Motivation

Employee Experience

CEO & Founder

nick.jpg

We hear a lot about engaged employees being more productive employees, and that employees who are motivated going over and above the basics that their role requires of them. 

There appears to be a strong link between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction that shows that there is a compelling business reason to invest in the people experience at work. 

But if we want satisfied and motivated employees, you will need to design work with this in mind. 

## Employee satisfaction and results: The service profit chain

The service profit chain has been around for a long time now and the principle is a simple one that when explained to most people they nod and say, “makes sense!” 

It is a model based on getting the People Experience right, by design and driving employee motivation and satisfaction, which in turn drives business success. 

In the service profit chain model, employee satisfaction leads to better outcomes for your people, which puts them in a better place to deliver the Customer Experience, which in turn leads to customer satisfaction, loyalty and ultimately revenue growth and profit (which can be invested back into the people experience). 

The People Experience Hub take on this model is shown below: 

![Employee Motivation and Satisfaction in The Service Value Chain ](/uploads/189f96b4febf45da906245bcbf4a6b09.webp)

## What does the research tell us about the importance of employee satisfaction? 

The importance of employee satisfaction has been researched many times, recently [Professor Alex Edmans](https://www.linkedin.com/in/aedmans/) from the London Business school looked at the Fortune 100 best companies to work for and found that firms with the best levels of employee satisfaction outperformed their peers by 2.3% to 3.8% at the stock market. 

Alex says: 

> It’s employee satisfaction that causes good performance, rather than good performance allowing a firm to invest in employee satisfaction. 

Research from Hoseong Jeon & Beomjoon Choi published in the Journal of Services Marketing in 2012 called “The relationship between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction” shows that employee satisfaction does have a positive impact on customer satisfaction. 

But interestingly customer satisfaction has limited or no impact on employee satisfaction. 

This is especially meaningful for service industries like hospitality and retail where they invest a lot of time and money in designing the best customer experience possible. 

> The results suggest that the ES-CS relationship is unilateral rather than mutual. In particular, using dyadic data, this study found out employees’ job satisfaction leads to customer satisfaction but not vice versa.

## People Experience by Design 

One of our mantras here at The [People Experience](https://pxhub.io) Hub is “People experience, by design” and we help great companies do just this by understanding how people who work there think about their work design. 

And this design covers the full spectrum of work including, job design, the tools they have to do their job well, their pay and benefits, how they interact with their peers, the workplace and more. 

Frederick Herzberg, an American psychologist, developed a well documented two-pronged approach to thinking about satisfaction and motivation. 

He realised that things that may help with employee satisfaction do not necessarily drive motivation as well and vice-versa. 

The chart below shows in blue the elements that can cause dissatisfaction if poorly designed or implemented and in orange the elements that, if implemented well, can drive motivation. (The chart is ordered with Employee Satisfaction in mind) 

![Sources of employee dissatisfaction and motivation](/uploads/e4092b880b464a4d83ae2bea1c78a86d.webp)

We can see here that while having great company policies and administration is unlikely to motivate your people, the absence of them will certainly drive dissatisfaction. 

The workplace is not a major motivator, but bad workplace design will always reduce levels of Employee Satisfaction. 

The presence of great recognition will motivate staff, the absence will see employee satisfaction reduce. 

## Who are we designing work for? 

We think that you should design work to work for most of your people, but we find more and more that companies have designed work not to be ‘people-centric’ but rather: 

### Task owner-centric design 

You can see this if the phrase “It is easier for me if…” is used – we see this with expenses policies a lot! 

Rather than design it with the core users in mind it is designed with the finance process in mind. 

### Technology centric design 

You can see this if the phrase “It is easier for the system if…” is used. 

### Customer-centric 

Designed simply with just the customer in mind and ignoring the employee 

### Moving to People-centric design 

There are several models that show that looking at design from the human user makes absolute sense, whether it is from process design, user design or ergonomic design the biggest driver has to be the human who will ultimately be performing the task, using the system or sitting in the chair. 

This approach lets you design the experience with ALL people considered from the employee to the processor, the customer and the consumer. 

Human-Centred Design (HCD) takes into account all people aspects when looking at solving a problem or designing an experience. 

Poor work design will lead to **dissatisfaction** and **demotivated** people. 

Another issue we are seeing is that the design happened a long time ago when the world was a different place. The failure for work to move design with new technology or different customer design will often mean that while you may have started with your people in mind this has now drifted and will translate into a poor people experience.

One of our clients reviews their processes every 6 months to ensure that they are still relevant to the continually moving world in which they operate. 

