Can Businesses Learn from the Military?

A different view regarding motivating your workforce

Keywords:

business, attitude, career

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A few years ago I left the forces after serving a full 22 years. I joined the Army straight after leaving school; it still seems like yesterday when I walked into the careers office in Barnsley as a spotty eek. After numerous test, medicals and a 2 day assessment I was told I was going to be a vehicle mechanic ‘B’ in the REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers), a right mouthful when I was full of beer and attempting to chat up a young filly. Funnily enough when I enrolled in the REME I was not told I would be spending the first year after basic training in a technical school, if I had known this prior I would defiantly have tried something else.

During my career I became knowledgeable in a host of subjects, some unmentionable, the ones that are printable include; vehicle engineering, health and safety, human resources, general management. During my career I worked in some fantastically well organised, well managed places and unfortunately some not so good places. This leads me to the question; can a business really learn from the military?

Since leaving the forces I have been involved in a few business ventures, generally poor unsuccessful ones. Looking back I honestly believe if the management of these businesses employed a more military type attitude they would have not failed so easily. So what do I mean by a military type attitude? I certainly do not mean acting like the cast of Bad Lads Army.

This is what I mean:

In normal business life the main motivator is money or the fear of the boot. This is probably why so many people nowadays change job so frequently. These should not be the only motivation tools a company employ. The Army uses the best motivation tool there is ‘Time Off’. Of course having your workforce at home most of the time is counter productive.

In the early 90’s I managed a small vehicle workshop in Berlin. I had one military worker and one civilian. During the quiet periods I would call for the dice to be brought out, sometimes as early as 8am. The dice were thrown by all of us, the lowest combined score from 2 throws meant that person had to man the telephone all day, whilst the winners disappeared either home or to the local golf course. This management tactic as well as others ensured I had a happy workforce, production statistics don’t lie they showed an overall output increase. Other methods in different places included production meetings in the local pub, rewarding my hardest worker by giving him 5 days off; this certainly spurred the rest of the lads on and a host of other methods.

Of course there were times when I worked with unmotivated, self opinionated, lazy soldiers, on these occasions I adopted a sterner approach.

I then look at the majority of workers in everyday business life; I see they are generally unmotivated, unless they are self employed. I wonder if this is because they are not well managed. My guess would be they are not managed at all. My cousin works in a very busy establishment as soon as his boss leaves the office, everyone logs on to EBay. How counter productive is that?

To conclude in my opinion many lessons can be learned from the British military in how to manage and run organisations. I should send my article to the BBC maybe they will run a programme on it, now that would be funny.

About the author - Peter Arkwright recently retired from the military, he is now the Managing Director of www.bizseller4u.com
A new portal that allows people to list their Business for Sale

This article is free for republishing

Home Business Success - 5 Things You Learn From Your Ex-Boss

What corporate culture can teach you about starting and running a home based business.

Keywords:

home business, home based business

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Copyright © 2006 Gobala Krishnan

In the past, everyone could take pride in working for large, multinational companies. The current trend of downsizing and outsourcing, however, has brought major changes in the employment landscape. One thing for sure, as job security becomes a thing of the past, many are turning towards starting their own home based businesses.

Job security has its merits, and a home business is, arguably, not for everyone. But for those who are interested in making this shift, a change in mentality is absolutely important. There are many bad habits that lie dormant in all of us. You need to change these bad habits and develop new good habits to survive as an entrepreneur. And in many cases these can be 'borrowed' from your existing or former corporate work environment.

Here are some new disciplines that you can borrow from your working life, to develop and to practice:

1) Ownership and Decision Making

In corporate culture, you are responsible only for what your job requires you to do. In most jobs however, you are hardly responsible for the survival of the company. Your contribution, as compared to the whole, is only marginal. You can make mistakes and get away with it. Your job is easily replaceable.

As an entrepreneur, however, you may find the world to be less forgiving. A mistake can cost you your entire business. It is vital for anyone who wants to start their own home based business to think about this fact. You have to realize that success in a home based venture is directly tied up to your actions, and you need to take responsibility for everything that happens.

