Casually, employees who are “tired” by their work are a real nuisance for the entire organization, according to a McKinsey study. (Photo: Sander Sammy for Unsplash)
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Q. – “I don’t know why, but I have the impression that the employees of our SME are less and less committed to their work. It drags its feet, it sighs. Is there something to get their heart back to work?” – Pierre-Olivier
A. – Dear Pierre-Olivier, if it can relieve you, know that your SME is not the exception that proves the rule: employee disengagement is a major phenomenon these days. As proof, I cite a recent survey conducted in North America by the strategy consulting firm McKinsey which reveals the fact that more than half of workers do not feel engaged in their work:
– 10% of workers have resigned. They are so disengaged that they are on the verge of quitting: they do the bare minimum at work and are actively looking for another job elsewhere.
– 12% are disruptors. They feel low job satisfaction and display low commitment: their performance is just as low, but worse, they drain the energy of others in the sense that they let them do the heavy lifting and their attitude lowers morale. of those around them.
– 33.5% are “sheep”. Their levels of satisfaction and commitment are below average: they do the job, without more and, above all, without trying to do more. Basically, they just go with the flow, without saying anything. And casually, this greatly harms the productivity of the organization.
In short, there is no joy at work, at least for more than half of the workers.
The question is obvious: what’s wrong? The McKinsey study, of course, looked at this point. It appears that worker disengagement is essentially the result of six factors.
– Inadequate remuneration. Workers feel they are underpaid, which causes them to underperform and undercommit. This factor alone explains 12% of overall disengagement.
– Lack of meaning (12%). Their daily life at work makes no sense to them. This leads them to consider that their work is useless.
– Lack of flexibility (11%). Workers would like to be able to better reconcile professional and personal life, at the very least to be able to have a certain flexibility in their daily management (schedules, workplaces, etc.).
– Lack of career development opportunities (10%). They would like to benefit, for example, from a career plan within the organization, at least the possibility of following training programs likely to help them advance their career.
– Lack of support (9%). They find that their immediate manager does not understand, advise or support them enough. They deplore the fact that he merely commands and controls them. And if this lack of support doesn’t come from the immediate manager, then it comes from senior managers, or even senior management.
– Feeling of insecurity (9%). They do not feel safe at their workplace, physically or psychologically.
In other words, the problems are numerous and varied, and this does not seem a priori good news for employers, because they clearly have their work cut out for them. However, the McKinsey experts who signed the study believe that it is possible to give heart to the work of employees, as you say Pierre-Olivier. And this, by proceeding in three stages.
1. What are you for?
Looking closely at the main factors of employee disengagement, one notes a fairly simple thing: the crux of the problem is that employees do not find their place within the organization. Not their place in terms of remuneration, the mission to be fulfilled through their daily tasks, or even the method to be implemented to fulfill it.
And that is the fault of the organization itself, believe McKinsey experts: “If employees are disoriented, it is almost always because senior management, as well as their relays which are the leaders and managers, does not itself know in which direction to go, because in truth it is content to navigate by sight,” they note.
Do you doubt it? OK. So, answer the following question: “What is your organization’s purpose today?” And to the next one: “Would, by chance, all members of senior management, leaders and managers in your organization give the same uniform answer to the first question?”
Hmm… We can reasonably estimate that some would give an answer linked to the needs of the customers, others with healthy and sustainable profits, still others with the offer to all of a respectful good or service of the planet. Not true?
Casually, the chaos of the answers thus given by the “head” of the organization reverberates in the daily lives of employees. And for the majority of them, this translates into real chaos in their daily work life. Deep down, they don’t know why or what they work for, and that undermines them, day after day, until they disengage.
To remedy this, it is appropriate to organize group meetings aimed at getting everyone to think about the reason for the organization’s existence. Around a central question: “What are we for?” Followed by: “And each of you, what use are you?”
This will allow everyone to better understand the mission to be fulfilled not only collectively, but also individually. And therefore, to give meaning to the work of each employee.
After that, McKinsey experts recommend checking on a regular basis whether everyone is indeed managing to align their daily lives with the mission to be fulfilled. For example, do senior managers use the organization’s purpose as a North Star in making decisions?
This verification is essential, they emphasize. “If the reason for being is just a poster on the wall, you’re wasting everyone’s time. If it does not permeate the daily life of each employee, the consequences can be devastating,” they emphasize.
By the way, they add this point which seems crucial to me: “Our survey found that employees are five times more likely to be engaged in their daily work when they work in an organization that devotes time to reflection to the impact it has on the world.”
2. Focus more on empathy
Look closely at the leaders and managers in your organization. Do they cultivate compassionate leadership, or is their attitude more along the lines of “Stop whining and get to work!”? And if you’re a leader yourself, ask yourself: “Is my team really comfortable enough to share personal things with me?”
If you ever think that these questions are secondary, remember this point from the McKinsey study: when employees do not feel psychologically safe, they only have a 0.5% chance of achieving their individual goals and collectives at work. That is to say, almost no chance of performing well, at least of achieving the objectives set for them. It’s as stupid as that.
The trick to correcting the situation is, after all, quite simple: increase your empathy towards employees. Concretely, this can amount to developing your empathy in three stages.
– Cognitive empathy. Seek to understand the other’s point of view, without judging them. Try to grasp the logic, the reasoning of the other. Or, imagine what it’s like to experience the other’s reality.
– Emotional empathy. Try to capture the other person’s emotions when they speak to you. See if you feel distressed when the other person is hurting (and ask yourself why, if not). Or, experience helping others by truly putting yourself at their service.
– Compassionate empathy. Understand the other person’s point of view, show concern, and take action to alleviate the other person’s pain or resolve the problem they are facing. Feel distressed when the other person suffers and take measures that can help alleviate or even eliminate it. Or, understand, advise and support the other.
3. Help everyone thrive
The McKinsey study shows that 63% of employees consider that their employer does not really give them the opportunity to flourish in their daily work. That’s a huge proportion. “You therefore have no choice but to alleviate this serious problem,” say the authors of the study.
Some organizations are more or less aware of this, and they organize meetings and other workshops from time to time aimed at encouraging everyone to express more of their own skills in their daily work. This effort is “laudable, but insufficient,” say McKinsey experts.
It is better to seek to align everyone’s personal objectives with the objectives of the organization. Because the employee will then feel “in their place”, and therefore in a position to be both useful and efficient. This will lead him straight to fulfillment.
Now how to perform such alignment? By sitting down with everyone and taking the time to see together whether their individual objectives can indeed contribute to the achievement of collective objectives. It’s that simple. This work may certainly seem tedious, but it can allow the employee to realize how important their work is and, above all, to make the small adjustments that will allow them to feel more “in their place”, if necessary. . For example, taking away a task that repels him because it does not give him the opportunity to express one of his key skills and giving it back to another member of the team who will be great at it. idea of taking it on.
There you go, Pierre-Olivier. It is perfectly possible to make others want to give 110% at work. The trick is to stop deploring the speck stuck in someone else’s eye and dare to consider the beam that is lodged in yours. And to have the guts to remove one like the other.
