Motivation is a Team Effort

A recent short white paper from Accenture has this as part of it’s introduction:

Today’s employees, used to greater customization and choice as consumers, expect
greater customization and choice in the workplace. Individualism, flexibility,
resilience and change orientation have replaced loyalty, tenure and company or
job security as today’s employee competencies. These new competencies and
expectations enable employees to be more active participants in an organization
that has adopted a workforce-of-one approach to managing and developing its
people.

The paper, not a major revelation, however it does outline the responsibilities employees have in identifying the ways in which they want to be motivated, managed, communicated with, etc.

This is a very different process than in the past and I am sure that many managers will not be trained on how to do it.  It used to be that all employees got the same thing – don’t want someone to complain that Jimmy got one thing and Mary got another.

Employees (and any target audience) want what they get everywhere else in their lives.   Choice, personalization, and individualization.

However, this comes with a price.  That price is – as an employee or member of the involved audience, you need to communicate your desires.  And that is also a new skill set for many people.

It’s not just a management issue – it’s an employee issue.  Both groups needs to be trained to communicate.

This has a huge impact on the design of future engagement activities.  Programs and initiatives will need to start with questions – not rules.  They will need to ask for input not present programs.  They will need to segment and slice/dice the measurements, rewards, outcomes – everything.  They will need to be targeted and specific.

And they will need to be managed in a completely transparent way so no one can say – "Jimmy got more than Mary."

Employee engagement and channel and customer programs will be designed via conversation and managed by ongoing dialogs with the involved parties.  The days of programs designed by management committee and presented from on high are long gone.

It will be a different world.