Blog, cont'd,  Susan Seitel, WFC Resources

July 31

More about motivation

Anyone out there who doesn't want to motivate their staff? I doubt that; we know how important that is, especially when productivity is so critical. We know a lot about engagement, but researchers Paul R. Lawrence and Nitin Nohria, who have been looking at the subject since maybe 1987 or earlier, have just completed their latest effort – two major studies aimed at answering the question of how to get people motivated. In one, they surveyed 385 employees of two global businesses and in the other, employees from 300 Fortune 500 companies. The results are published in the Harvard Business Review.

The secret, they say, is to focus on four basic emotional drives: the drive to acquire, bond, comprehend and defend. Each of these drives can be managed by business owners or managers with a particular lever.

To define overall motivation they focused on four "commonly measured" workplace indicators: engagement, satisfaction, commitment and intention to quit. The research showed that an organization’s ability to meet those four fundamental drives explains about 60% of employees’ variance on motivational indicators.

Although fulfilling all four basic emotional drives is essential for any company, our research suggests that each drive is best met by a distinct organizational lever.

The drive to acquire is most easily satisfied by an organization’s reward system: how efficiently it discriminates between good and poor performers, ties rewards to performance and gives the best people opportunities for advancement.

The most effective way to fulfill the drive to bond is to create a culture that promotes teamwork, collaboration, openness and friendship.

The drive to comprehend is best addressed by designing jobs that are meaningful, interesting and challenging.

And finally fair, trustworthy and transparent processes for performance management and resource allocation help to met people’s drive to defend.

The research also revealed, they say, that organizations don’t have an absolute monopoly on employee motivation or on fulfilling people’s emotional drives. Employees’ perceptions of their immediate managers matter just as much. Employees in the study attributed as much importance to their boss’s meeting their four drives as to the organizational policies.  

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July 28

A rare moment – when you know you've made a difference

Our August Newsbrief is in the mail, and on the back page this month our Employees' Corner reminds parents that while 90% of 9-year-olds get two hours of exercise most days, fewer than 3% of 15-year-olds do. A recent TIME article offered tips for creating your own regimen and we included those tips in the piece. Mostly the article was about unplugging the TV and getting the kids off the couch. This morning, when our Anne Nolan arrived she said that article finally did the trick. After feeling guilty for years, she got very committed to getting her husband Bryant and 11-year-old Marie out to learn to ride that bike. They walked out the door looking put-upon, obviously doing this just to please Mom, and came back two hours later, Marie with a big grin, both elated!

Other tips in the article: Find places to walk and get friends to join you. Make a game out of fitness (try active video games like Dance Dance Revolution) and encourage kids to improvise games – balloon volleyball, beach-ball tag – the point is to move. Make it a contest; challenge friends and family members to see who can do the most pushups or jumping jacks, dribble a basketball fastest or hop 100 yards on one leg. Join a fun run, use bikes or scooters, rollerblades or skateboards instead of a car, and start young. Fourteen percent of kids ages 2 to 5 are already overweight.

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July 17, 2008

Gas prices spawn action nationwide

Not a day has gone by in the past couple of weeks without another state, local government or municipality announcing action that will change the way employees work, perhaps forever. It will certainly ease congestion and save money on gas. Bob Fortier's Innovisions (http://www.ivc.ca/) lists some U.S. state efforts, and here are a few more recent ones.

In Colorado, a Republican legislator has proposed that the state reduce its workweek to four 10-hour days.

In San Antonio, Texas, city employees will move to a four-day week and county officials are also considering it. And in Southaven, Texas’ the recently approved four-day workweek for some employees could be extended to cover all employees, according to Mayor Greg Davis.

In Connecticut, Republican lawmakers are promoting increased telework and a four-day work week.

Highway department employees in the Catskills, NY, will work a four-day week.

In Virginia, Governor Kain is suggesting that state employees telecommute. He would create a state office be created to promote telework and improve broadband coverage, and any agency that successfully sets up a plan to be allowed to keep the saved money for projects. Employees would have to telecommute at least once a week for any of the benefits to kick in.

 In Utah, about  17,000 or 20% of all state workers will shift to a new four-day, ten-hour work schedule beginning in August as part of the state’s one-year "Working 4 Utah" pilot program to save energy and money. By shutting down 1,000 buildings statewide on Fridays, an estimated 3,000 metric tons in carbon emissions will also be cut.

Iowa's Gov. Chet Culver is "weighing" the idea of switching state employees to a four-day work week in order to cut energy costs, as the state of Utah is about to do.

Kentucky's Gov. Steve Beshear is encouraging state employees to car pool and work four-day weeks when possible.

Arizona's Gov. Janet Napolitano is looking to see if a four-day week is "doable" for state employees.

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved legislation that would require the head of every federal agency to develop a program that would allow authorized employees to telework at least 20% of their work hours every two work weeks. (It will go to the Senate, and may be vetoed, so stay tuned).

And New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson announced guidelines for telecommuting and four-day work weeks that state employees who commute can use to save money on fuel. State Personnel Director Sandra Perez told state secretaries and agency directors about the guidelines Monday. A large number of government employees commute between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. "Through this program we can help alleviate the strain of high gas prices on state employees and taxpayers while ensuring that the public's access to state government remains our top priority," Richardson said in a news release.

His words are being echoed by state government officials and legislators throughout the country. Who could have predicted that 1)gas prices would go sky high, and 2) that the side effect would be the birth of such a dramatic workforce change.

Bob Fortier's Website has a pretty complete list of telework efforts across the U.S. Go to http://www.ivc.ca/

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July 16, 2008

Last night was the All Star game. We watched as one player after another, Hispanic, Asian, black, white and a mixture, won the cheers of the crowd and hugs from their teammates. There was Manny Ramirez with his amazing dreadlocks, handsome Derek Jeter, half black, half white, Ichiro and Kosuke Fukudome. It occurred to me that it may be only in sports that what really counts is not what you look like or where you came from, but only what you produce.

July 11, 2008

Work-life balance isn't always easy

We're hooked on Hopkins. It's a new series on ABC about residents and physicians at Johns Hopkins Hospital trying to lead normal, balanced lives, which is, of course, impossible. It's real life, but it comes off a little like soap opera. Last night's episode juxtaposed, among other things, a young heart transplant patient waiting, chest open, for harried doctors to bring the new heart from another state in time to save his life, a beautiful young resident fighting off colleagues as she tried to save lives, and a married resident trying to save his marriage.

I'm writing about it today because, coincidentally, Monica Delarosa of ABCNews.com wrote about that resident this week. She interviewed me to get my perspective about work-life balance, and you can read the resulting story on their Website. Even a profession like medicine, says Delarosa, is waking up to the fact that men and women are demanding more work-life balance. But the truth is, there are some professions for which there is no such thing, at least for young people just beginning to fight their way up. Young lawyers trying to make partner, residents putting in 80-hour weeks, salespeople on the road – even professions that used to be fairly normal are now facing workloads so demanding they preclude having a home life. As Delarosa points out, the cost is often relationships.

Medical residents, at least, know it's going to be that way for a few years. But for many, the trap is sprung before people even see it coming, and suddenly they're stuck with more work than they can handle, insecure about the future, having to sacrifice relationships and make do with a few minutes of the children each day, if that.

It's easier to say than do, of course, but the answer is obvious. Look around, figure out what your priorities are, draw your boundaries and stick to them. And the earlier in life you make those decisions, the better. Once you start neglecting your family, Dr. Brian Bethea told Delarosa, "it becomes very easy to value it less."

This interview should be fun