Enjoyment or Fun?

By Charlie Lang, CXO Coach and Founder of Progress-U Asia

“I expect to travel and my career will be more about enjoying the experience than earning money.” Female graduate employee, Republic of Ireland(a)

This quote is typical for members of Generation Y (born between 1980 and 1995).

The question is: as an employer or leader, should we focus on creating more fun experiences for Gen Y members or should we focus on making their experience more enjoyable? What is the difference? And how about the other generations?

Definitions according to Merriam-Webster(b):

FUN:

(1) what provides amusement or enjoyment; specifically: playful often boisterous action or speech

(2) a mood for finding or making amusement - all in fun

ENJOYMENT:

(1) a: the action or state of enjoying

b: possession and use - the enjoyment of civic rights

(2) something that gives keen satisfaction - the poorest life has its enjoyments and pleasures

While both terms sound similar, they are not the same. In my own understanding, fun seems to be related to specific events. For example: “The workshop yesterday was fun.” It typically includes lots of laughter.

Enjoyment seems less limited to ‘events’, for example: “I enjoy my job” – which typically means that most of the time I love what I do – even if there are temporary exceptions that are less enjoyable, the main experience is still positive.

Given that distinction, it becomes obvious that organizations and their leaders would benefit more from focusing on maximizing enjoyment rather than fun. It’s not that creating fun experiences is wrong, but they typically are short-lived while if we can create genuine enjoyment, it tends to be more long lasting.

The Corporate Leadership Council (CLC)(c) discovered in its research on employee engagement that so-called ‘Emotional Commitment Factors’ tend to have much more impact on driving discretionary effort (could be translated as ‘going the extra mile’) than so-called ‘Rational Commitment Factors’.

Emotional Commitment to the Job was found to be the leading driver for discretionary effort and essentially means that if people deeply enjoy what they do, they are much more likely to go the extra mile.

Rational Commitment Factors include career prospect, bonus, job safety, etc. – while they impact some people in going the extra mile, the percentage was less than half compared to Emotional Commitment Factors.

So how can we optimize job enjoyment in order to maximize job engagement?

It starts with the selection of people who are likely to enjoy their job.

Harrison Assessments was developed based on the “Enjoyment-Performance-Theory”(d) which essentially says: if you enjoy what you do, you tend to do it more, you tend to learn more, you tend to get better, you tend to get good results, therefore you tend to get positive feedback, and as a result you enjoy it even more. Likewise, if you don’t enjoy something, you tend to avoid it, you tend to not learn much, results are not so great, feedback is not positive, as a result you enjoy it even less.

Harrison Assessments measures in a 20-30 minutes questionnaire 175 dimensions including personality traits, personal interests, engagement and retention factors, workplace preferences, behavioral competencies and work values that provide deep insights into the likelihood whether or not a candidate will enjoy the job at offer. It is assessed by creating a so-called Job Success Formula in which the relevant dimensions (typically 30-60 of the 175 dimensions based on the job nature) are selected and weighted according to the importance for the job.

For example, the personality trait ‘Outgoing’ would be considered as essential for a frontline sales person who needs to find new sales leads, but would be considered desirable (important but not critical) for a sales assistant who mostly works from the office.

Of course, besides assessing the soft factors, it is critical to also consider hard factors such as education, hard skills, experience, etc. when selecting a candidate.

The same assessment is also useful for existing employees. If we want to drive higher employee engagement, then it’s important to understand what currently hinders that employee from being more engaged. From the same questionnaire, an Engagement and Retention Analysis can be generated which gives insights into the employee’s

·     Development Expectations

·     Appreciation Expectations

·     Remuneration Expectations

·     Communication Expectations

·     Authority Expectations

·     Personal Expectations

·     Social Expectations

·     Work Life Balance Expectations

Accordingly, the leader can review with the employee what can be done to optimize enjoyment for the employee and thus maximize the employee’s engagement level.

How about the other generations?

Over the past few years, we have conducted a number of Gen Y workshops with participants from different generations. When we listed what is important for Gen Y, such as enjoyment, more self-direction, more support, less hierarchy, etc. – all participants essentially said: “We want that, too!”

So what’s then the difference among the generations? We found that Gen Y members tend to be more insisting on getting these expectations met compared to older generations.

The good news is that if you can improve enjoyment overall in the organizations, it not only benefits Gen Y employees but essentially all employees.

If you want to drive higher performance, one way to do so is to drive higher engagement among your employees. Higher engagement tends to go hand in hand with higher levels of enjoyment (especially enjoyment of what one does). While more fun can be helpful, a focus on enjoyment tends to bring better results.

Harrison Assessments – which is based on the enjoyment-performance-theory - can help to select the ‘right’ people who are likely to enjoy the jobs you offer and is also useful to assess your current employees to see in which areas you might need to do something to help them maximize their engagement.

Passionate about Progress!

Charlie Lang, Founder & Managing Partner of Progress-U Group Asia

For more information on Harrison Assessments, visit https://www.progressu.com/assessments/individual-harrison-assessments

NOTES

(a): Millennials at work – Reshaping the Workplace, PricewaterhouseCoopers International Ltd., 2011

(b): Merriam-Webster: https://www.merriam-webster.com

(c): Improving Employee Performance in the Economic Downturn, Corporate Leadership Council / Corporate Executive Board, 2009

(d): Harrison Assessments – Enjoyment-Performance-Theory: https://harrisonassessments.com/enjoyment-performance.html