<ul><li>In a tight labour market, it's essential to keep your employees engaged.</li><li>It takes more than a 20% pay raise to lure most employees away from a job where they feel engaged, and unsurprisingly next to nothing to poach most disengaged workers.</li><li>Of course, not everyone finds motivation from the same things.</li></ul>

Keeping Employees Engaged

<ul><li>Managers create a set of shared goals and return to them frequently.</li><li>The more a manager creates shared goals, the more they create a sense of being part of an 'in group' between the team.</li><li>This leads to accurate sharing of information, more accurate perception, better collaboration, and good motivation.</li></ul>

Shared Goals To Provide Meaning At Work

The <a href="https://neuroleadership.com/research/tools/nli-scarf-assessment/?utm_term=&utm_campaign=Solutions+-+NA&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=6445333425&hsa_cam=15017298938&hsa_grp=135603230083&hsa_ad=594742821016&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=aud-1507475523550:dsa-19959388920&hsa_kw=&hsa_mt=&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gclid=CjwKCAjwtIaVBhBkEiwAsr7-cx3rApHq-Fov7fu3kL5Xt3IUQIllmoSM_l5k4SQ_-GzwfqvdlMKDcRoCRF4QAvD_BwE">SCARF assessment</a> is used by many companies to figure out how to keep employees motivated and engaged.
SCARF stands for Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, and Fairness, which are the five intrinsic motivations.
This model was created over the course of several years by scientists studying the brain’s rewards systems.

The SCARF Assessment

Meaningful work isn’t just some lofty goal. In a tight labor market, it’s essential to keeping your employees. On this episode of The New Way We Work, we explore how to find meaning and fulfillment in any job. 


Stashed ideas

The science of what makes work meaningful

Employees often make up their own stories when they don't get helpful feedback. The stories they tell themselves are often a problem for them (and for the manager). By giving helpful feedback, you'll give your employees the data they need to do more of what's working, and give them less opportunities to make up their own stories.

Without helpful feedback, employees will make up stories

Most professionals prefer to know what good and not-so-good impact they're having. If satisfactory performance is "not a problem employee", you will probably sit with "non-troublemakers" instead of high-performing, committed and engaged professionals. Instead, let your employees know specifically what you appreciate and value when they meet expectations, and share your perspective on how they could improve if they fall short.

Story 1: “As long as I’m not creating trouble for my manager, I’m doing fine.”

It's the manager's job to create a psychologically safe environment where an employee won't be punished when they make a mistake. If you fear that feedback won't be well-received, it may be that you're falling short:<ul><li>You're not helping your direct report to have more impact.</li><li>You're not modelling accountable behaviour if you don't give feedback because you fear how it will be taken.</li><li>You may be contributing to a lack of psychological safety.</li></ul> Instead, consider why you fear your colleague won't receive feedback well. If you don't have a good reason, go ahead and give feedback. Just do it.

Story 2: “My manager doesn’t think I can take feedback well.”

If you really believe your employee cannot change, you will not offer him resources or opportunities to change. Instead, adopt a growth mindset for your employee and yourself. Employees with growth mindsets welcome challenges and work harder and more effectively, making them better contributors to their organisations. You will give more feedback because you believe they will rise to the challenge.

Story 3: “My manager doesn’t think I can change.”

There are three common stories that employees tell themselves when they don’t get enough feedback from their managers: 1.) “As long as I’m not creating trouble for my manager, I’m doing fine.” If the bar for satisfactory performance is “not a problem employee”, then your bar is way too low. 2.) “My manager doesn’t think I can take feedback well.” If you don’t have compelling evidence to support the belief that your employee won’t receive feedback well, then you need to, as Nike suggests, “Just do it”. 3.) “My manager doesn’t think I can change.” It’s important to adopt a growth mindset, for your employee and for yourself. By giving more helpful feedback, you’ll be providing your employees with the data they need to do more of what’s working, less of what isn’t, and with fewer opportunities to make up their own stories.

