Workplace Motivation Across Generations | Team Management

Workplace motivation is a key element in managing an effective and dynamic team, but multi-generational offices require individualized strategies to maintain morale and team building.

As many older employees will have stayed in the same workplace for a significant amount of time, they value recognition for their loyalty and achievements. Employee spotlights in company meetings or newsletters can show long-term employees that they are appreciated. Meanwhile, millennials typically lack company loyalty, but highly value mentorships and interpersonal communication. In creating mentorship programs, employers can motivate members of all generations, who will enjoy sharing their skill sets and forging connections with their colleagues. Mentorships have the added benefit of cultivating loyalty, and improving communication across generations.

As Generation X moves into leadership positions, employees can begin to delegate training of new employees to members of this generation. However, leadership roles do not necessarily need to be defined by age. Instead, cultivating a collaborative environment will help each employee feel valued for his or her unique skill set. In integrating lower-level employees with experienced team members, employers can minimize generational differences and instead focus on commonalities.

Contact Madison Approach Staffing today to discuss how our Direct Hire, Temp to Hire, Temp Staffing, Training, Payroll Transfers and Benefits Administration services can benefit your business.

 

Compensation Challenges in a Multi-Generational Workplace

A multi-generational office can be enriching for all team members, but it also presents unique challenges to effective management. Beyond matching compensation levels to experience and responsibilities, employers also now have to take into account the different compensation preferences of up to five generations. When it comes to attracting and retaining a talented team, employers need to consider compensation factors that go beyond the paycheck.

Younger generations are less likely to build a life-long career at one company, and so they value career development and personal growth.

When identifying incentives for millennial workers, employers can consider funding their LinkedIn accounts, relaxing the office dress code, or sponsoring happy hours where younger employees can connect with more experienced staff.

Recent research has shown that Generation X’s priorities lie in managing their work-life balance, and many will consider sacrificing higher pay for jobs that are less demanding of their time. For Generation X, paid time off is a significant incentive. Meanwhile, Baby Boomers are generally less interested in social incentives, and will be more focused on benefits and matches in retirement plans or pension programs. While experienced-based compensation is expected, additional incentives can help retain employees across all generations.

Contact Madison Approach Staffing today to discuss how our Direct Hire, Temp to Hire, Temp Staffing, Training, Payroll Transfers and Benefits Administration services can benefit your business.

 

Tapping Your Employee Network’s Professional Network

Social media has proven to be the new wave of connections, however many companies discourage their employees from checking their Twitter and LinkedIn on company time. Reid Hoffman, Ben Casnocha and Chris Yeh, authors of ‘The Alliance,” propose a new kind of networked intelligence that might just have managers and business owners embracing social media as a new path to increasing company knowledge.

By choosing to incorporate technology and online interaction, instead of fighting it, both managers and employees can expand their network, make important connections for the company and increase their awareness of new trends and people in the know.

Reid Hoffman’s presentation, “Network Intelligence: Your Company Can’t Thrive Without It,” hits the major points of the book.

“Information and insight from people you know that can give you a competitive advantage.”

In short, Hoffman describes the alliance as a situation where no one loses. The company gains knowledge and the employee gains experience in networking and expands their professional network. The company has access to double; sometimes triple, the amount of information, as it would if individuals only limited themselves to resources in their own company. The example Hoffman uses of a company that practices the alliance method is HubSpot. HubSpot celebrates the number of Twittter followers or LinkedIn connections an employee has. In using this method, “Hubspot attracts two times the number of candidates for job opportunities it posts on LinkedIn.” HubSpot owner and Founder, Dharmesh Shah, says, “My one regret is that we didn’t put the Learning Meals policy in place from the start at HubSpot.” The Learning Meals program provides the opportunity for employees to dine with individuals in their field on company time and money, providing that employees bring back information and share the new knowledge with the rest of the company. Some of the most valuable information is shared via person-to-person contact. Google is informative, but it doesn’t hold all of the knowledge on a subject that an individual does.

“When it comes to knowledge in a highly networked era, who you know is often more valuable than what you‘ve read.”

Just because the information you’re looking for doesn’t show up on the first five pages of Google, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Interacting with knowledgeable professionals in your field usually leads to more answers, because it can be tailored directly to your needs. Networking is something that is highly valued in general and Hoffman points out that networking goes far beyond just the individual. Encouraging your employees to work for you, and themselves, is becoming a new way of thinking. It helps upper level management problem solve quickly and efficiently, allows employees to help grow the company and more importantly, themselves. Gaining network intelligence through an alliance is a necessity for companies to stay competitive. Also, it serves as a means of growth for employees, which could lead to individuals staying longer in a company in the future.

