A Word From...

David R. Ballinger
President
Pinnacle Staffing

Categories

Managers Don’t Know What Motivates Employees

Wednesday, June 27th, 2012

Managers asked to rank five employee motivators: recognition, incentives, clear goals, progress in the work and interpersonal support. They placed recognition and clear goals at the top of the list and progress in the work at the bottom, according to Teresa Amabile, Ph.D., professor of business administration and director of research at Harvard Business School. Yet Amabile explains that making progress on meaningful work is the No. 1 driver of “inner work life” — the combination of perceptions, motivations and emotions employees experience during the workday.

The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work (Harvard Business Press, 2011), presents the findings of research Amabile and co-author Steven Kramer conducted at seven companies. The researchers gathered nearly 12,000 daily diary entries from 238 professionals to understand the factors that had the greatest positive and negative impact on employees.

They discovered that employees’ “best days” were those in which they made progress on projects considered “meaningful” to the organization’s mission, while their “worst days” were those in which they faced setbacks. Amabile noted that employees often don’t show their emotions at work when faced with setbacks. The inner work life is just that — inner, she noted. “You don’t get to see it, especially if you are in a position of power.” Yet it’s something employers need to understand, she said, because “inner work life drives the bottom line.” For example, she said the perceptions, motivations and emotions that make up the inner work life lead to higher levels of creativity, productivity, commitment and collegiality.

Fortunately, Amabile found that “The Progress Principle” is activated even when people make small steps toward completion of meaningful work; what she called “The Power of Small Wins.” Thus, when employees have “big hairy audacious goals”—a term coined by Jim Collins in Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (HarperBusiness, 2004) — she said managers should try to break them down into smaller components to give employees a sense of progress along the way. The payoff can be significant, she noted, because progress and a positive inner work life combine to create what she called “The Progress Loop,” in which one feeds the other in a continuous loop.

Amabile said there are a number of basic actions managers can take to support progress and to enhance inner work life.

The Catalyst Factor. Catalysts make it possible for employees to make progress toward work. They include:

1. Clear, meaningful goals.

2. Autonomy.

3. Sufficient resources to do the work.

4. Help with the work, such as access to information.

5. Ability to learn from problems and successes.

6. Open idea flow.

7. Sufficient time.

The Nourishment Factor. She said that “nourishers” are those things that occur in the work environment, naturally or intentionally, that enhance inner work life, including:

1. Respect and recognition.

2. Encouragement.

3. Emotional support.

4. Affiliation and camaraderie.

What makes people happy and motivated at work, Amabile said, is “progress with a steady diet of nourishers.” Yet Amabile noted that HR managers don’t have to delve too deeply into employees’ inner work lives. Instead, she encouraged attendees “to keep progress in the work at the top of every manager’s agenda.”

David R. Ballinger, President

Why We Do What We Do

Thursday, February 9th, 2012

It’s a new year – always a good time to take a hard look in the mirror and do a gut check about the purpose and priorities in our lives and in our organizations. They are, of course, strongly related.

In performing this exercise, most of us focus on “what” and “how.” What are my goals and how am I going to achieve them? There’s nothing wrong with that approach, especially if you set good goals and have the discipline to maintain your focus on reaching them.

In speaking to other staffing executives, I typically hear that “what” they do is deliver world-class talent and workforce solutions. And “how” they do it is by sourcing and developing smart, effective, passionate, and focused internal talent. But if you were to ask members of your staff why they do what they do, the response may be a little less focused – especially after you get past “to grow profits.” Revenue is not a sustainable “why.” It’s merely a result of your efforts. Uncovering a true “why” takes a bit more soul-searching.

The focus needs to be on core principles and values. What gets you excited about getting out of bed in the morning? What’s your purpose? What’s your cause? What’s your belief? Why does your company exist? These are the questions that truly expose the “why” that drives a business.

In his widely acclaimed book, Start With Why, Simon Sinek makes this assertion: “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.” He calls it the “Golden Circle.” The author supports his argument with case studies and even a short primer on our brains’ decision-making processes.

Sinek writes that the core principle around the success of companies like Apple is that an organization needs to say and do only what it believes. “If what you do doesn’t prove what you believe, then no one will know your “why” and you will be forced to compete on price, service, quality, features, and benefits – the stuff of commodities.

Here at Pinnacle we began with a “soul-searching” vision and we added six core values that drive our business each day.

What gets you excited about getting out of bed in the morning? What’s your purpose? What’s your cause? What’s your belief? Why does your company exist? These are questions that truly expose the priorities in your life. I am reminded of a story I read about Charles Francis Adams, a nineteenth century diplomat that had promised his son they would go fishing. He later wrote in his diary – “went fishing with my son today, we didn’t catch many fish, it was kind of a wasted day.” Come to find out, his son, also kept a diary and entered this, on the same day. “Went fishing with my father today, it was the most wonderful day of my life.”

Understanding your “why” is foundational to everything you do in life. Why do you do what you do? We all have an innate thirst for spiritual growth. The Bible tells us that a life that glorifies God is the most important pursuit we could have, it’s a journey, it’s a purpose, and it’s a belief. Proverbs 3:6 says, “in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” Our visions are only actionable if we share them with everyone. If we keep them to ourselves, no one will know what we believe. As Sinek observes in his book, “when we know why we do what we do, everything falls into place. When we don’t, we have to push things into place.”

