The Impact On Employee Engagement, Motivation And Retention

Our present productivity slowdown is the worst it has been for 250 years, and successive governments have failed to crack this ‘productivity puzzle’. Why does productivity matter? It is generally accepted to be a key source of economic growth and competitiveness. So how do we define productivity? In economic terms, productivity is a measure of output per unit of input. But what about in the context of professional roles and industries when we’re not churning out widgets? A simple definition in lay terms is getting the results you want with less time and effort. Measuring productivity is more complex than simply measuring output, and approaches will vary depending on your business, function and role. Back to our ‘productivity puzzle’. Its causes are many and varied, but one contributing factor is our current mindset about time at work. We accept ‘overwork’ as the norm. As we have now seen, our excessively long working hours are associated with ‘lower productivity, poor work performance, health problems and low employee motivation’. Since the 1980s, our gains in leisure time have ceased. Switching off from work is not only important in acknowledging the wider purpose of life, but it actually helps us be more productive when we are at work. We prize busyness over quality of work.

Can't Stop The Sun

It’s standard practice to slice and dice up the work day, pursue several strands of work at once, be pulled into meeting after meeting, and have endless ‘to do’ lists. The more senior your role, the more you juggle. Productivity should be measured in terms of what we have delivered, and whether it is good enough, not how long we have spent on it. We don’t pay attention to productive working practices. The way our organizations and work days are shaped is stifling our productivity and creativity. Bureaucratic processes and structures, an overload of competing priorities, and distractions and interruptions galore drain our time and attention, and leave many employees frustrated and neurologically depleted. What lies behind these headlines is our failure to create sufficiently inclusive environments and practices at work. Initially attracted by impressive diversity statements, policies and initiatives, once inside their new organization, ‘diverse’ employees too often experience a burden described as an ‘emotional tax’,11 where on top of delivering in their day job they have to navigate experiences of bias, manage their own responses to these, and invest disproportionate time and effort at work in order to be valued and rewarded equally. Those who have more in common with senior leaders in terms of their demographic profile, background or home life don’t carry this burden – and generally are not even aware of it. These habits aren’t always purposeful or even conscious. We’re favouring the status quo, accepting partial or biased information, and going with what works for the homogeneous majority. Businesses are clinging onto a ‘one size fits all’ way of working that simply doesn’t work for everyone.

Higher Ground

Others are very quickly making judgements about them and their performance, and if the snap verdict isn’t positive, fewer work opportunities come the new joiner’s way and they are slowly marginalized. When an employee doesn’t feel genuinely welcomed, valued and included, over time one of two things will tend to happen. Either they reluctantly give up the fight, accept the inevitability of the situation and fail to realize their full potential at work, or they move on in the search for a more inclusive organization that won’t hold them back. Either way, the employer loses in terms of diversity, talent and performance, and the company’s bottom line suffers. Having high levels of employee engagement is widely accepted as essential for businesses to succeed over the longer term. So how are we doing in the United Kingdom? My enlightened employer agreed and the new arrangement worked well enough. However, my promotions and pay rises slowed dramatically from that point onwards, so I definitely paid the price for choosing differently. Yet with longer working lives a reality, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Even during times of economic uncertainty, professionals are becoming more selective about who they work for and how long they stay. If you want to have committed, engaged employees, it’s time to get serious about creating a better time culture. The costs to our health services and to individuals are similarly heavy. As Daniel Levitin says in The organized mind, ‘If you’re in a stressful environment where you’re asked to produce and produce, you’re unlikely to have any deep insights.’

You Cannot Hide

So how does our time culture contribute to these problems? If businesses truly believe people are their greatest asset, and prize innovation, quality and client service, then they need to adopt working practices that enable people to thrive. After all, the strategy of leaving it to the individual employee to thrive against the odds is clearly not working. Businesses are in a tight spot. How can businesses overcome these twin challenges? And they’ll need to do it now. Here are five reasons. Continued failure to meet diversity targets will bring harsher commercial consequences for businesses everywhere. Tailoring your employment practices and work culture so everyone can flourish is imperative to the survival of a business, not a soft and fluffy ‘nice to have’. Experimenting with new ways of valuing time at work will yield unforeseen advantages. For economic proof, labour markets show that greater workforce flexibility brings more growth and opportunity compared with rigid, homogeneous systems. Gaining a head start means your business will be advantageously positioned versus competitors, and able to rebound faster when future critical events arise. There is no reason why we can’t swiftly design healthier, more sustainable working practices and environments that work better for all of us. We’ve seen the range of pressures businesses are facing today, our limiting cultural norms around time and the organizational defects that result from these. We’ve also acknowledged how our broken time culture prevents people from delivering their work effectively, getting on in their careers, feeling included and valued, and managing their home lives successfully alongside the demands of their work lives.