## Measuring the experience 

Capturing feedback from your people at all stages of the employee journey allows you to understand what works and what needs work to make it better for your people (by design) 

![Employee feedback - culture, wellbeing, opinion, brand, evp](/uploads/f4e6825f21e74e9b9d996e1106e7cd24.webp)

Our [Pulse Surveys](https://pxhub.io/pulse-surveys) allow you to ask targeted questions or seek feedback from a segment of your workforce at any given time. 

Survey all employees using [annual engagement surveys]((https://pxhub.io/annual-engagement-surveys) ) to get under the skin and to give you a baseline of of your people experience. 

Our Culture/EVP and Brand surveys looks at how your internal brand and employee offering is perceived. 

And [wellbeing surveys](https://pxhub.io/wellbeing-surveys)  to check in on your peoples physical, psychological and financial health. 

Using our analytics engine to show you by any demographic how satisfied your people are and how motivated they are allowing you to make changes that drive visible results. 

By seeing that a department or a role in your business has dissatisfaction levels enable you to go where the problem is armed with real data that you can use to help people have a better People Experience every day. 

By Design.png

How Employee Satisfaction Drives Better Business Results

There's often much debate about employee satisfaction, but research clearly shows that it can drive better business results, through what is known as the service value chain.

How Employee Satisfaction is Better Business

# ...or “But they’ll never take away our autonomy!”

>The secret to happiness is freedom… And the secret to freedom is courage
>Thucydides

You will no doubt have heard a lot about the importance of autonomy in the workplace when it comes to **Employee Satisfaction** and **Employee Motivation** - in fact it's one of three accepted drivers of [intrinsic motivation](https://selfdeterminationtheory.org/theory/) (motivation in the absence of external rewards).

But what about the importance of freedom?

## So, is it Freedom or Autonomy?

Same thing, right?

Well, it gets a little complex depending on who you are speaking to and in what context. Autonomy at its basest means the ability to self-rule and freedom is a little different. When we think about freedom, we need to make a distinction between two things:

- Freedom from…(negative freedom) or ‘The absence of obstacles, barriers or constraints’
- Freedom to…(positive freedom) or ‘The freedom to act’

So, can you have autonomy and the presence of obstacles, barriers and constraints? Well, yes. Maybe not absolute autonomy.  Is autonomy freedom within a framework? And for this blog shall we call that framework ‘Work’?

In an agile organisation, people are free to do what they need to do. In short, there are fewer rules about how to do things, and only rules that make it easier to work... ...'freedom from' unncecessary or unhelpful constraints.

Often when we say ‘Autonomy’, we are referring to ‘Freedom to act’ and not so much are we referring to ‘Freedom from…’

I personally think that autonomy is probably not just about removing rules about what your people can and can't do - what they wear, when and how they work. These examples are simply reducing the employee’s negative freedoms, removing constraints or the extent to which their day to day life is controlled

If you are thinking about how to give autonomy to your people, then you also need to think about how you give them the freedom be the best them they can be too! Fundamentally, what we are talking about here is power and control **over** their own work.

But what is it and how does this translate into the People Experience in your world of work?

## Autonomy and Employee Motivation

We know that freedom and autonomy in the workplace has a direct impact on both the satisfaction and the motivation of your people.

Let’s look at a few areas for example:

### Company Policies: 
Do your policies **enable **people to do great work, are they light touch and in place to support your people, reviewed regularly with the policy owner and the people the policy impacts?

Or, do they put up a barrier to great work, are they heavy going or ambiguous, do they suck the time out of an individual’s day to adhere to a policy?

If the former, Whoop! Sounds great but if the latter…oh no! your barrier to great work is reducing freedom, autonomy and possibly driving dissatisfaction

### Responsibility: 

Do you **encourage **people to take responsibility for delivering their work, to influence how this might be done and enable them to manage the outcomes, both good and bad?

Or do you prescribe what, when and how they must carry out their work, maybe they need to report in to let you know they have done the work or even send the outputs to you, so you can forward them on?

Does the first example sound like something you would do? Yay!  Sounds like you get it and your people will feel more motivated by this!

Does the second example ring a bell?

The 'freedom to' take responsibility is a real driver of motivation for your people, so putting in rules that restrict peoples ability to act with responsibility or if you act in a way that reduces your peoples level of responsibility then you could be driving down motivation and satisfaction levels.

But why is this important?

## Freedom, Autonomy and Psychological wellbeing

In a recent industry survey of HR professionals carried out by The People Experience Hub and Phil Wilcox from [Emotion@Work](https://www.emotionatwork.co.uk/), we saw in the results what appears to be a link between people’s freedom and their levels of stress.