In your own business, you need to go beyond your capacity at times, stretching yourself more than you would as an employee. Taking responsibility also means being able to make the correct decisions as and when needed. When you work from home, YOUR decision is final. Although it may a little scary for an entrepreneur at first, these habits practiced over time becomes second nature.

It sure beats having to put up with corporate red-tape!

2) Developing a Creative Mindset & Taking Risks

Companies hardly, if ever, reward you for being creative. They do, however, reward you for showing up on time and completing your daily routines. You are rewarded not for being outstanding, but for being average.

As an entrepreneur, you need to shake off the bad habit of doing things the usual way, the "way it's always been done" There is nothing wrong with using standard procedures and methods. In fact, sticking to the 'rules' can help you make a decent living. But if you want the big money, like I do, you need to start thinking "Outside the Box". A little bit of ingenuity in your business can save you a lot of money and time.

Ingenuity involves finding solutions to a problem. You may, at any stage of your home business, realize that you just don't have an abundance of resources. Resources in this context can be money, time, expertise or just about everything else that you need, but just don't have...

As you might have figured, creativity comes with risk. Doing something new is more risky than doing it the old way, but the payoff is incredible. Thinking outside the box might result in failure, just as well as it might lead to amazing success. But risk is not necessarily a bad thing, especially when it is studied, anticipated and even welcomed.

So what do you do?

Most home business challenges can be solved, even if you are not a genius or have thousands of dollars to spend. If you can just use your ingenuity, you can find a solution to these challenges.

Figure out how to make the best of your advertising dollars. Figure out how to save time and automate your business. Figure out how to complement your skills using the skills of others. Small steps like these can go a long way in determining just how successful you will be.

3) Making Your Own Rules & Organizing Time

Imagine you arrive at work one day and find that the punch-card machine has been removed. The company also fired your boss, and the new rules say that you can come in at any time you want, bring your wife and kids along, and take as many breaks as you want. Shorts and a T-shirts are now the standard, accepted work attire.

What would you do?

I know what I would do - absolutely nothing at all! I would take advantage of the situation, and do absolutely no work at all. As days go by, I get lazier and eventually become a total slob.

A home business environment is not much different from the scenario above. In the absence of corporate rules, you must develop your own self imposed "home business rules". Set a time for work, for play, and for household activities. If you just decide to "go with the flow", you often get no where at all.

I used to think that money was the most important asset of my home business. Being quite naive, I thought that with more money, I could be successful faster. After all, money is king. With more money, I could buy more "big time" advertising, hire assistants and equip my business with the best software systems.

It didn't take me long to realize that time is more important than money. Money simply cannot buy time. But with more time, I can all make all the money I want. Put in another way, I would say that MORE TIME is more important than just MORE MONEY. But none of us, not you, nor me, can have more than 24 hours a day at our disposal.

So, as a home business entrepreneur, we need to ultimately learn how to make the best use of the time that we have. This easy to say, but it will take discipline to see it through. Discipline is not easy to achieve, but it CAN be done. Just focus on doing a little bit every day, and stick to the timeline you had laid out, and you will get into the productive rhythm that comes with discipline.

4) Continuous Self-improvement

The home business arena is highly competitive. As an entrepreneur you will need to keep up with any event that will effect your business, for better or worse.

Corporations usually have mandatory training courses for all employees. If you are someone who attended these courses just to get away from doing work, or just to get some extra sleeping time in the class, then you need to change your attitude.

As an entrepreneur you must to find ways to enrich yourself with more knowledge. Take that accounting class, attend that local business seminar and read related books. Don't see these as additional expenses, see them as long term investment. An investment in knowledge, after all, yields the best return.

Every type of business is subject to slowdowns. If you do not continuously improve your skills and knowledge, simply throwing in more money or hiring more people when that happens will not solve the problem. The only way to move forward, to get to "the next level" is to acquire new knowledge. New knowledge opens up more opportunities for your business.

5) Commitment to Your Goals & Deadlines for Success

"I want this on my desk by 2.00pm".

Sounds familiar? Most of us seek a home based business because we want to escape the pressures of a 9-5 job. The word "deadline" may send a shiver through your spine.