How do you tap into your employees’ resources to grow your business? We’d love to hear about how you empower your employees, utilize their connections and think up new ways to solve your business challenges.

Workplace Burnout

Job burnout is recognized as neither an ailment nor a neurosis, but it doesn’t take a physician or psychologist to diagnose workplace burnout. It may, however, take an informed and experienced manager. Being able to recognize the signs of burnout and implement the right solutions for your employees can mean increased productivity, loyalty and a happier workplace.

Studies have shown that burnout is more likely to affect those working in positions with high stress and emotional demands, such as social workers, police officers, lawyers, teachers, nurses, doctors, engineers and customer service representatives. These can all be characterized by contact with other people whose demands can be emotionally draining.

What is burnout?

Burnout is a level of stress that affects employees physically, emotionally and mentally leading to exhaustion on all levels. There are 3 types of burnout:

• Exhaustion
  • The stressed out employee who is overwhelmed but continues to strive for success by working at all hours despite fracturing personal relationships both at work and at home.
• Cynicism
  • An under-challenged employee who feels a lack of development and value for their work. This employee will begin to distance him or herself from their work, coworkers and the company.
• Inefficacy
  • The employee who gradually loses all motivation. Despite seeing a goal to strive for, the barriers between them and success feel insurmountable.

Signs of Burnout in Employees

This is where experience can help a manager differentiate between a bad employee and an employee on the road to burnout. A manager who knows his or her employees well has an advantage, as the warning signs vary from person to person. Keep an eye out for:

• Lower quality of work
• Decreased productivity
• Drop in job satisfaction
• A noticeable decrease in engagement
• Greater disruption of coworkers’ tasks
• Reduced commitment to both the job and the company
• More and more work absences

Effects of Job Burnout

Like depression and anxiety disorders, burnout can affect the sufferer on physical, interpersonal and emotional levels. Social relationships may either be dropped entirely – through overworking or withdrawal – or become strained from defensive behavior or an increased tendency towards conflict. Often a burned-out employee is unable to understand that stress is the root of their problems.

Burnout can also lead to health problems, such as headaches, colds and insomnia – all of which are caused by maintaining high levels of stress and emotional exhaustion. Further health risks include an increased dependence on self-medication including alcohol, smoking, sleeping pills, mood elevators, and stimulants.

Causes of Occupational Burnout

Only an experience and involved manager will be able to pinpoint the causes in a particular employee, as they run the entire spectrum of workplace issues:

• Overload of work
• Conflicting job demands
• Tasks that are impossible or nearly impossible to complete
• Lack of resources whether training, funds or technology
• A critical boss
• Ingrained perfectionism
• Lack of recognition
• Not enough information about their role
• Not enough feedback
• Difficult clients
• Lack of social support

• Inadequate pay
• Conflicting roles between home and work
• Not enough participation in decision making
• Under-employment
• Menial tasks with no end
• Personal values conflict with company values
• Achieved goals seem meaningless
• Bureaucracy
• A lack of social or emotional skills

Prevention of Burnout

For a manager, taking steps to prevent burnout is a balancing act between maintaining productivity at the office and recognizing what type of burnout your employees are more prone to fall prey.

Train your team well, equip them with the right tools and the resources they need. Don’t spread them too thin – understand the difference between challenging them and overwhelming them. Also be sure to clearly define their roles and give every member something to own, a part of the company where their decisions are key, no matter how small. Provide support and feedback while rewarding and promoting for good work. Be fair and make sure their voices are heard.

Let your employees follow their passion – whether this means rearranging positions in the company or allowing time for work-related side project – find a way to make sure they are doing what they love.

Foster a work culture that makes it acceptable to socialize during breaks but where cattiness and pettiness is unacceptable. Train your employees on stress management, educate them on burnout and make every employee responsible for preventing burnout in themselves and their coworkers.

Some employees need to be forced to take breaks or given a cutoff time for when they have to stop answering email from home. Others find the best reward is being given a mental health day pass or one day a month when they get to leave early to pick up their kids from school. Giving them a chance to balance home and work goes a long way to getting the most out of your employees and creating a work culture that retains productive and innovative employees.

While extreme cases of burnout can be scary, the good news is that it is both reversible and preventable. Educate yourself and your employees and take some time to take your employees out for a meal to learn more about their passions, aspirations and what changes they would like to see. Following through with employee feedback is the best way to make them heard, respected and valued.

The bottom line is a burned out employee is not productive and a drag on an organization, large or small. Providing a productive workforce is the job of every manager and helping your team to manage workplace stress and providing them the environment and tools to be successful is essential for the success of the organization and the individual.