Managing Human Resources and

PerformanceSession 2 – High Performance working, motivation

and job satisfaction Alan Graham

This week

• Review last week

• Job satisfaction

• Motivation

• What we mean by ‘employee engagement’

• High Performance Working

• What we mean by ‘job satisfaction’

• How this links to performance

Last week

• We looked at:

• Some potential origins of the need for the Human Resource policies and practice

• How we might link leadership, management and organisational/individual needs

• Rationality of individuals and organisations

• Finished on the principles of performance management

Job Satisfaction 10 ‘things’ – from PSYBLOG

• 1. Little hassles

• If you ask doctors what is the worst part of their jobs, what do you think they say? Carrying out difficult, painful procedures? Telling people they’ve only got months to live? No, it’s something that might seem much less stressful: administration.

• We tend to downplay day-to-day irritations, thinking we’ve got bigger fish to fry. But actually people’s job satisfaction is surprisingly sensitive to daily hassles. It might not seem like much but when it happens almost every day and it’s beyond our control, it hits job satisfaction hard.

• This category is one of the easiest wins for boosting employee satisfaction. Managers should find out about those little daily hassles and address them—your employees will love you for it.

2. Perception of fair pay

• Whatever your job, for you to be satisfied the pay should be fair. The bigger the difference between what you think you should earn and what you do earn, the less satisfied you’ll be.

• The important point here is it’s all about perception. If you perceive that other people doing a similar job get paid about the same as you then you’re more likely to be satisfied with your job than if you think they’re getting more than you.

3. Achievement

• People feel more satisfied with their job if they’ve achieved something. In some jobs achievements are obvious, but for others they’re not. As smaller cogs in larger machines it may be difficult to tell what we’re contributing. That’s why the next factor can be so important…

4. Feedback

• There’s nothing worse than not knowing whether or not you’re doing a good job. When it comes to job satisfaction, no news is bad news. Getting negative feedback can be painful but at least it tells you where improvements can be made. On the other hand positive feedback can make all the difference to how satisfied people feel.

5. Complexity and variety

• People generally find jobs more satisfying if they are more complex and offer more variety. People seem to like complex (but not impossible) jobs, perhaps because it pushes them more. Too easy and people get bored.

• To be satisfied people need to be challenged a little and they need some variety in the tasks they carry out. It sounds easy when put like that but many jobs offer neither complexity nor variety.

6. Control

• You may have certain tasks you have to do, but how you do them should be up to you. The more control people perceive in how they carry out their job, the more satisfaction they experience.

• If people aren’t given some control, they will attempt to retake it by cutting corners, stealing small amounts or finding other ways to undermine the system. Psychologists have found that people who work in jobs where they have little latitude—at every level—find their work very stressful and consequently unsatisfying.

7. Organisational support

• Workers want to know their organisation cares about them: that they are getting something back for what they are putting in. This is primarily communicated through things like how bosses treat us, the kinds of fringe benefits we get and other subtle messages. If people perceive more organisational support, they experience higher job satisfaction.

• Remember: it’s not just whether the organisation is actually being supportive, it’s whether it appears that way. The point being that appearances are really important here. If people don’t perceive it, then for them it might as well not exist. That’s why great managers need a politician’s touch.

8. Work-home overflow

• Low job satisfaction isn’t only the boss’ or organisation’s fault, sometimes it’s down to home-life. Trouble at home breeds trouble at the office.

• Some research, though, suggests that trouble at the office is more likely to spill over into the family domain compared with the other way around (Ford et al., 2007). Either way finding ways of distancing yourself from work while at home are likely to protect you against job stressors (Sonnentag et al., 2010).

9. Honeymoons and hangovers

• Job honeymoons and hangovers are often forgotten by psychologists but well-known to employees. People experience honeymoon periods after a month or two in a new job when their satisfaction shoots up. But then it normally begins to tail off after six months or so.

• The honeymoon period at the start of a new job tends to be stronger when people were particularly dissatisfied with their previous job (Boswell et al., 2009). So hangovers from the last job tend to produce more intense honeymoons in the next job.

10. Easily pleased?

• Some of us are more easily satisfied (or dissatisfied) than others, no matter how good (or bad) the job is. To misquote a famous cliché: You can’t satisfy all the people all the time.

• Still, some jobs do seem better suited to certain types of people. A lot of work has been done on person-environment fit but because jobs vary so much it’s difficult to summarise.

• One generalisation we can make, though, is that people get more satisfied with their jobs as they get older. Perhaps this is because the older people are, the more likely they are to have found the right work for them. There’s little evidence for this but I’d certainly like to think it was true.