The irony, however, is that deadlines are EXACTLY what you need to succeed in just about anything. As an entrepreneur, these deadlines always are, and must be, self-imposed. There are many book on how to set and achieve goals and I suggest you read as many as you can.

Having family around you can be used to your advantage. Communicate your goals to your wife or husband. Promise your kids a vacation when you've finished a major task. Soon, you will get little "bosses" running around telling you to stop watching TV and get to your work. Well, at least they are "adorable" bosses!

An excerpt from the book 'Think and Grow Rich' by Napoleon Hill (pg. 15):

...a great warrior faced a situation which made it necessary for him to make a decision which insured his success on the battlefield. He... gave the order to burn the ships that carried them. Addressing his men before the first battle he said "You see the boats going up in smoke? That means that we cannot leave these shores alive unless we win! We now have no choice - We win - or we perish".

They won.

And no matter what YOUR goals are in seeking self-employment and an entrepreneurial life, with commitment to your goals and determination to meet your deadlines, you too will win. Take the positive aspects of your current of former work environment to build a healthy and productive home business mentality to ensure that you are heading towards success.

Here's to your success. Cheers.

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Do You Need A License? Regulated Industries... Learn More About It...

I once knew a guy whose great idea for a ‘home business’ was to run poker tournaments from his house. Needless to say, that didn’t last long once the police heard about it.

If you think you’ve got an idea that’s going to make you big money, there might be a reason why everyone else isn’t doing it – and that reason could be related to the law. Many types of businesses are strictly regulated and controlled by governments.

Gambling.

However fun and profitable it might b...

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Article Body:

I once knew a guy whose great idea for a ‘home business’ was to run poker tournaments from his house. Needless to say, that didn’t last long once the police heard about it.

If you think you’ve got an idea that’s going to make you big money, there might be a reason why everyone else isn’t doing it – and that reason could be related to the law. Many types of businesses are strictly regulated and controlled by governments.

Gambling.

However fun and profitable it might be to put fruit machines in your house, run a mini card casino or just invite the local old people over to play bingo, it’s almost certainly illegal without a license. Gambling is an industry that’s almost always strictly controlled – it might be fine to gamble privately with your friends (or, depending on where you live, it might not be), but as soon as you start running it as a business you’re on very dodgy ground. You’ll also find that most places have laws against for-profit lotteries – sorry. Applying for a license to turn your home into a gambling premises is unlikely to succeed. If you wonder why, consider what would happen if people in your area could do that. It wouldn’t be pretty.

Alcohol.

Yes, it seems odd to some people that you need a license to serve alcohol – after all, you can invite people round to your own house for a drink perfectly legally, can’t you? As soon as you start charging them for those drinks, though, the nature of what you’re doing changes drastically in the eyes of the law, and you’re going to need a license. If you don’t get one, then you could be heading off to jail for quite a while.

Again, you’re going to have trouble getting an alcohol license for your home, unless you’re holding some kind of event there and the drinking is just incidental. Alcohol licenses are usually subject to appeals from people who live near the premises being considered, and you can guarantee that your whole neighbourhood is going to turn out to say what a bad idea it would be.

Medics.

If you plan to do anything medical, then you’ll probably need a license. When I say medical, I mean doctors, dentists, opticians, and even vets. You might think it’d be fine to turn your home into an ‘animal hospital’, but you need to be qualified and licensed. Of course, if you’ve previously been a doctor, dentist, or whatever, then you shouldn’t have too much trouble getting licensed to do the same thing from home.

Children.

People get jumpy around children, and you’re very unlikely to be able to look after any as part of your business without jumping through all sorts of hoops. Just to be a nanny, there are all sorts of courses to take and regular inspections to go through. If you ever wonder why there’s a shortage of small-scale childcare, it’s because it’s so hard to keep within the rules while making any profit.

Food.

If you’re going to sell food, you usually need to register, for hygiene and safety reasons – imagine if just anyone could sell you food, without any checks! For various reasons most local government agencies are especially strict if you plan to handle raw meat. It’s usually fine to sell cooked meat, but raw meat is considered more dangerous. Food licenses aren’t too hard to get, anyway, provided you have a relevant hygiene qualification and you’re willing to have your kitchen and products inspected at regular intervals.

