A recent Microsoft Work Trend Index survey of over 30,000 global workers found that 54% of them feel overworked and burned out, and the vast majority are planning on leaving their employer this year.
Furthermore, 39% of respondents said they feel exhausted.
But why?
During the COVID-19 pandemic many people have been working remotely and while they have enjoyed the flexibility of this, the study showed that unfortunately for the majority of people, working from home is a very unrewarding situation.
Researchers theorize the main reasons for this dissatisfaction are the feelings of isolation employees are experiencing, continual use of video meetings and chats, and always being “on the job”.
Isolation
When people work remotely, they feel disconnected from others and do not receive the positive feedback of being in a group of people who are physically together working a common project or goal.
This lack of bonding with fellow employees leads to a feeling of separation. As it turns out, most people strongly desire to interact with others in person.
When a person is working remotely in many ways it does not matter if they are working for company A, B or C, it is all the same. They are not going to an office and interacting with a specific company’s staff. The sense of identity with and loyalty to a particular organization is frequently diminished.
Continual Video Meetings and Chats
The study showed a huge increase in chats and teleconferencing, both of which are draining for personnel. It found that Microsoft Teams users were sending 45% more chats a week, and 42% of them occurred after typical work hours. Other studies have shown that excessive use of video meetings, conference calls and chats lead to employee burn out.
Always Being “on the job”
The study reported that in working remotely there is feeling by management that the traditional work boundaries are gone. Managers feel they can IM, text and email employees at hours of the day that are generally considered personal time and expect a response. This has caused work/personal lives to overlap and collide.
The study said, “We think it’s important for people to recognize humans perform better on a schedule.’’
Disconnected Leadership
Conversely, while most employees have been on a path to burn out, 61% of business leaders polled said they are “thriving” with this arrangement.
Microsoft Vice President Jared Spataro said there is a disconnect. Leaders are out of touch, they feel “this is great’” to have people work remotely.
An unintentional consequence of people working remotely is that some of them are being overlooked by their managers and company leaders.
The study showed a decrease in messages sent to entire teams, larger groups or employees outside a worker’s main area. What this means is that communication is being concentrated in fewer people, which in turn can lead those excluded to have a sense of isolation.
Microsoft was very concerned about this finding because open communication across various department and group barriers is necessary for successful innovation.
Lack of Employee Engagement and Inclusion
All of these issues boil down to the lack of employee engagement and inclusion.
In conjunction with the release of my 4th book, Work Less, Make More and Have Fun in Your Business in January 2022, the past three newsletters have looked at our foundational, game changing business growth and scaling methodology, the Structure of Success™ and how it is the underpinning of effective innovation.
The below Structure of Success™ diagram shows how all the areas of business are interconnected and where your personnel or Human Assets area fits in.
I would like to examine how the innovative Human Assets concepts included in the Structure of Success™ can be applied to addressing this lack of employee engagement and inclusion.
The objective of understanding these components is that you will be able think innovatively regarding solutions to this challenging area of employee disengagement.
Correctness of Your Personnel
The starting point for analyzing your Human Assets area is to determine if you have the correct quantity and quality of personnel in terms of their skill sets, level of experience, personal characteristics, and work ethic?
Having the correct personnel in place is like preparing a dish by using the very best ingredients. Just as you cannot create great food with insufficient or poor-quality ingredients, you cannot build a great business with an insufficient number of employees, or ill-suited or poor-quality ones.
If you make sure you have people who are interested in the work that is to be performed and have the specific skill sets to accomplish it, you will get more engaged employees.
Effectiveness of Your Managers
How effective are your managers at motivating, leading, and managing their personnel so that you can achieve your Vision? Having effective managers is like preparing a dish using ordinary ingredients and then immersing those ingredients in a marinade that will transform them into something extraordinary.
Highly effective managers bring out the best in employees. Conversely, ineffective managers can inhibit the productivity, contentment, and the stability of your workforce.
Most of us have worked for a great boss, someone for whom you would break through a concrete wall just to please. Many of us have also worked for bad bosses for whom you wanted to do nothing at all because of how they mismanaged their area. What is the benefit of having effective managers? You will be able to achieve the Vision for your company.
An effective manager turns an employee’s talent into demonstrated performance. For a manager to achieve this, they must first find out the unique things about each of their employees and then capitalize on these attributes.
