Life Desk :
My five year old niece described her going to school as a “fun thing” which I’m sure she sorely missed during the summer holidays. In the next 10-15 years, the likes of my niece would enter the workforce and they would be looking for the fun thing at work as well. How do organizations propose to keep them engaged?
According to Natalie Woodford, head, centre of excellence talent leadership and organization development at GSK, companies need to engage people so that they come into work and give their best. She believes it can be done by providing them a higher purpose. “What is the purpose that we have that helps people get up for work in the morning? I think companies must always be alert to the ‘heart’ side of the work that they do,” Woodford said, while she was elaborating on a leadership development programme the multinational held in Mumbai recently.
A lot of companies try and drive engagement through purpose. What brings you to work every day? That’s the question KPMG asked its employees who penned down interesting thoughts, leading to greater self-realization on what’s their drive in life. KPMG believes by inspiring confidence and empowering change people get a greater meaning in the work they do every day – beyond pay, benefits and prospects. It’s basically an anchoring principle that unites the organization and helps everyone make sense of what’s going on.
However, a lot of companies equate engagement to entertainment. When an organization has a large young workforce, working for 12-14 hours a day without any entertainment can be boring. But is entertainment the only answer? Prithvi Shergill, CHRO, HCL Technologies says: “Entertainment is important, but I don’t think that is why today they come to work – because they have a pizza party. It’s good if they have that but this is not what really brings them to work every day. What employees are looking for is the overall experience of engagement.”
On a more philosophical note, living in the moment could become an interesting way to engage employees. Having a purpose is certainly good, but it’s for the long term. Working towards getting a good bonus at the end of the year is an annual cycle. Can it be a compelling enough engagement initiative for employees to remain motivated every day at work? Doubtful. What could, however, help is to make engagement real-time or the “fun thing” that the next generation is looking for.
-ToI