More.

This list is nowhere near exhaustive – it just covers some of the most common kinds of businesses that people think of. If you’re planning to do something more unusual, then you really need to check your local laws.

Should I Bother?

Most home business owners don’t know about the rules that apply to them, and don’t especially care either. Every day you operate in a regulated industry without a license, though, you risk being shut down, or worse. It’s only going to take one upset customer or neighbour to get you into big trouble – so unless you want to be worrying all the time, make sure you’re properly licensed for whatever you want to do

Home Business - Con Prevention; Learn the Cons

Potential cons and things to watch out for when running a small business

Keywords:

Home Based Businesses,Best Work From Home Businesses

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If, like many of us, you're a home based business owner, you know that there are many hooks and crooks out there. If you're new at it or still thinking about opening a home based business then hear this! Crooks do exist in business and they will take your money if they can. So does that mean it's safer to not run a home based business? SAFER? Are you looking for something safer? If you don't take chances you're not going to win. Abolutely not! You stand to make much better money working for yourself and you're sure to be much happier being your own boss. Like anything in this World, you just need to be aware of what's really going on in your business arrangements. Don't be naive and think that everybody is a nice person. This is BUSINESS! The rules are *almost* 'there are no rules'. Most businesses are dependable and trustworthy. They value your long term opinion of them because they are fully aware of your potential ability to bring (or prevent) business for them in the future. A saying in business goes 'if you'll only do business with people that you trust then don't bother trying to do business'. Here are a few tips to help keep your eyes open.

#1. Partners - business partners can range anywhere from your best friend to a financial supporter to a franchise business. When it comes to partnership arrangements in business, NEVER accept a word of mouth arrangement. Even if your partner is your very best friend, make sure that written legal agreements are drawn up that specify in detail the ownership, compensation and responsibilities of each party in the agreement. Make sure the agreement is signed in the presence of witnesses who could be called into court and properly notarized. Also, be wary of payment in stocks or stock options when you don't have control over company stock splits and dilutions.

#2. Marketers - new businesses start up by the thousands on an ongoing basis. Marketers know this and some prey on new businesses. They'll show you in graphs and statistics and eloquent words how you can make mega-bucks by using their strategies. Far too often, it is the marketers who make the money, not the businesses they're marketing. They know you won't come back and they don't care. Even legitimate businesses can accidentally trap you. Take for example, Google AdWords. Open your Internet browser and go to www.google.com and search for any popular search words like say, 'scuba diving trips'. Notice on the right hand side 'sponsored links'. These are companies who pay Google each time a user, like you, clicks their link. Watch the 'sponsored links' for a given set of keywords (ie. 'scuba diving trips') for 3 months or longer. See if the ads (companies) don't frequently change. If they do, Google made money, not the business who placed the ad. Otherwise, their link would stay there. Don't misunderstand, Google AdWords can make you a lot of money if *you* know how to work the ads. Another example is email SPAM. How many times have you purchased something from an email advertisement? So, who do you think makes money from the endless onslaught of email SPAM? Usually, it's the companies doing the SPAMming and not the companies who they are supposedly trying to sell products for. In general, if you see *one* given company using the same advertising over and over, it's working. Otherwise, it's probably not. Of course a business that does no marketing is doomed to a dismal failure. However, don't be duped by fast talking advertisers. Quite often, they make the money, not you.

#3. Lawsuits - it is a bad practice to enter contractual arrangements thinking that other parties will not violate the agreement just to keep from getting sued. Take a trip to your local County Records department (or look it up on the Internet) and see how many judgements are still outstanding after 10 years or more. You may be shocked to find that a judge's ruling that somebody owes you money does NOT guarantee that you will get it. A person can just disappear and the government will not give you privileged information to help you find them. A corporation can withdraw all their money, file for bankruptcy, close their doors and reopen as a different corporation. Also, quite often you'll find that it may be more expensive to sue someone than to count your losses and walk away. Business dealers know this and use it. If I illegally conned you out of $150.00 would you sue me for it? Even if you could it probably wouldn't be to your advantage. Or what if a business offered a '30 Day Money Back Guarantee' and then didn't make good on it? That con is a classic. When making business deals don't count exclusively on legalities to keep you out of trouble. Make sure the other parties in the deal have genuine motives to stick to the agreement.

