Hiring Engaged Employees (CONT’D FROM PAGE 20)
worthy of recognition we want to be recognized,” says Altschuler. “Whether it’s a celebratory Yahoo party or a plaque that someone can hang on their office wall, recognition creates a sense of personal pride.” • Provide autonomy. Anything a manager can do to cut back on stifling bureaucracy is a good thing. “People need some personal freedom in their work practices,” says Verchota. “They need to feel that achieving an outcome is important, but how they get there is some- thing they get to decide.” • Encourage new skills. “People need to feel they have become masters at some task,” says Verchota. Increas- ing the number of such tasks can make an employee feel great about the workplace. • Cut checkpoints and paperwork. “Bureaucracy de-mo- tivates people by creating obstacles to their job perfor- mance,” says Rothwell. “It makes people very angry if they need to sit around waiting for their boss’s approval to do routine and simple things.” • Emphasize larger goals. “People need to feel a sense of purpose,” says Verchota. “They need to feel an emo- tional connection with their work and that their duties align with their value set.” Hidden Motivators As important as the top motivators are, one size does not fit all. “Not everyone is motivated by the same thing,” says Verchota. And the only way to discover what those CONTINUED ON PAGE 42
paid more, their performance does increase temporarily, but then it goes right back down,” says Jack Altschuler, president of Fully Alive Leadership, Northbrook, IL ( fully- aliveleadership.com ). “And they then view higher pay as an entitlement.” Money, then, does little to inspire great workers. But Altschuler offers three caveats. “For lower wage people in financial distress, more money does matter and can change their engagement level,” he says. “Additionally, people who feel they’re being underpaid will respond pos- itively to increased financial reward.” Finally, at the lower end of the wage distribution scale money can determine who applies for a job and who stays on once they’re hired. “If somebody is paid $7.25 an hour, and they can get $12 someplace else, they’re gone.” Those exceptions aside, what really motivates people is a nurturing workplace that meets their basic human needs. And to establish such an environment experts sug- gest supervisors do the following: • Appreciate employee contributions. “The number one thing employers can do to drive employee engage- ment is show appreciation,” says Altschuler. “Very often doing so is no more complicated than something like this: ‘Mary, thanks so much for staying late to finish the report that we needed this morning.’” • Recognize achievements. “When we do something
Let’s Tell Our Recycling Story
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Rick Van Horne, Director of Creative Marketing srvan614@me.com Corrugated Supplies Corp. LLC
22
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August 30, 2021
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