Published: Monday, February 5, 2024 – 12:02
Motivation Up, Attrition Down: Employee Engagement
Healthcare technology company Mendaera attracts workers who share the organization’s interest in improving access to and quality of healthcare. But even with that mission front and center, Mendaera creates a culture in which all employees understand how their work contributes to the mission. They hold celebratory team events, connect on a personal level by sharing photos and videos through Slack, and stop work to share catered lunches together in the office.
Management
Motivation Up, Attrition Down: Employee Engagement
Tips from an expert on elevating employee engagement and maximizing workforce talent
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Healthcare technology company Mendaera holds celebratory team events, connects on a personal level by sharing photos and videos through Slack, and stops work to share catered lunches together in the office. Photo credit: Brooke Cagle on Unsplash.
3. Create engagement through meaning: Help employees understand how their particular roles contribute to the organization’s overall mission; provide opportunities for secondments to nonprofits and allow employees to engage in other corporate social responsibility activities.
4. Create opportunities for accomplishment: Accomplishment is a powerful predictor of job satisfaction. Provide both the means to track progress on tasks and goals (consider using self-monitoring tools such as project-management and productivity-tracking software) and autonomy, which may involve allowing employee input into the task, ongoing coaching, and clarity in setting expectations.
2. Increase task engagement: Offer work that is sufficiently challenging (i.e., uses a variety of skills); provide opportunities to learn new skills through stretch assignments and work on projects; and balance work demands, including size of workload, emotional demands, and work/life conflicts, to avoid burnout.
The U.S. government uses an “Open Opportunities” exchange to allow federal employees to take part in short-term projects in other departments (for a maximum 20% of their time). These opportunities allow projects to benefit from expertise from other parts of the government while helping employees practice new skills and learn new areas of the organization. One participant noted, “I am bored (in my job). I am currently a senior advisor, and I’d like to position myself in a way that I can do more internal (innovation) consultancy types of work…. I am utilizing Open Opps to identify developmental opportunities to build my acumen in human-centered design, in assessment, and in change management.”
6. Offer and enforce procedural justice: Processes must clearly maintain equity and respect for each worker by being consistent and transparent, and by allowing decisions perceived as unfair to be appealed with affected parties present.
How organizations use it
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One employee says, “We recognize that in all functions we have to welcome iteration and not be afraid of changing direction. I think this requires a level of trust in your co-workers and openness about what we understand and what we still need to learn. Here, we’ve spent entire days at work specifically focused on learning about our co-workers, our communication styles, and how we work as a team.”
Nano Tools for Leaders—a collaboration between Wharton Executive Education and Wharton’s Center for Leadership and Change Management—are fast, effective tools that you can learn and start using in less than 15 minutes, with the potential to significantly affect your success and the engagement and productivity of the people you lead.
The goal
Strengthen the bond between your employees and your organization.
Nano Tool
1. Assess key drivers of engagement: Data from the General Social Survey (an annual project of the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center) suggests that job satisfaction is derived primarily from four factors: learning opportunities and variety, relationships with managers and co-workers, low stress, and extrinsic benefits (including pay and bonuses). Consider how well your organization meets these key drivers and which ones need improving.
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