Being in business for yourself can be very liberating and quite lucrative. But business is about making money. Most of us believe that we can do better for ourselves by engaging in genuine commerce. That is, we provide a genuine product or service for a price at or near the monetary market value of the product or service that we provide. That's what we call a 'win win' situation. Both the provider and the purchaser end up pleased with the outcome of the deal. However, there are business dealers who deem it entirely ethical to take whatever they can from you, whether legally or illegally as long as they don't get hurt. Always be wary of business dealings like this. Try to work, within reason, with people who have already proven their trustworthiness and always try to foresee every potential outcome of any business deal you intend to engage.

Competitors - Learn To Exploit Their Weaknesses

Competitors are one of your largest business threats. The best way to counteract the threat is by learning about and then exploiting the weaknesses of your competitors.

Keywords:

Competitor, Competitors

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Competitors are one of your largest business threats. You have to know who your competitors are and how they operate. You will use this information to decide how to position yourself, where you price yourself, and how you're perceived by your marketplace.

Competitor Analysis

When you research your competitors you should list what kinds of companies are your biggest competition. Possible competitor types you should consider are:

Big PC manufacturers

Computer consulting moonlighters

Established computer consulting businesses

Software producers and distributors

Once you decide which types of competitors pose the most threat, go through the list and identify specific companies in each category that you consider to be significant competitors.

When you have a good idea who exactly your largest competitors are, then you need to find out how they operate. You need to uncover their biggest strengths and biggest weaknesses. You want to be able to exploit their weaknesses. In fact a lot of your business value will come from exploiting your competitors' weaknesses.

Listen to what people are saying in the large electronics stores and warehouses. Talk to your friends, family, coworkers, and acquaintances.
What are they saying about computer support?
What are they complaining about?
What causes them frustration?

Use this information to be better than your competitors. You need to understand how you can be better than your competitors and then use that information to fit yourself into the market.

The Bottom Line on Competitors

Competitors will always be around. Your job as a new business owner is to understand how you fit into the market. Figure out where your competitors are strong and where they are weak. Then exploit your competitors' weakness by positioning yourself as the obvious, better alternative.

Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consulting 101. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}

EMPLOYEES AS CUSTOMERS: What HR needs to Learn from Marketing

During the earlier stages of my career I was fortunate to have worked for a large corporation that had a management development program for up-and-coming managers. This program combined formal management courses with on the job training. The job training involved assignments to different divisions in the company. Two learning goals were mandated by these assignments:

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Article Body:

During the earlier stages of my career I was fortunate to have worked for a large corporation that had a management development program for up-and-coming managers. This program combined formal management courses with on the job training. The job training involved assignments to different divisions in the company. Two learning goals were mandated by these assignments:

1. Acquire knowledge in a new discipline
2. Learn about the different parts of the organization, experience their challenges and understand how they contribute to the success of the whole

My formal education was in environmental studies with a specialty in ecology. One of the key principles in ecology is that ecosystems are made up of interdependent elements. A change in one part of an ecosystem will result in changes in other parts of the same system. Without knowing it at the time, my classmates and I became “systems thinkers”. This ability to see systems has guided my decision making throughout my life in business and in my private affairs. Naturally, I thrived in this opportunity to be a part of a management training program where I was able to experience different parts of the organization and see first hand how each part related to the whole company.

When I concluded the training program I was appointed manager of marketing planning. My appointment coincided with a strategic decision made by the company to aggressively increase its share of the energy market. I had a staff of 35 and a budget of three million dollars for market research. I was learning on the job. I learned from my staff and I learned from the consultants we hired to conduct much of the market research. In addition I was sent on a two week intensive executive marketing program at the Graduate School of Business, Columbia University in New York, and a year later to the Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia. This was an amazing time of learning, personal growth and achieving demanding goals.

