Page 42 - Build a Culture of Employee Engagement with the Principles

13
The Workplace “Carrot-on-a-Stick”

are being motivated by things other than what work offers. The
old model involved employees sacrificing family time for work
because such a sacrifice was viewed as supporting the family.
Today, people are sacrificing their work for more family and per-
sonal time. Why the change? First, many people who grew up
with parents who worked so much that they were rarely home
simply don’t want that for their children. Today’s parents—
especially men—want to be more involved in their children’s
lives beginning at birth. Second, for economic and environmen-
tal reasons, there has been a recent cultural shift away from
wanting more “stuff.” As a result, we don’t need to work quite
as hard to earn money. Third, people are more concerned about
their physical and mental well-being and are making conscious
decisions to work less and take better care of themselves. All in
all, it is not simply about working hard and making money.
There is one other critical change in the workplace that has
affected employees’ motivations—The Deal has been broken.
By The Deal I mean the idea that companies are loyal to their
employees, and in return, employees are loyal to them. This is
no longer the case. Corporate scandals, greedy executives, out-
sourcing, downsizing, and cuts in employee benefits have all
fostered a sense of cynicism and distrust among workers who
no longer feel a sense of loyalty to their organization. In truth,
why should they? This decrease in loyalty has led to high rates
of turnover as employees seek a “better deal” from whoever is
offering it. Of course, this has resulted in great costs to organi-
zations. Unless in a strong union environment that offers some
assurances and security, employees simply aren’t very motivated
to stay with one organization over the long term.
In sum, our understanding of motivation and the factors
that motivate employees have changed over time. The Great-
est Generation is not the workforce of today, and organizations
need to understand that the “new deal” is that there isn’t any