The Occupational Adventure (tm)

The high cost of employee turnover

mapmaker.curtrosengren.com

Yesterday I posted about the value of helping employees tap into what lights them up. How's this for another argument in favor of that. Employee turnover is expensive! Here's an article that takes a look at the costs of employee turnover, both obvious and hidden.

According to a conservative estimate by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average cost to replace an employee is $13,996.

And employee turnover is rampant.

As the economy grows and more jobs are created, voluntary turnover also increases. In the 12 months ending January 2005, 24 percent of workers voluntarily quit their jobs, which was a 13 percent increase over the previous year, according to the Employment Policy Foundation. These figures cannot be explained by voluntary retirements because on average, retirement rates across all private industries were only 2.7 percent in 2005 and 2.6 percent in 2004. Therefore, approximately 89 percent of voluntary turnover can be attributed to people leaving their current employer to find another job somewhere else.

Add to that the fact that more and more baby boomers are going to be retiring and the work force will be shrinking, and employee retention becomes a serious issue. In light of that, doesn't it make sense to do everything possible to help ensure that the employees you do have stay put?

There's always going to be some degree of turnover, but the more employees are in love with what they're doing, the less likely they'll get that wanderlust and feel the need to look elsewhere. It's just common sense.

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Brought to you by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

 

Are you afraid of passionate employees?

mapmaker.curtrosengren.com

I had a disagreement with someone I met at an event a few weeks ago. A rather vigorous one. The conversation had turned to the idea of companies bringing someone in to help management and employees tap into the power of passion.

"Companies aren't interested in that," she said. OK, I admit, that was a bit like waving a red flag at a bull for me. "They're afraid if employees figure out what they're passionate about, they'll leave. Now if you can come in and say, 'I help people be passionate about what they're already doing,' companies would be interested."

I had to call bullshit. I had no quarrel with her comment about the need to help people figure out how to feel more engaged where they currently are. I absolutely agree with that. But the notion that companies don't get the long-term value of helping people tap into what really lights them up seemed at best ludicrous.

Are there companies that are afraid of that? No doubt about it. Do I think they're going to be competitive - or even around - ten or twenty years from now? Probably not.

That may have been the case in the past, but I'm seeing more and more companies out there who really get how important that element of employee engagement is. The forward thinking companies are already asking, "How do we maximize the engagement our employees feel about their work?"

It's like tuning your engine. Any company runs on the power of its employees. If the collective energy of those employees is misfiring and sputtering, you're not going to be able to get the most out of them.

If, on the other hand, an effort is made to tune that engine, making sure that what employees are doing is in alignment with what makes them tick, then more of that potential is going to be transferred into forward motion. Because the best results aren't going to come because of a carrot or a stick, they're going to come because each individual feels internally motivated by what they're doing.

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Brought to you by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

 

The business benefits of employee passion

mapmaker.curtrosengren.com

It seems like a no-brainer that creating a culture of passion would be beneficial for any company, doesn't it? But why? What are the real benefits?

Drs. Kevin and Jackie Freiberg, authors of the book, Nuts! Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success, wrote a great article that outlines some of the business benefits of passion.

Here is an abbreviated version of those benefits.

1.) Passion intensifies our focus.
2.) Innovation and creativity become key factors in adding value to the customers we serve. Approaching the business with a fresh, new perspective requires people who are fully awake, fully alive, and who have an active, intense, engaged focus on making things better.
3.) With intense pressures to perform it’s easy to cut ethical corners and compromise doing what’s right. It requires passion to protect and promote the values driving the business.
4.) People with passion raise the standards of performance in an organization.
5.) People with passion create an electric, exciting work environment that energizes others.
6.) Passion creates a sense of urgency that is required of every organization going through change in today’s highly competitive world.
7.) Passion helps people deal with fear.
8.) There is less attrition and absenteeism in a passionate work environment, where meaningful work and a heroic cause energize people.
9.) Dramatic change and complexity are requiring an unprecedented effort from the contemporary work force. Passion will be the key to PERSEVERANCE in the midst of this change.
10.) Perhaps the most exciting benefit that comes from cultivating passion in an organization is the contagious enthusiasm it generates. Passionate people ignite enthusiasm in the rest of us.