After that my career continued to flourish. I moved through the senior ranks of several companies until I reached president. Nine years ago I established Entec Corporation a company that specializes in measuring employee engagement. Although I loved marketing, I returned to my first passion-creating working environments where employees can thrive and be fully engaged.

Over the last nine years I have worked with many organizations and I have also been privy to the HR practices of many others. To my surprise I discovered the lack of research discipline that HR departments applied when conducting employee surveys. I was prompted to write this article after reading a piece by Sudipta Dev, from Aptech. In his article, "Is Job Happiness a Myth?" he wrote about the importance of conducting an employee satisfaction survey as a way of gauging employee sentiment. He also mentioned how important it was to conduct focus groups afterwards to fully understand the survey results. I witnessed this process of conducting an employee survey, followed by focus groups in several companies over the years. This included a well known company with 35,000 employees. However, I thought these were isolated cases. When I read this article it was evident that this was common and considered a best practice. I could not believe what I was reading. Why spend money on an employee survey if it is going to be followed by focus groups? Isn’t this placing the cart before the horse?

Conducting an employee survey is conducting research. My marketing training and experience taught me that the survey is the last step not the first step in the research process. The purpose of the survey is to quantify and prioritize. Focus groups are used at the start of the research process to get an understanding of potential issues. In our marketing work and now in Entec’s HR work, we use the focus group information to develop a model first. This is followed by developing questions that fit within the parts of the model. Creating a model before developing the questions provides a framework for the questions. This framework provides a structure for the survey analysis so that the results are organized and presented in a way that point clearly to follow up action. When the survey and the analyses are completed, there is no question as to what the survey results mean. There is no question about priorities. There is no question about who is responsible for follow up action

Marketing and market research are sophisticated, disciplined processes that produce highly effective results. For example, automobile manufactures use a variety of “focus group” techniques to clearly understand the reasons and motivators for a purchase decision: Is it external design, internal design, color, performance, quality, comfort, size, fuel efficiency, financing and so on. How will the different market segments prioritize these factors? The focus group information is used to develop the market research survey that will quantify the information. The research results are used to create the marketing programs for the various products and market sectors.

Employees are no less important than customers. Understanding the “root causes” of employee behavior and motivation is especially important in today’s knowledge based economy. We are in an economy where a company’s success rests on the mental performance of its employees. It seems to me that in this environment, HR departments would bring greater value to their organizations if they adopted and applied marketing’s sophistication and research discipline to understanding employee needs. A change in perception is required, where employees are viewed as customers. This will provide the information to unlock the creative and innovative energy of employees.

Let me share a personal story. Nine years ago when Entec Corporation was founded, we spent the first year conducting research. The purpose of the research was to clearly understand the key factors that contributed to the employee experience in the workplace. We organized focus groups in several organizations from different business sectors. For example, the General Manager of an electric utility consented to personally participate along with half a dozen staff from different parts of his organization and different job levels. We facilitated many meetings over a three months period to create an “employee experience model”. The model depicted all the factors that contribute to the employee working experience. At the end of this period the group formulated questions for an employee survey that was designed to measure the employee experience at work. The questions were clear and precise and they led directly to follow up action. This process was repeated at a health care facility and several other private sector companies. The surveys were tested and validated.

When we used our employee survey we noted that there was a direct link between the survey results and a company’s financial performance. For example, we surveyed three electric utilities. Although the number of employees ranged from 150 to 400, the customer profile for each utility was very similar. The revenue split between large industrial customers, commercial customers and residential customers was about the same for each utility. In other words we were able to compare apples to apples. The utility with the highest employee survey scores were also the most profitable. The utility with the lowest employee survey scores was the least profitable.

Since that time our employee models and surveys have evolved and have become more sophisticated. Today we no longer talk about measuring the employee experience but rather we talk about employee engagement. When the employee surveys and analyses are completed there is no question as to what they mean. There is no need for post survey focus group. There is a direct link between the survey results and the company’s financial performance. The following note from a client summarizes this best.

Gap Inc. Canada has partnered with Entec since 1999 to customize, implement, analyze and then action a compelling employee survey. I have reviewed and used many employee satisfaction instruments in the past, but none were as comprehensive, accurate or as linked to improving both business results and employee commitment as this one.

