The Three F’s To Making Great Employees

One of the fundamental pillars of a successful business is employee satisfaction, motivation, and engagement. By strengthening this pillar, companies are likely to see positive results in productivity and performance, both within the short and long term.

Within my 35+ years in management positions, I’ve seen the pivotal role managers play in strengthening employee satisfaction and in turn, helping them achieve and surpass an organization’s goals. Over the years, I’ve implemented the “Three F’s: Future, Fun, Fortune” to best analyze my employee’s satisfaction and develop a course of action to increase employee performance.?

To maintain motivation, employees must see a ‘Future’. Each one of your employees has a different view of what ‘future’ means, whether it be the company’s future trajectory, their future position within a company's hierarchy, or their future freedom to create and develop products. The number of possible futures are abundant, therefore it is imperative that managers have an understanding of how each employee sees his future. This is not too complicated; all it takes is periodic conversations. By understanding an employee’s ‘future’ and helping them attain and visualize that future depending on their abilities, managers can best motivate employees.

While every employee knows when they are having ‘FUN’ at work, it’s imperative for a manager to highlight and champion this attribute.?From my experience, fun is marginally more influential than the other F’s, as it can completely transform the emotional connection an employee has to work. Each type of fun, whether it be working as part of a great team, or a ping pong table in the lobby, has a different influence on an employees' ‘fun’ level. These varying definitions are important to consider when scoring up the overall ‘fun’ position of an employee.

‘Fortune’ refers to the monetary element of an employee’s compensation.?This includes salary, bonuses, stock options, 13-salary, etc. To fulfill this F, an employer must consider an employee’s relative compensation, both to their peers and their competitors. This F must also consider the culture and economic standing of your company's surrounding environment. While monetary compensation is important, it doesn’t buy an employee’s loyalty, and therefore doesn’t guarantee longevity.??In most cases, managers are aware of the relative job-market, therefore in my view it's the easiest one to manage.

The number of F’s an employee feels a company fulfills signals to an employer the longevity and success of this employee, and therefore, his business. A company should not keep employees that feel no F is fulfilled. Employees with two F’s are relatively happy and successful and tend to stay in companies for three to five years. Over time, a manager can change the variations of the Fs for that employee, creating a longer expected tenant. Three F employees are highly motivated, loyal, great ambassadors, and are an integral part of the company's future. Three F employees are usually self-sufficient and are often promoted to managerial positions over time.

While zero, two and three ‘F’ employees are important to identify, it is the one F employees that are the most critical at signifying a company’s success. As a result, the most crucial part of a company’s employee management is identifying one F employees and managing them. These employees tend to feel unfulfilled and often hurt the business and internal culture within the company. It is imperative that once identifying these employees, managers invest in either finding ways of fulfilling another F or deeming this employee as redundant.?

Managing employees is always a delicate task, it requires empathy and sympathy, but also doing the right thing for the good of the company.?