**90% **of those people who said that they did not have the freedom to do their best work said that they had felt stressed about work in the last 4 weeks. (compared to **63%** of those who said they did have the freedom to do their best work)

Over **50%** of these also said that work regularly kept them awake at night. (compared to **29%** of people who said they did have the freedom to do their best work)


>You must love in such a way that the person you love feels free
>thich nhat hanh

## Measuring the experience

Designing a workplace where the culture supports autonomy and freedom for your people to do their best work impacts positively on satisfaction and motivation and could also improve employee wellbeing, so it makes real sense to strive towards this where you work.


Understanding what gets in the way of trusting people to do their roles and what stops us removing barriers or obstacles in their way will allow you to develop a climate in your organisation where autonomy, or freedom, is the default position.


Our [employee feedback solutions](https://pxhub.io) allow you to understand how your people think about the world of work you have designed for them including satisfaction, motivation, autonomy and freedom.


Freedom.png

Freedom and Autonomy are both considered important to employee motivation, but are they fundamentally the same thing? In this blog we explore this question and why it matters.

Freedom! (or Autonomy) and Employee Motivation

Freedom and Autonomy are both considered important to employee motivation, but are they fundamentally the same thing? In this blog Nick explores this question and why it matters.

Freedom!

Wellbeing

Director of People Science

THJBHHNRZ-U019UJNULH5-54f1615d8d15-192.jpg

**So here we are. January 2021. Lockdown 3…**

Let's face it, we're all pretty fed up now. To state what should be blindingly obvious, the challenge of engaging and motivating your remote team right now isn't just about the remote part. It's lockdown, it's 10 months of misery. Kids at home, trying to work in sub-optimal conditions, having barely left the house in weeks. In winter. 

Whatever your industry or business context, even if your team is used to working remotely, there is nothing normal about the current situation.


## Now is a good time to re-evaluate your team's working practices

We won't be in lockdown forever, but it's important to recognise that it is genuinely tough for people right now. It is, therefore, a good time to take some time out to check in and evaluate how your team is working. By doing so you can ensure that they remain happy, engaged and, perhaps most importantly, healthy.


## So, how do I keep my remote team engaged during lockdown?

Keeping your team healthy and engaged means accepting that results will be affected and that the challenges are different for everyone.

There's no silver bullet, but the most important thing you can do right now is listen and adapt your working practices to the needs of your team, both collectively and as individuals. 

There are four themes that we recommend having a conversation with your team about (for which we've created a guide with some structured questions). These are goals, norms and routines, interactions and support.

As a general rule, your role in this conversation is to ask questions and allow the team members to articulate their needs and wants for effective remote working and for maintaining the social connection that's so critical to wellbeing and engagement. As lockdown is eventually loosened and people start to think about coming back to the office, then it will be time to revisit the conversation.


## Four areas to cover in your team conversation

### 1. Goals

This is about re-assessing goals to ensure that your people maintain a sense of purpose and motivation without feeling overwhelmed or fearful of factors they can’t control.

If you've not acknowledged the likelihood that your people will lose some productivity, whether that’s from working remotely or the stresses of lockdown, you probably should. Are your team still working towards targets that they're not able to hit? Do they have too many things to focus on? Conversely, are they able to enjoy their work and have a bit of fun?

### 2. Norms and Routine

It is important to help people find the clarity and structure to be effective while making sure that they have the freedom to flex and make their own choices about how they work.

On one hand, people's routines have been disrupted by the lockdown. On the other, they may have new constraints forced upon them by, for example, having kids home schooling. By revisiting norms and routines you can make sure everyone has the structure that they need to continue working well together.

### 3. Interactions

This is about recognising that people need both time for themselves and time with others, to varying degrees, and that isolation and overload can both be problematic.

Everyone has different needs, both for volume of interaction and the means by which you communicate. It's important to get the balance right between the needs of individuals and the collective, and to make sure that everyone can contribute and stay engaged.

### 4. Support

Consider how to create opportunities to for team members give and receive both social support and more practical, performance focused support, individually and collectively.

Again, everyone has different support needs. For some, it will be emotional while others might struggle without the informal on-the-job coaching that they get from team-mates, and of course there's satisfaction to be gained for the 'givers' too.


## How to approach the conversation with your team

Don't sweat this too much, but remember that open questions (i.e. who, what, where, when, how) will open up the conversation and closed questions (i.e. yes / no) will close it down!

Again, this isn't about your ideas - unless your team asks or really doesn't engage in the conversation. But then, that could be a sign of a wider issue.

If you would like some structured questions to drive a team conversation, [download our guide to keeping your team happy, healthy and engaged during lockdown](https://pxhub.io/library/happy-healthy-and-engaged-during-lockdown).
![Guide to keeping remote teams engaged](/uploads/80f21a60d4c145f9a68326dbe526f575.png)

Engaging Remote Teams.png

Lockdown. Again. Whatever your business, even if your team is used to working remotely, the current situation is sub-optimal. So how do you keep them engaged?