Vice President
Gap Inc. Canada

It is interesting to note that in 2004 the three Gap brands in Canada: Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic are among the most profitable in the world. Gap has approximately 175,000 employees, world wide.

I think companies and HR departments need to change their perception of their employees and view their employees as customers. To do this they need to adopt the full spectrum of marketing concepts, processes and tools to understand their employees and to meet their needs. These would include disciplined employee research, followed by appropriate communication, relationship building and provision of products and services. Naturally, the products and services will depend on the survey results but could include improved workplace practices such as greater participation in decision making, infusing a high level of trust and fairness, choosing from a menu of benefits that best suit individual needs, consideration around work/life balance issues, zero tolerance policy on sexual harassment, verbal abuse and bullying etc. Some companies are addressing many of these important issues but frequently the programs are developed in a piece meal fashion. There is little knowledge about the value and contribution of each program to unlocking employee energy and to the bottom line.

A classic example of this is the company gym. I am a great supporter of physical fitness. I exercise each morning. In the past I worked for two companies that provided a physical fitness facility. I appreciated the convenience of these facilities. However, the fact that the facility was there did not change my behavior and it did not seem to change the behavior of most other employees. Those who worked out did so whether there was a company gym or not. Those who do not exercise did not start exercising. Typically health departments measure the utilization rate of their gyms. But they do not measure relevant measures such as the “conversion rate”- the number of employees that did not exercise in the past but exercise now. They do not link the presence of a gym to the financial performance of the company. Is a gym the best way for a company to be spending its money? Should they be investing in strategically located meditation rooms, or a day care centre, or a full time chaplain? Most companies cannot answer these questions because they do not have the information. They have not developed a framework to ask the right questions. They have not conducted disciplined employee market research.

The Beginnings of a Framework-Employee Engagement

The Gallup organization has placed the term employee engagement on the map. There contribution to understanding the underlining factors of employee motivation has been significant. There is however, an important piece missing in Gallup’s work. There are two parts to employee engagement:

1. the employee and their own unique psychological make up
2. the employer and their ability to create the conditions that will promote employee engagement.

Gallup’s work does not address the first part. Entec Corporation assembled a team of experts in strategic management, organizational development, leadership, behavioral psychology and psychiatry. The team was asked to develop a model of employee engagement. They determined that there were five factors that are primary drivers of employee engagement:

1. Employee emotional well-being
2. Department practices
3. Leadership behaviors
4. Corporate practices
5. Vision and values

The focus of the organizational measures in the Employee Engagement Survey© is on practices and on leadership behaviors. Practices and behaviors create the specific working conditions that influence an employee to be motivated, and emotionally committed to their work and to their company. Since every employee has a unique psychological make up, each employee will respond differently to the same conditions.

For example, every employee has a different level of self-motivation. One employee may require verbal recognition once a year for a job well done while another employee may require recognition once a week. Each of these employees will score the question regarding recognition differently even though they may have the same supervisor and they are treated in the same way.

If 40% of employees scored in the disengaged category it means that for these employees the organizational practices and leadership behaviors are not meeting their needs to motivate them to be fully engaged. It does not mean that 40% of employees are a lost cause. It means they need more from their organization to lift their level of performance. Disengaged employees can become engaged employees under the right working conditions.

It is important to convey to all employees that “disengagement” is not necessarily a negative reflection of their own desire to do a good job. The organization needs to create the environment to bring the best out in their employees. The majority of people want to do a good job.

But employees also need to understand that employee engagement is a partnership between themselves and the company. The responsibility for employee engagement does not rest solely on the shoulders of the organization. It is not one or the other - it is both. Employees have a responsibility to shape their own destiny and career path just as much as the employer.

Therefore employee engagement is a partnership between the company and the employees where everyone works together to achieve the business objectives of the company and the personal aspirations of employees. The organization has the responsibility to create the conditions for this to happen. But before the organization can enter into an effective partnership with employees to create the appropriate conditions for engagement, they need to have the right information that is derived from employee market research.