Satisfaction and Morale Level of Your Employees
A key question that every business owner or leader should ask themselves is, “What is the morale level of my employees and how satisfied are they with their employment situation?” Having a high level of morale and employee satisfaction may very well determine whether your business achieves its Vision. The satisfaction level and morale of a business’s workforce is an often-overlooked area.
The best way to determine the satisfaction and morale of your employees and whether you have an enjoyable environment is to do anonymous employee surveys. However, you can obtain an initial feel regarding whether you have a rewarding, fun and enjoyable place to work by asking yourself if you would you want to work with and for you?
For your response to be somewhat realistic, you need to put yourself in your employees’ shoes and answer this question totally honestly. Many business owners have a difficult time mentally and emotionally putting themselves in the shoes of their employees to do this self-analysis because they say to themselves that their employees “should be thankful for their job because they get a paycheck.” They do not look at the full picture of what it means to have an engaged and contented work force in place.
Training and Education Provided to Your Employees
The next element of the Human Assets formula is the training and education provided to your employees. Unless you provide the appropriate level of ongoing training and education to your employees, you will not be able to achieve the full benefit from them.
The terms “training” and “education,” while very similar, are different. I view training as targeted at a particular function or desired outcome (more skill-set oriented) and education as more general in nature. Education may not have any immediate benefits to the employer but should result in more long-term benefits to both the employee and employer.
Just like seasonings enhance and bring out the best flavor in food, so does proper training bring out the best in your employees.
For employees to be satisfied and engaged they must feel competent in their positions and being adequately trained and educated is a key.
Effectiveness of Your Leadership
This fifth element of the Human Assets formula—the effectiveness of your leadership is focused exclusively on how you lead your personnel.
The term leadership has three aspects to it. First, a leader has clearly laid out and communicated the Vision for the business. Second, a leader inspires and motivates employees, so they see, believe in, and work toward the business’s Vision. Third, they oversee and direct the execution of the plan to achieve their Vision.
Proper leadership is like the chef guiding, leading, and inspiring the entire restaurant staff to produce the best meals—time after time after time—from the raw ingredients they have at hand. Since your employees are one of the raw ingredients of your business, a business owner who is properly leading his/her business will bring out the best in this raw ingredient—employees.
Human Assets Infrastructure
For the correctness of your personnel, effectiveness of your managers, satisfaction and morale level of your employees, training and education provided to your employees, and effectiveness of your leadership to operate correctly, your business will need to have an adequate Human Assets Infrastructure in place. The larger the number of people you have in your company, the more important this infrastructure will be.
A properly functioning organization is required to make sure that personnel-related actions and processes operate correctly and are not done randomly and haphazardly. If a proper infrastructure is not in place, it reflects poorly on all the Human Assets areas and makes it difficult to have a high satisfaction and morale level of your employees.
Where to Start
Managing, motivating, and training your employees is instrumental for your business to accomplish its goals and maintain your employee’s engagement while preventing employee turnover.
This starts with carefully evaluating your work environment to ensure you have the correct personnel with appropriate skill sets in place. Next, managers need to be carefully hired and trained to understand how to motivate and reward employees.
Third, the ingredients that provide for the satisfaction and morale of employees, which are critical to achieving your Vision, need to be present in the workplace. Fourth, your personnel must be properly trained so they feel competent in their roles.
Fifth, you as the leader of your company need to be visible and engaged with your employees for them to feel happy and satisfied. Finally, the Human Assets department of your business needs to be structured appropriately for the number of the size of your organization.
If you could use assistance with ensuring your personnel are truly Human Assets to your company, please contact us using the information below so we can be a resource to you in this critical area.
Fountainhead Consulting Group, Inc. is an Innovation and Business Planning firm. During the past 17, years we have shown over 1,200 companies how to achieve their goals by using our unique, comprehensive, and systematic FastTrak Innovation Program™, Innovation Academy™, and Structure of Success™ methodologies. Using the components in these methodologies, each month we examine an aspect of how to transform your business or organization into a true 21st Century enterprise.
Office: (770) 642-4220
www.FountainheadConsultingGroup.com
George.Horrigan@FountainheadConsultingGroup.com
Tags: entrepreneur, front end of innovation, innovation, invention, small business consulting, small business planning, start a business