The Assumptions Employees Make When They Don’t Get Feedback

Studies reveal that employees can forget as much as 50 percent to 80 percent when learning is not reinforced after the training event. <ul><li>When bite-sized learning content is easily and readily accessible, learners can take it at their own pace, wherever they are, and most importantly, when they are “ready.”</li><li>Because bite-sized courses are more focused, learners don’t have to clutter their memories with irrelevant information. This makes retention easier.</li><li>Learners have to digest only small chunks of information. This makes comprehension easier without spending too much effort.</li></ul>

Microlearning is more efficient than traditional longer-duration courses

According to a <a href="http://campaign-for-learning.org.uk/cfl/assets/documents/Activitiesandworksheets/bitesize_law.pdf">survey on Learning and Development professionals</a>, a whopping 94% said that they prefer microlearning to traditional time-consuming courses because their learners prefer it (Boyette, 2012). The C-suite too has realized the efficacy of microlearning in addressing the needs of <a href="https://www.shiftelearning.com/blog/what-do-modern-learners-actually-want-from-your-elearning-courses">modern learners</a>.Millennial learners demand that training is<ul><li>Customized to their needs</li><li>On-demand</li><li>Informal</li></ul>

8 out of 10 L & D professionals favor microlearning

According to a report, learners would use their company’s learning tools more if the courses are shorter. Some helpful tips:<ul><li>Create your bite-sized courses to resemble social media content—on-demand, engaging, and media-rich.</li><li>Engage your audience right from the start and keep at it until the end of the module.</li><li>Cut to the chase. Do away with the history, the background information, and the theories. Deliver the “how-to” right away. Remember, your learners are looking for just-in-time solutions.</li></ul>

Microlearning creates 50% more engagement

ML is the need of the hour because of <a href="https://www.trainingindustry.com/learning-technologies/articles/is-bite-size-learning-the-way-to-engage-the-modern-distracted-learner.aspx">the way the average modern learner functions in his daily life</a>. Here’s what a study carried out by the UCI has found: <ul><li>Your employee works on a task for about 11 minutes before he is interrupted by a ring or ding of the phone, a popping email, or his co-worker who has come up to his desk.</li><li>Within that span of 11 minutes, he engages in multiple short and quick tasks that average about 3 minutes each.</li><li>If the task involves consuming digital information, he spends just 20 seconds browsing one piece of content before he clicks or flicks through to the next.</li></ul>

Learning in stretches of 3-7 minutes matches the working memory capacity and attention spans of humans

According to learning architect Ray Jimenez by creating micro-courses learning developers can reduce costs by 50% and increase the speed of development by 300%.  Here’s why:<ul><li>There’s no need to pay for the instructor’s time, buy or rent physical classrooms and pay for the utilities, and spend money on classroom equipment.</li><li>It is easier and less time- and resource-intensive to update digital information than reprint training manuals and conduct supplementary classroom training sessions.</li><li>It is easier and less time-consuming to roll out microlearning courses because they are modular in nature.</li></ul>

Reduce development costs by 50% and increase the speed of development by 300% with micro eLearning courses

Adopting microlearning creates a win-win situation for both you and the learners. It is not late to go small now.

Long training sessions are over; microlearning is the new effective way to train adult corporate learners. Shift E-learning it’s the way forward!

Why Microlearning is Better for Your Learners

"The competitive advantage is what you do with the talent once you have it."

“When people are given challenging responsibilities, autonomy to control their outputs, participation in decision making, and visible and valuable recognition, it meets virtually all of the criteria for effective rewards.”

"HR is not about HR, but about delivering real value to the business."

Nurturing a staff culture that will be most beneficial to the organization’s customers, and managing effective employee development and recognition are part of what it takes to develop thriving companiesHowever, along with these organizational competencies, HR professionals as individuals need to devote attention to their less obvious, but extremely valuable, roles. These include being a Strategic Positioner, Credible Activist, and Paradox Navigator, and are required so that HR can have the influence it needs to deliver value to the business.

The Less Obvious Roles of HR Professionals

<ul><li>Strategic positioner: position a business to win in its market</li><li>Credible activist: build relationships of trust by having a proactive point of view</li><li>Paradox navigator: manage tensions inherent in making change happen</li><li>Culture and change champion: make change happen and weave change initiatives into culture change</li><li>Human capital curator: manage the flow of talent by developing people and leaders, driving individual performance, and building technical talent.</li></ul>

The 9 HR Competencies Needed Today (1)

<ul><li>Total rewards steward: manage employee wellbeing through financial and non-financial rewards.</li><li>Technology and media integrator: use technology and social media to drive high-performing organizations.</li><li>Analytics designer and interpreter: use analytics to improve decision making.</li><li>Compliance manager: manage the processes related to compliance by following regulatory guidelines.</li></ul>

