The promise of lifetime employment no longer motivates people as it once did. In fact, it does the complete opposite. People seek opportunities to migrate, garnering more experience and knowledge to make themselves indispensable to their employer—only to leave again. Those who stay usually cite corporate culture, fair compensation, solidarity, and constructive challenge as their main motivators.
This reveals an emergent employer-employee relationship based less in monetary incentives and security, and more so in value and values. This is the Millennial Effect on the job market. True this new generation of workers stills wants money and benefits, but some are willing to stay at a company that has less of that and gives them a greater sense of meaning. At the beginning and end of the day they can justify leasing their life to the company.
As leaders, if we tap into those emotions in earnest, we can affirm the vision of value, create unquantifiable potential profit, and muster a loyal and fulfilled workforce that can unlock innovation through passion rather than incentivization.
The article is a summary of one of the many topics from my new book "The Professional's Bible: Navigating the Modern Workplace"
A Culture of Values
Culture is a boon and a curse. In some cases, it can hinder progress, keep people in the dark ages, clinging to tradition and eventually causing their demise. Companies are keen on this now more than ever.
One of the salient questions at the conferences I’ve spoken at is, “How do I get the shareholders (in their 70s) to jump on digital transformation?” C-suite executives who want to upgrade their supply chains are stalemated by reticent and risk-averse boards who don’t fully grasp the necessity of digital transformation.
But my point isn’t about digital transformation as such. It’s about reluctance to change.
In order to cook up a culture of values two ingredients are essential.
- The first is a recognition that change is an imperative; and
- The second is recognition.
I think this goes without explanation. The second requires some expansion.
Recognition is largely about gratitude. When we recognize, celebrate, appreciate, promote, and build-up the people in our community, we promote desired cultural values that grow over time. When employees and employers feel confident enough to recognize each other and express gratitude, it squelches the vices of competitiveness. Everyone is given permission to be themselves and be honest.
In turn, a culture of recognition engages, energizes and empowers employees. And today it can mean the difference between failure and success.
The Backbone of Gratitude
George Anders, a contributing editor at Forbes, notes that many of the fastest-growing jobs in the modern economy require a powerful sense of empathy. Empathy is the ability to put oneself in another's situation. Truly powerful empathy is the ability to understand and anticipate at a deep emotional level someone else's thoughts, feelings, perceptions, pleasures and displeasures.
Silent empathy won't move a workforce. It must be expressed. The best way to express this is appreciation. At the most basic human level, recognizing effort and saying "thank you" has astonishing power to motivate others.
Payroll processing company ADP asked employees and HR directors in Great Britain, "Aside from pay, what motivates and engages you at work?" Fifty-nine percent replied, "Praise and recognition." That was by far the most important motivation after pay — more than employee benefits, clear paths for advancement, or even the flexibility to work where and when the employee wanted.
How to Cook Up a Culture of Gratitude
There are 5 proven ways to generate a culture of gratitude.
- Identify the right or desirable behaviors.
- Give constructive feedback whenever someone is on the right track or accomplished a personal goal.
- Praise people for breaking through social or emotional barriers.
- Recognize trust and bond building. Reify your social bonds.
- Inform people when what they have done makes you feel good.
- And of course, vice versa for all the above. Express gratitude whenever you see someone do these things for you.
When gratitude permeates the workforce, all sort of change occurs. For one, wins are not centered on the individual, they become group wins. “We did this”, rather than “I did this”. Losses too are displaced across the team and taken as opportunities for growth because culpability losses its allure.
This list is intended as a starting point. Surely getting a culture off the ground takes much more work, especially in an organization. However, in pointing out tangible behaviors and practices we establish a solid launching pad. When you then implement them throughout the company strategically at every level, you get social cohesion. And that’s fertile soil for enduring culture.
A Culture of Gratitude Makes People Happy
Happiness makes people work smarter, more engaged and more productive, people. It can also give people a sense of meaning. For example, if part of your corporate goals include creating a culture of gratitude to raise motivations and thereby profits, people will see their actions in a broader context, as part of a broader mission. If they stand behind that mission, then they will feel great about their time/energy investment. Everyone will feel that they belong to something bigger. That’s a huge factor in employee retention.
Recognition as I described above has the power to make work a place of greater meaning and deeper happiness if gratitude is treated as a linchpin of the workplace.
Potential Profits from Gratitude
What is the financial benefit of being a great place to work?
- The Great Place to Work Institute offers some statistics contrasting the performance of the 100 Best Companies against the U.S. average.
- The rate of attrition among the 100 best companies ranges from 50 percent to 65 percent lower than the U.S. median.
- The employee growth of Best Companies is five times the rate of the U.S. average (15.4 percent versus 3.2 percent).
- And lastly, there is a noticeable boost in recruiting reputation among these companies, which assures them less employee fugue, and more engagementfrom their present and prospective employees.
- The Hay Group, a global management consulting firm, shows that companies with top engagement scores have 5 times the revenue growth of companies with low scores.
In sum, gratitude and recognition will help guarantee the success and satisfaction of not only your company, but of your employees, by imbuing work with greater meaning and the gratification that only social appreciation can offer. We are, after all, inexorably human.