Lack Of Employee Engagement: Due To Poor Role Design?
There has been too little discussion of the impact of role (job) design on employee satisfaction in all the articles on workforce management.
What people are asked to do will impact their satisfaction and willingness to do it. Work that is repetitive, performed under strict procedures, lacking variety, and requiring only a few simple skills is hard to love.? Ford’s assembly lines were economically potent, placing cars within the reach of a much broader segment of the population. But staffing those lines required workforce management techniques that would repel a significant portion of potential candidates for employment. The “scientific management” approach developed by Taylor was more applicable during the industrial revolution, having little to offer to today’s more knowledge-based roles.
There are situations where work must be performed following strict rules. When fusing an explosive device, it is necessary to attach the red and the black wires to the right posts. Generally accepted accounting practices limit the creativity accounts can exhibit when doing financial statements. Yet having mandatory procedures does not necessarily make work unappealing. Even though switching the wires on an explosive device to see what happens may be a bad idea there could be room to improve the way the work is done… different sequencing, using different tools, and skill training for incumbents in the role. In the accounting world having the right knowledge and skills often enables people to interpret numbers and suggest innovative changes to the way things are done or what knowledge is gleaned from the numbers.?
Competency models provide information about the knowledge, skills, abilities and behaviors that enable an incumbent to perform a role well.? Job descriptions generally include a qualifications section that enables candidates to be evaluated based on how well they match requirements. Staffing professionals can screen applicants for suitability based on the person – role match. Managers may also do a final screen to choose from finalists. On paper this seems to be an effective way to ensure the right workforce is in place.?
Yet even if the work - worker match is good there may be other causes of dissatisfaction. It is difficult for anyone to perform well when in a poorly designed role.? No matter how motivated someone is flawed role design can impact performance negatively. The impact of poor design will vary across roles. Some have a greater impact on unit and organizational performance than others. But poor performance by anyone is to be avoided.
What Are The Characteristics Of A Well-designed Role?
Decades of research have created a model that leads to good role design.? The Job Characteristics Index identifies design characteristics that lead to desirable outcomes.
Figure 1 defines the relationship between design and outcomes.
Employee motivation, satisfaction and effectiveness are outcomes that are valued highly.? In order for employees to experience those outcomes they must see their work as meaningful, they must take responsibility for performing it well, and they must have knowledge of the results produced by their efforts on a continuous basis. Research has shown that the five role characteristics shown will facilitate the realization of the desired results if they are present in appropriate amounts.
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The Worker – Work Match
Several decades of consulting has allowed me to talk to employees from all types of organizations about their jobs. The majority claim they could do so much more if given the opportunity. There is also a significant number of them that have suggested they are not allowed to focus on what they are best at and what they enjoy. When asked they cite two reasons: 1. Their employer does not know what they are capable of doing and/or 2. They were hired for a specific job opening and got stuck there. One of the practices followed by the military that today seem wise is their extensive testing of recruits upon entry. My first few days of national service in the Army were spent testing and although at the time it seemed a bit excessive, I realize now they knew a great deal about me and what I might be capable of doing. The focus on testing began when the country had to increase the armed forces significantly during WWII. The challenge was to sort out a huge number of people to determine what roles they were most suited for. Most organizations (rightfully) focus on the match to the role when hiring. But they often fail to go the extra mile to find out what other roles the person might be suited to in the future.?
When people are assigned to roles they must know what is expected, how it should be achieved and what the rewards will be based on outcomes. The normative response when people are asked about their pay will be they are underpaid. Some of this is attributable to a cognitive bias many of us have… we think we are better than we are (drivers… lovers… performers). One of the reasons someone might feel underpaid is that they believe they could do much more if allowed to, and that would command a higher level of pay. Most employee surveys establish that people feel underpaid but may fail to drill down to discover why they feel that way. If I feel underpaid for what I am capable of the organization should focus on career development, rather than compensation.??
Workforce Development & Career Management
When a new hire is onboarded, their future path is often not questioned. If the organization only knows what a person can do that is relevant to the role that person was hired for there is little to work with relative to career planning. Some organizations stress hiring for the organization, not the job, and consider future fit. Recent research indicates many of the people changing employers today cite boredom (being locked in) as a driver for beginning to examine alternatives. Since there is little reason to think things will change in the post-pandemic period evaluating options seems prudent. A lot of us became more irritable as a result of enduring the significant change forced upon us by the virus outbreak. This adds fuel to the engine that drives people to seek escape, and once that process begins it is difficult to stop it… both for the employee and the organization.
Developing someone who has proven they are capable of assuming responsibility and meeting the demands of the role they are assigned may be preferable to taking a chance on a replacement based on the resume written by that person. Accommodating an employee’s wishes to do something different or to attempt to do work that would be a stretch may be a risk worth taking. There are reasons so many employees seem disengaged today and it is hard to blame it all on the virus. Forcing people to work under different conditions can cause disruption and generate discontent. Yet much can be done to ensure people understand why changes are necessary and that the organization recognizes their impact. Since fewer hires will be required if fewer people resign there is an offsetting payback to any additional resources that will be required to remedy some of the causes for turnover.
Moving Forward
Workforce management strategies (staffing, development, performance management, rewards management, employee relations) should all be evaluated to determine if actions can be taken to improve employee satisfaction. Some can be done currently, while others will require sustained investment in different approaches. When I hear reluctant executives say “but if we change our approach it will make us look like poor decision-makers or indecisive leaders” I often respond with “that was probably the best approach for a different time and different context.”? It is another form of insanity to keep doing the same thing and believe it will begin to work better pretty soon, to paraphrase Einstein.
About the Author:?Robert Greene, PhD, is CEO at Reward $ystems, Inc., a Consulting Principal at Pontifex and a faculty member for DePaul University in their MSHR and MBA programs. Greene?speaks and teaches globally?on human resource management. His consulting practice is focused on helping organizations succeed through people. Greene has written 4 books and hundreds of articles about human resource management throughout his career.