Our brains don’t always do the best job of weighing the relative impact of the risks we face. One of my favorites, for example, is a concern some have over the amount of radiation from airport security scanners, despite that amount being equivalent to the radiation we get from just 12 seconds of flying.
Often times the bigger risks are less visible than the smaller risks, a sort of “iceberg” effect. It can be the same way for organizations and the barriers they face to realizing human potential.
When thinking of those barriers, first thoughts often go to voluntary turnover of top talent and development of high potentials as must-solve areas. Far less often do we consider the impact from the other end of the spectrum – employees who are disinterested and unmotivated, yet continue to show up to work.
For these employees, compensation is sufficient to keep them coming through the door, but is otherwise ineffective in leading to performance. The cumulative impact of these direct costs and the impact to other employees’ performance and motivation could end up costing the organization more than some of the top-of-mind issues above.
A recent report in the Wall Street Journal highlights a study by Aon Hewitt that looked at this group of employees. That study found 8% of employees fit into this profile of “prisoner” employee – defined as those “who stay at their jobs despite feeling unmotivated” – which was related to both longer tenure and salaries above market rates.
The phenomenon is closely related to presenteeism, where employees show up for work but in a distracted state due to illness or other issues. Those studies have shown that just showing up for the sake of showing up could account for a 75% loss of productivity for the individual, not to mention the spillover costs to coworkers and team productivity or culture.
What is the solution?
Some employees will either be unable or unwilling to become more motivated. In those cases, organizations will need to have processes in place to ensure that functional turnover takes place.
For many others, though, I suspect that there is hope. If compensation itself is ineffective, it may be helpful to leverage solutions that can create a more positive employee experience. There are several avenues that might be helpful.
For example, developmental coaching and ongoing feedback can help to uncover barriers to that employee’s motivation and find solutions in the form of new roles or responsibilities. Social recognition can also be a powerful motivator that builds on those conversations, amplifying examples of good performance and engaging a positive cycle of behaviors that align with the company’s core values. Finally, a greater proportion of the overall compensation portfolio can be aligned towards real-time performance, creating more opportunity for motivation creation.
How might you think about encouraging greater motivation from the bottom-up?
As Globoforce’s Vice President of Client Strategy and Consulting, Derek Irvine is an internationally minded management professional with over 20 years of experience helping global companies set a higher ambition for global strategic employee recognition, leading workshops, strategy meetings and industry sessions around the world. He is the co-author of "The Power of Thanks" and his articles on fostering and managing a culture of appreciation through strategic recognition have been published in Businessweek, Workspan and HR Management. Derek splits his time between Dublin and Boston. Follow Derek on Twitter at @DerekIrvine.
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