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Brought to you by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

 

Job dissatisifaction can make you sick

Employers, if you're looking for yet another bottom-line reason to pay attention to passion, take note. A new analysis of hundreds of job satisfaction studies shows a clear  connection between job satisfaction and health, especially mental health.

Researchers from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) undertook a systematic review of 485 studies covering 267,995 individuals, evaluating the research evidence linking job satisfaction to physical and mental wellbeing. The authors say that the combined findings 'provided, for the first time, a clear indication of the immensely strong relationship between job satisfaction and both mental and physical health.' They add: 'The relationships are particularly impressive for aspects of mental health, specifically burnout, lowered self-esteem, anxiety, and depression, where it can now be confirmed that dissatisfaction at work can be hazardous to an employee's mental health and wellbeing.'

All of which adds up to a bottom-line impact through absenteeism, lower productivity, and health care costs.

Curt Rosengren

Passion Catalyst  ^SM

Career passion e-books

Job satisfaction vs. job passion - new statistics

A few months back I posted about the difference between job satisfaction and passion. I suggested that, if the question were asked, "Do you feel passionate about your job,"  the percentage that answered affirmatively would be much smaller than those who were merely "satisfied."

Looks like I was right. A newly released survey of 7,718 American workers found that:

...only 45 percent of workers say they are satisfied (33 percent) or extremely satisfied (12 percent) with their jobs. At the same time, a much lower number actually feel very "engaged" by their jobs. Only 20 percent feel very passionate about their jobs; less than 15 percent agree that they feel strongly energized by their work; and only 31 percent (strongly or moderately) believe that their employer inspires the best in them.

Sounds like I need to bring my message to the corporate world.

Curt Rosengren

Passion Catalyst  ^SM

Career passion e-books

Happy schmappy. I want to be on fire!

This might surprise you, but I think companies that focus on "employee satisfaction" are missing the boat. This post has been brewing for a good long time, and this article challenging the notion that happy workers equate with a fatter bottom line brought it to the surface.

Every time I see a study on employee satisfaction, I look at the percentages and think, "What is that really measuring?" Because quite honestly, I think what satisfaction often means is "things are good enough." "Yeah, I'm pretty satisfied here. It's not bad." It reflects employees who feel like they've got it reasonably good, so they don't see much reason to complain.

What I want to know is what would the answer be if the question were, "Do you feel on fire about the work that you do? Does it energize you? Does it make you feel alive?" From what I've seen out there, I can guarantee that the percentage that answer yes to that would be a fraction of the percentage that would answer yes to "Are you satisfied."

Satisfied employees don't fuel the bottom line. Satisfied employees maintain a good status quo and a great foundation to build on. Having satisfied employees is obviously not a bad thing, but in my mind it's also only the starting point.

The real rocket ride comes with employees who get so much energy out of the work they do that they can't help but function at peak performance. Engaged employees have been proven to increase profits, productivity, employee happiness and retention, and customer satisfaction (see here and here, for example).

So forget the employee satisfaction surveys. Show me the employee passion surveys!

Good managers are meaning makers

Last December I posted about Michael Kroth, Ph.D. and Patricia Boverie, Ph.D. and their Ideas for Leading with Passion.

Now here's an interview with Kroth. I love what he has to say on management and meaning.

Kroth: Good leaders are really meaning makers. Their job is to find out what is meaningful to each person on their team and then try to match the work to that meaning. Of course, you also need to hire people who will find some aspect of real estate sales meaningful.

RMO: How do you know what's meaningful to an individual?

Kroth: First, just ask them. Make it part of each person's annual business planning or performance review. Ask them what part of the plan or the job is most meaningful to them. Often managers assume that's what's meaningful to them is meaningful to others...

Just ask them? Revolutionary!

Curt Rosengren
Passion Catalyst ^SM

Intrinsic motivation vs. extrinsic motivation

If you want to get the best from your employees, tap into what motivates them on an intrinsic level, and avoid turning to extrinsic motivation. So says this short piece on ChangingMinds.org.

