Harnessing Discretionary Effort

Only two months ago an article appeared  – “Employers must offer pay rise to retain staff” by Zsa-Zsa Bowie Wilson

“A CareerOne.com.au survey of 1168 people revealed that 68.3 per cent of employees expected a salary raise this financial year, despite the fact the Government is encouraging employers to hold back on wage increases in an effort to curb inflation.

More disturbingly for employees, a third of those expecting a pay rise said they would “look for another job” if their request was turned down, the survey results indicated.”

I think that given the current situation – people obviously want security and to work for an organisation which knows where it is heading – but this may well have changed.

A business owner said to me last week that he was ‘glad for the current level of uncertainty – to teach Gen Y a lesson. They should be grateful for a job.’

I was flabbergasted by his neanderthal comments. Have we not moved forward at all? RedBalloon has been talking about “Happy People = Happy Profits” for years. We employ mostly Gen Y – and they are fantastically productive, innovative and focused. We’ve found a key to engagement is to ensure that people have to mean in their work. They know the game they are playing and when they are a winner – this is for all employees and is not age dependent.

If people do not respect the leaders they work for – or believe in the vision – there will come a point when enough is enough. Even if they stay with an organisation – people still have discretionary effort available to do a great job.

As I’ve said before the best way forward is through having a truly engaged and focused team. People have long memories – treat them badly and the first sign of an upturn they will be off.

What is your opinion?