Help

•http://padlet.com/blindalley/d1yynw5f56yu

• Way in

Motivation in the workplace

• Positive reinforcement

• Discipline and punishment

• Treating employees fairly

• Meeting (surpassing?) the needs of employees

• Setting work related goals

• Structure of job roles

• Performance related rewards

Theorists…. A good base resource LINK

• The link above is for a searchable site called ‘Proven Models’ which will give you insights into a range of theorists. You will also find a link to the ‘mindtools’ website under McClelland (below)

• As a starting point try Maslow, Herzberg, Mayo, McGregor and McClelland

• We are concerned with the APPLICATION of motivational theory so although we need to ‘know’ our theory we are concerned with how it works in practice.

• As a note you will find many other theorists/models that may be of use outside this module

Employee Engagement

• This definition gives three dimensions to employee engagement:

• Intellectual engagement – thinking hard about the job and how to do it better

• Affective engagement – feeling positively about doing a good job

• Social engagement – actively taking opportunities to discuss work-related improvements with others at work

• http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/factsheets/employee-engagement.aspx

Employee engagement continued

• However, it is worth noting that numerous definitions of employee engagement exist, each with their different emphases. For example, one of the most enduring is that from the Utrecht University group of occupational psychologists1. This sees engagement as having three elements, which overlap with the CIPD definition (above):

• vigour (energy, resilience and effort)

• dedication (for example, enthusiasm, inspiration and pride)

• absorption (concentration and being engrossed in one’s work).

What are the benefits of employee engagement?

• Employers want engaged employees because, as well as being happier, healthier and more fulfilled, they deliver improved business performance. Research has repeatedly demonstrated a relationship between how people are managed, employee attitudes and business performance. There are nuances in the drivers and outcomes of employee engagement, but this basic link holds true across different sectors and job roles. Positive relationships are evidenced with profit, revenue growth, customer satisfaction, productivity, innovation, staff retention, efficiency and health and safety performance. A good summary of the performance link with employee engagement has been published by the government-sponsored Engage for Success4 movement.

Some positives and negative aspects of employee engagement

• Organisations also increasingly recognise the importance of their brand and reputation. Engaged employees will be stronger advocates of their organisations and help protect the employer from the reputational risks associated with poor service levels or product quality.

• Having a disengaged workforce brings huge risks. As well as productivity losses, organisations may lose their best people and face huge difficulties when embedding organisational change if employees are not on board. Disengagement also threatens effective collaboration, innovation and human capital management, as employees will not be inclined to use their tacit knowledge and skills for the good of the organisation.

How to build an engaged workforce

• Leadership - good people management and learning and development practices

• Alignment - organisational purpose, vision and values with job roles, communications, management systems and team building

• Support - A minority of employees may not want to be engaged; recruitment practices and performance management are thus important engagement tools.

Fundamental aspects to consider

• Leadership that gives a ‘strong strategic narrative about the organisation, where it’s come from and where it’s going’.

• Line managers who motivate, empower and support their employees.

• Employee voice throughout the organisation, to challenge or reinforce the status quo and involve employees in decision making.

• ‘Organisational integrity’: stated values are embedded into organisational culture; what we say is what we do.

High Performance Working – key issues

• It starts with a High Performance Culture• Clear roles within a team• Line up teams performance objectives• Customised communications with each person• Reinforce HOW and WHY each person’s contribution is

fundamental to the TEAM’S success

Trust and Development

• Continuous learning environment

• Break down barriers

• Get people to talk about talent and strength

• Encourage mentoring

Is this about performance or engagement?

• We drive engagement through performance

• High performance managers get involved – no laissez faire here!

• Help set goals and priorities

• Hold employees responsible for performance

12 elements of great managing – adapted from a Gallup survey

• I know what is expected of me

• I have what I need to do my job right

• I have the opportunity to do my best every day

• I get recognised for what I do

• My boss sees me as a person

• I know who can help me develop

• My opinions count

• My job seems important

• I work with people who care about the work we do

• I have friends at work

• I have the opportunity to talk about my progress

• I keep learning

Critical components of High Performance 1

• Performance management process

• Merit based to differentiate between high and low performers

• Clearly defined standards and expectations (individual/team/department/organisation)

• Transparent reward system

• Shared goals and objectives

Critical components of High Performance 2

• Empowerment and authority

• Objective?

• Respond to markets and information

• Develop innovative ideas to stay ahead

• Connect with market to develop business

Conclusion

• Motivation

• Job satisfaction

• What we mean by ‘employee engagement’

• High Performance Working

• What we mean by ‘job satisfaction’

• How this links to performance

Next week - performance management tools

• Appraisals

• 360 degree feedback

• Learning and development

• Objectives and performance standards

• Measurement

• Pay and reward