There is a paradox of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is far stronger a motivator than extrinsic motivation, yet external motivation can easily act to displace intrinsic motivation...

If you can get someone to believe in an idea or align their values with what you want, then you have set very powerful motivation in place. Seek to make them feel good about what you want.

It recommends resisting the urge to motivate with money.

Also minimize extrinsic motivation. So, for example, pay them fairly, then do everything to keep money out of the equation of why they come to work.

The reason? Partially because it ends up having a demotivating effect through what they call the Overjustification Effect. It pointed to a study from the 70's to illustrate the point.

Greene, Sternberg and Lepper (1976) played mathematical games with schoolchildren, which the children seemed to enjoy. After a while, they started giving rewards for success. When they took away the rewards, the children quickly gave up playing the games.

The explanation was that the children had decided that they were playing for the reward, not for the fun.

Curt Rosengren
Passion Catalyst ^SM

Vision & passion from a CEO perspective

Here's an interesting article on The CEO Refresher summarizing the thoughts of several Atlanta area CEO's on the ideas of both vision and passion.

In addition to the CEOs' perspectives, the article offers a few questions for companies to use in determining their vision (interestingly, most of them are equally applicable to creating a vision for your own passionate career).

Do you have a clear, well-articulated and communicated vision in your company?

What is our greater purpose?

How is that manifest now?

How could it manifest in the future?

How do we want it to manifest in the future?

To what do we aspire?

Does this picture of the future excite us?

How is this congruent with our values?

What would the future look like if we fully realized this vision?

What would it feel like to be a part of that?

How can our vision be communicated to everyone who needs to know? (Consider not only employees, but also strategic partners, vendors and others involved.)

How do we enroll all the players in this vision?

As human beings living life fully our vision for our own life carries us forward and provides the focus and motivation to be the leaders our organizations so clearly need.

The article also offers some passion-specific questions for company leaders to ponder.

Do I communicate my passion and enthusiasm for the company's vision and for my job?

Do I connect often enough and directly enough with those who need to see my passion?

Are my actions each day congruent with what I say is important? Do I walk my talk?

If any of the above are answered no, what obstacles are in the way of communicating and sharing my passion for the vision, the company and my job?

What can I do to positively address these obstacles? Will I commit to taking action?

Curt Rosengren
Passion Catalyst ^SM

Leadership: Creating passion and purpose

Here's an article on the Detroit Chamber of Commerce site, titled The essence of great leadership: Creating passion and purpose in the workplace, that's music to my ears. It says that great leadership is about an ability to tap into the personal growth, passion, and purpose of each employee and align that with the goals of the company.

Good leaders create an organization with a purpose that rises above the bottom line; great leaders go a step further, finding ways to leverage the passion of each employee in order to create incentives that transcend financial rewards.

The greatest leaders rely on a simple, timeless idea in order to create passionate, purposeful workplaces: the highest purpose in life is growth. We’re not talking about currently popular American notions of growth here -- e.g. growth of your bank account, mortgage payment, or waistline. No, this notion of personal growth goes back to the ancient Greeks: growth in wisdom, in maturity and in one’s contribution to society...

The first step in creating a workplace that promotes personal growth is to determine your organization’s purpose or reason for existing. This purpose must go beyond financial concerns and speak to the ancient, growth-inspiring question of contribution to society.

The next step is to create the intrinsic incentives that motivate employees to work towards the organization’s purpose; these incentives are based on passion.

You can’t “make” employees passionate about work -- passions cannot be imposed externally. Instead, great leaders create environments where employees embrace the corporate purpose, and have numerous opportunities to discover how their individual passions support it.

They go on to outline some attributes of an environment that fosters that:

* Clearly articulated organizational purpose
* Complimentary extrinsic and intrinsic rewards
* Trust
* Leadership by example

And a nice parting note:

Having a leadership mentality implies the conscious choice to live a life of meaning and to create an environment for all those around us to do the same.

Curt Rosengren Passion Catalyst ^SM