Through the years quite a few professors and consultants have written articles about the need to enrich jobs. From their studies or perspective they claim that many American workers do not like their job. Our survey asks employees and supervisors the question, “Do you like your job?” So, what do you think is the percentage favorable response to this question?
a. 56%
b. 66%
c. 76%
d. 86%
Choose one on the poll to the right and click the link below to check your answer.
86% of the non-supervisory employees and 93% of managers and supervisors responded favorably. Thus, from our client data it appears that the world of work is not as bad as many experts believe. It is further illustrated by the written comments we receive regarding what people say they like about their job and the company.For instance, employees and supervisors comment favorably on how they like their coworkers, the hours, closeness to home, importance of the job, their supervisor, the money, benefits, etc.
In other words, going to work is not such a bad experience. Yes, a job may appear to be boring to one person but to another it could be considered an easy way to make money. Thus, my belief is management should not worry too much about enriching the list of tasks an employee must perform, but rather focus on all the factors that employees say contribute toward making the job a satisfying experience.
"The Survey Says" is written by Richard Reinhardt, Vice President of F&H Solutions Group. You may contact Richard by email at rreinhardt@fhsolutionsgroup.com or by phone at 901.291.1546.
"My belief is management should not worry too much about enriching the list of tasks an employee must perform, but rather focus on all the factors that employees say contribute toward making the job a satisfying experience."
ReplyDeleteIf this is correct, then what organizations need to do is return to the teachings of Frederick Taylor and create highly simplified and standardized jobs that are . . . as some suggest, dull and boring work. Anectodotally, I recall a friend back in 1971 working at GM's Lordstown Plant outside of Akron building Chevy Vegas where he was making $16-$17 per hr 40 yrs ago! However, he was also one of many employees who threw a handful of nuts and bolts into the door panels before welding them up so that the ultimate owner would be tormented forever by an incessant rattling. So, here we have high pay and simple work followed by dysfunctional or deviant work behavior that one would characterize as a symptom of job satisfaction. Correct?
Granted, not everyone wants an enriched job . . . some folks just want to hit the clock and 4:00, forget work and go home. What is the population of workers that feel that way though? Ask yourself . . . wouldn't you rather have a job that you felt was important . . . that the stuff you committed your time and labor to was of significance? Wouldn't you like to call upon a variety of skills to perform your job . . . some that cause you to stretch to learn in order to be competent? Do you want to spend you day working on something like creating a finished product such as a stationary compactor or would you rather spend each and every day working on some little thing like a door hinge on a space shuttle? How about autonomy and the freedom to make decisions about that which needs to be done in order for you to meet your goals or objectives as opposed to relying on your supervisor for this information? And lastly, don't we want some form of feedback in what we do? I'm not talking about supervisory feedback, but deteriming first hand for instance, the quality of one's work by inspecting it when it's done instead of leaving that to someone in quality control do, or the feedback a sales person gets when he she closes a sale (or, doesn't)? The research is mixed with respect to the degree to which job enrichment produces higher levels of satisfaction. Theory and empircal evidence suggests that enriched jobs can actually reduce controllable absenteeism, voluntary turnover and increases job satisfaction. However, not all enrichment programs are equally effective. More recent evidence suggests that in the absence of feedback or poor reward structures that job enrichment actually contributes to favorable outcomes. Look at our world since 2008 . . . do companies have the willingness and ability to open their coffers to raises and expanded benefits programs for their people (I'm talking about more than just the CEOs and top mgmt) in order to stimulate extrinsic motivation? No! That said, anything we can do to heighten the intrinisic or internal motivation of our people warrants consideration and that is something that can result from enriched jobs.
Perhaps to make job enrichment we need to do a better job of selecting our people or better yet, know more about our people we already have. Are we seeking people with a higher need for achievement . . . people who are open to experience? That's where personality profiles as one of a family of selection tools and the use of employee opinion surveys becomes increasingly important. At the end of the day, job enrichment is something more than allowing your people to decide what color to paint the break room!
Cheers
Grant
I agree that we should strive to enrich jobs, but too many companies have turned to job enrichment as a panacea without having first taken care of the basics. That is, you can try to enrich jobs, but if the employee's supervisor is a jerk, then improved productivity, quality and job satisfaction will not occur; if there are inequities in pay, then job enrichment will create even further inequities and less job satisfaction; if some employees are not doing their fair share currently and you enrich the jobs of others then this will exacerbate the issue; etc. Thus, enrichment of jobs should be implemented when the culture is ready. I am afraid that it fails, and thus employees are viewed unfavorably because the management team is ill-prepared for it.
ReplyDelete