How to improve employee engagement in a crisis
Sunday, January 18th, 2009On 16 January the Singapore Business Times hit us with another ‘bad news’ article: ‘Employee engagement in Asia-Pac drops – survey’.
As if the economic downturn were not enough. Now motivation seems to be suffering in part because, as Mak Yen Teen, Director of the Asia Pacific Research and Innovation Centre at Watson Wyatt, says, the perception of fairness of rewards at this time is down. It seems people are unhappy about accepting reduced bonuses and lower pay to help avoid layoffs. He goes on to mention that in order to manage employees’ perceptions, companies must communicate the exact reasons for the changes being made and make sure that these are seen to be fair.
No doubt the perception of rewards does have an impact on employee engagement, as do many of the actions of management. In fact, events that happen to us, whether in regard to management decisions or economic influences or some other issue, will always have some kind of effect on our feelings about our work.
But can you imagine going through your entire 40-year career allowing your mood and motivation to be controlled by events over which you have no control? When things are going well for you personally or for the economy, you are fully engaged and positive, and when things take a turn for the worse you are miserable and unenthusiastic. What a hell to work and live in! And what a burden for companies to bear!
Today we have the opportunity to create a new world of business, with new approaches and new practices. Let’s start by making sure we enable our employees to feel enthusiastic and committed, if not passionate, about their work whatever outside influences may impact them. This doesn’t mean that companies have to ‘do’ anything to their employees. It’s a mistake to think that every every employee problem can be solved by doing something to them.
Rather, let’s take a step back and show our employees how to think about their lives and work in a way that is empowering for them. Once they learn that their happiness is entirely determined by how they individually respond to events that happen to them, then they have great power to change, and get control of, how they feel and work.
Responding doesn’t just mean saying to yourself ’Oh, the economic crisis is actually fine’. It means learning to accept what is happening and allowing yourself to go through whatever feelings, including negative feelings, that you may have. When you simply accept events and don’t resist your emotions, then your anger and frustration lessen and you begin to focus on taking whatever action you need to in order to live in the present moment, within the crisis.
So help your employees to see this crisis and any future event with a new pair of eyes – eyes that enable them to deal with it in a positive, practical way, all the time realising that how they see the event is merely a thought in their own heads. And over this they have ultimate control.
James Irvine, Team Egyii, Singapore