David R. Ballinger, President

Out of Time

Thursday, February 9th, 2012

More than half of large buyers say they let go of contingent workers because of term limits, according to a new survey from Staffing Industry Analysts. Buyers cited several reasons for term limits. They included workforce planning issues as well as other matters that range from “union agreements” to the “historical decision of previous managers.” However, a majority of buyers cited “legal/co-employment risk” concerns.

Typically, a term limit means a temporary employee can no longer work at a staffing buyer after a set amount of hours on the job. Workers may be allowed to return after a set period of time away, in some cases. The American Staffing Association released an issue paper aimed at dispelling legal myths over the need for term limits. Opponents of term limits also say they may cause buyers to lose good contingent workers. In addition, they say the limits impose extra costs in the form of recruitment and on-boarding of the new workers.

On the other hand, we see a significant percentage of large staffing buyers follow term limits, citing reasons from their own legal counsel – 66 percent, according to the survey. “We have a defined separation in order to reduce co-employment issues,” one buyer wrote in the survey. “The policy is set by our legal department to reduce co-employment risk to the organization,” another buyer wrote.

The specter of the lawsuit Vizcaino v. Microsoft also lingers. In that case from more than a decade ago, independent contractors sued Microsoft after an IRS audit ruled they were common law employees. The workers sued the company for unpaid benefits, although they had agreed in writing that they would not be eligible for such benefits. Microsoft ended up settling the “retro-benefits” case for $97 million. Eric Rumbaugh, an attorney with Michael Best & Friedrich LLC who advises employers on employment and benefits law matters, explains that concerns that arose in that lawsuit can, in most cases, be resolved through thoughtful benefits plan design.

Regardless of the reason, 66 percent of buyers say they let go of some portion of their contingent workforce in 2011 because of term limits, according to the survey, which included 236 staffing buyers from large firms that employ more than 1,000 people. Twelve percent of buyers reported they let more than three-quarters or more of their contingent workforce because of term limits. More than half of buyers say they cut loose up to 75 percent of their contingent workforce because of term limits. Just 34 percent say they didn’t let any contingents go because of term limits.

However, term limits are one thing. A report by employment law firm Littler Mendelson says the level of control an employer has over the worker is a more important factor to the IRS in determining employment status. “Determining whether joint employment relationships exist for the purpose of legal liabilities is a fact-specific inquiry,” according to the report “Term Limits for Contingent Workers: Urban Legend or Necessary Fix,” by George Reardon, William Hays Weissman and Niel Alexander of Littler Mendelson. Potential liability under the Family and Medical Leave Act and benefits plan are the most common explanations for term limits, according to the report. However, term limits won’t insulate buyers from the vast majority of employment law claims, it says.

The most effective way for staffing buyers to avoid retro benefits is to modify their benefits plans and employment policies to clearly distinguish between direct employees and contingents and exclude all but the direct employees, according to the report. Also, the myth that contingents would need to be hired directly after a period of time has no basis in the law, according to the report.

Buyers who utilize onsite managed programs and staffing providers that specialize in these types of programs along with modifications to their benefit policies will provide the greatest risk protection for their companies.

David R. Ballinger, President

Breaking Records

Thursday, November 17th, 2011

In the world of sports, setting and breaking records is widely anticipated and highly celebrated. There are exceptions, of course. No one wants to hold the record for most strikeouts, most games lost, or most last-place finishes. It’s the same in the world of business.

The recession that began in December 2007 broke just about every unemployment-related record set since the Great Depression. For American workers, it was particularly brutal – eight million people lost their jobs.

Even now – more than two years after the recession’s official end in July 2009 – 14 million Americans are unemployed and an additional 10.9 million are underemployed, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. When BLS factors in the underemployed to create a measurement known as U-6, the nation’s total unemployment rate in August of this year was a whopping 16.2%.

We can only hope that these are records that are never again broken in our lifetimes – but we also know there are no easy or short-term fixes, and so do the researchers. Recent studies and modeling by the Office of Management and Budget and the McKinsey Global Institute project that we won’t likely see a return to prerecession unemployment rates until about 2017 to 2020.

The staffing industry represents only about 1.7% of the total U.S. employment, but the impact that staffing and recruiting firms will have in helping put people back to work is exponentially greater than the industry’s size. It may not have much influence on gross domestic product as a whole, but the industry is playing a critical economic role.

At the macro level, the staffing industry effectively helps reduce structural unemployment by creating new jobs and helping workers obtain new skills. And, as Alan Krueger, incoming chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisors, determined in his 1999 research with Harvard economist Lawrence Katz, the staffing industry also plays an important role in reducing frictional unemployment by improving the efficiency of matching workers to jobs.

For businesses dealing with shorter and less predictable economic cycles, the staffing industy is providing work force solutions to more effectively source talent, increase productivity, and manage fluctuations in demand.

And while those contributions are critical to the companies and economies in which they operate, equally important are the benefits and opportunities we create and deliver for the nation’s work force.

The staffing industry is poised for growth and the outlook among staffing executives is increasingly positive. Simply put, we can set our sights on breaking employment records in the months and years ahead, and continue to play an integral role in the economic health of this nation.

David R. Ballinger, President
Pinnacle Staffing Blog
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