How to Keep Your Remote Team Engaged During Lockdown

Client Success Manager

gemma.png

Although remote work has been steadily increasing over the last few years, COVID-19 has drastically increased the percentage of employees who are now working from their homes. With COVID-19 disrupting daily life and what was once a normal work routine, office workers across the country are having to find new ways to stay connected with colleagues they no longer see in-person every day.
There is a dark side to working remotely and that is the loneliness that stems from the lack of interaction. Remote workers are more likely to quit because of loneliness and low engagement.

### Remote working takes some getting used to 
Just like you have regular daily habits with your team in the office, you will now have to create new routines and rituals that work virtually.
## Here’s what we’re doing to stay connected, remotely
Here are some of my suggestions to preserve team connectivity and to fulfil the social needs of your teams while adopting the work-from-home lifestyle.

### Weekly virtual coffee
We usually have a mess about with the different backgrounds and filters too, Nick our CEO loves a studio apartment as his, whereas I am partial to living underwater. This really breaks up the day and can take your mind off a stressful day with lots of meetings.
Weekly virtual coffee sessions can replace the regular break room chat. Try to set a regular rhythm in these meetings and try your best not to cancel or reschedule it.


![Teams-connected-employee experience](/uploads/8191c5041c5d462dbf6d0a38cd517287.jpg)

**Here's one of our most recent coffee chats!**

### Encourage group chats
Your colleagues don’t think about work all day every day. Many of them have outside interests and hobbies they like to participate in. In fact, some of them may get together and engage in these outside interests together!
Even though everyone is working at home, that doesn’t mean your colleagues wouldn’t appreciate the chance to connect with others with similar interests. So, set up some virtual groups to facilitate conversation.
These social groups let your remote staff bond and connect with people who have similar interests, but maybe don’t work in the same department as they do, allowing them to learn more about each other and the company.
*"In teamwork, silence isn't golden, it's deadly."* — **Mark Sanborn, Author**

### Frequent check-ins
Occasionally I miss swivelling in my chair and asking the salesperson or data analyst beside me a quick question. While this kind of spur of the moment interaction may be difficult, it’s not impossible.
Check-in with your employees as often as possible and share any updates and changes in the business. Also, make sure to follow up on any announcements.
*"You can never over-communicate enough as a leader at a company, but at a remote company, nothing could be truer. Because you don't physically see people in-person, information doesn't spread in the same way, so leaders need to do the heavy lifting for evangelizing the message."* — **Claire Lew, Know Your Team**

### Question of the Week

Since there’s a good chance working from home will last for a while, post a random question in whatever chat application you use once a week. The questions can be short and sweet (What’s your favourite season?), encourage longer answers (What’s your favourite season and why?), be silly (Would you rather have a unicorn or a dinosaur as a pet?), or be somewhat serious (Which officemate would you prefer: dog or cat?).
You will probably get some interesting answers and learn a lot about your team in the process. The benefit here is that everybody doesn’t have to be online at the same time for this to work. People can pop in and answer whenever it’s convenient and read through the responses when they need a quick and uplifting break.
If you’re a manager, check-in on employees at the start of each day. Something as simple as “Good morning! How are things going today? What can I help you with?” is a great place to start. Personal contact is important at this time and should be explicitly practised, keeping people feeling in the loop.

### Set weekly challenges with different colleagues.

Nick and I love art, it is a regular conversation with us, so this is a great idea.
You can still have fun remotely and laugh with your colleagues, by taking it in turns to set weekly challenges for the group. Some ideas you can try out are baking cakes, drawing pictures, or sharing a joke/ story. It is entertaining and could give you all something to look forward to each week.

## Working Remotely from Home Doesn’t Mean Being Alone

It’s important that companies create an environment where leadership and employees can stay connected while working remotely. While team building is only one part of building a strong company culture, a few planned and thoughtful gestures always go a long way toward making everyone feel like they are part of the team—no matter where they are.

**How are you and your colleagues maintaining your work relationships? What has worked for your teams? Let us know!**

The People Experience Hub work with clients to transform their people experience, combining our flexible [employee feedback](/employee-feedback) tools and expertise in organisational psychology and people management.



Keeping connected.png

Keeping our team connected whilst working remotely

Learn how our team have been staying connected whilst remote working and dealing with lockdown. 

How Employee Satisfaction is Better Business

Freedom!

How to Keep Your Remote Team Engaged During Lockdown

5 Things We Do To Stay Connected Whilst Working Remotely