007, was noted for its low turnover. “Often
poor morale is a reflection of the inattention of top management
to the people in the organization,” he says.
The Best Places to Work in the Federal Government 2007 survey illustrates
this point. At the Department of Homeland Security, which has been
cited for having extremely low employee morale and high turnover,
only 40.2 percent of employees felt that the department had effective
leadership. On the other hand, 62.7 percent of employees at the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), cited as the No. 1 place to
work by the survey, reported that the agency had effective leadership.
“Our leaders are very close to the ground,” says James
McDermott, director of HR for the NRC. He notes that senior managers
are hands-on about everything, “and that goes with telling
the real dope on what is happening and building those levels of trust.
Employees want to know the real stuff, and, when they conclude they
are hearing the real dope, then you get your dividend—trust.
Once you get there, you are home free.”
Building trust is all about communicating effectively with employees,
says McDermott, and it can’t be one-sided. “As soon
as we hear something from the staff they are having a problem with,
we jump on it,” he explains. “We tell them we hear
them, and we let them know what we are going to do and then we
follow through and get it done. The worst thing you can do is come
in and glad-hand everyone and say you are going to do this and
do that, but then nothing happens.”
At
Houston-based David Weekley Homes, which also made it onto Fortune’s
100 Best list, managers have “planned encounters” with
their team members, usually every week. What makes these meetings
different is that employees drive the agenda, explains Mike Brezina,
vice president of HR for the homebuilder. Employees know they can
discuss anything that impacts their jobs in those meetings.
Monica Vagholkar, communications coordinator in the marketing department
at David Weekley Homes, says the most useful aspect of these meetings
is that her boss really cares about what is on her plate and what
she needs help with.
What Employees Really Want
Sirota’s research has shown that there is a universal set
of elements that employees want from their workplace, regardless
of an individual’s role, education or geography. They are:
- Working
for a company they can identify with.
- Working
at a place where they are enabled—they have the supervision,
authority, information and resources they need to be successful.
- Being
rewarded for their successes. Regardless of what anybody says,
Klein notes, employees are looking for a meritocracy.
- Having
productive workplace relationships with their co-workers.
According
to the employee satisfaction survey that Nixon Peabody does every
18 months, the second most significant driver for employee
morale is recognition, says Bill Simpson, director of HR for the
law firm, “and I don’t mean recognition in terms of running
out and buying a gift certificate.” Sure, they want a pat on
the back, but what people really want is to be recognized for what
they bring to the table, he explains. They are interested in being
integrated into the decision-making process, so they feel they are
playing a critical role in the organization. “It [has to do]
with this thing called respect, and it doesn’t cost any money,” says
Simpson.
Nancy Hatch Woodward is a freelance writer based in Chattanooga,
Tenn., and a frequent contributor to HR Magazine.
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