The 9 HR Competencies Needed Today (2)

Out of the nine critical HR competencies, the role of Paradox Navigator was most closely tied with business performance. Yet this is an area where many HR professionals were lacking expertise.Paradox navigators need to effectively manage tensions between:<ul><li>Global and local demands</li><li>Need for change and stability</li><li>Gathering information and making decisions</li><li>Internal and external hiring</li><li>Individual needs and collective needs</li><li>Employees vs. customers and investors</li><li>Top-down and bottom-up.</li></ul>

Become a Paradox Navigator

<ul><li>Clarify the poles</li><li>Define best outcomes – how both sides relate to success criteria</li><li>See others’ points of view – how do others experience the paradox?</li><li>Find common ground – where do we agree and disagree?</li><li>Take first steps</li></ul>Dealing with cognitive complexity is the top skill that helps to transcend paradox. Cognitive complexity involves seeing different sides of an issue, respecting other people’s points of view, learning new ideas (20-25% every 2 years), and seeing patterns in events.

How To Transcend Paradox

"High potential individuals are interested in on-the-job assignments that are challenging and valuable … because they want to create a track record of documented results."

Using employee involvement to improve staff performance takes an organizational approach to the pervasive problem of low engagement. The goal is to move from cynicism to commitment, isolation to community, and for employees to have a sense of purpose and social responsibility in their work. Initiatives like letting employees choose their next project and being more involved with staffing issues have a positive effect on employee performance.

Improving Employee Performance

One of the most interesting ways companies are involving employees is by connecting them with customers for feedback. This could mean having employees listen to customer service calls, engaging more employees in market research and social media, having customers visit the company’s office, having customers participate in employee training, and even locating employees to work out of a customer’s facility.

Connecting Employees and Customers

Measuring employee performance from an organizational perspective means focusing on organizational-wide talent data, as well as individual data. <ul><li>For example, to measure recruitment, you can look at what percentage of hires remain after two years. </li><li>To measure development, look at what percentage of promotions come from inside vs. outside the company.</li><li> To measure succession readiness, look at what percentage of employees know the company’s mission, long-term goals, and business strategy.</li></ul>

Measuring Employee Performance

#1 Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author Dave Ulrich offers HR professionals a new line of defense in the corporate “war for talent.” Destined to be a classic in the field, this game-changing book from HR visionary Dave Ulrich tackles one of the greatest challenges in Human Resources today: the talent wars. As companies grow increasingly and aggressively competitive in hiring and nurturing individual employees, this book offers a refreshing, revolutionary alternative. By creating dynamic systems that leverage talent throughout the organization, you can create a unified whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. In the long run, that’s what gives your company the competitive edge it needs. Based on the research findings of the latest round of Ulrich’s legendary HR Competency Survey, this groundbreaking book is sure to spark debate, shatter myths, and inspire real change throughout the HR community. Filled with fact-based insights and field-tested strategies, it proves that your organization’s success lies, not in the talent you have, but what you do with the talent once you have it. This book shows you how to build capabilities, strengthen systems, and empower human capital—for longer lasting success.

Victory Through Organization: Why the War for Talent is Failing Your Company and What You Can Do About It

They are the relational connections between people in society. In some ways, they work like the synapses that connect neurons in the brain. As neurons fire in connection with one another, they develop and strengthen the neural pathways between them. Similarly, formal and organic touchpoints between colleagues can help create strong relationship networks in organizations, which naturally evolve and change as the business changes. These relationships support organizational structure; fuel innovation, culture, and the spread of information; enable strategy, and often help make change “work.”

Socio-emotional ties

Apprenticeship happens more easily, naturally, and organically in a fully “in-person” work environment; it can be harder, and require more intentionality and planning, in a virtual or hybrid world. Teams become more diverse and geographically distributed as remote work increases, and team members’ roles and needs quickly evolve.Leaders must focus on connecting the dots in the teams around them and identify informal leaders to do the same. Practicing intentional apprenticeship helps nurture and reinforce the relational ties that bind, thus creating a virtuous cycle.

Inject more apprenticeship

Unique approaches for specific groups will be key to rebuilding organic connections, as the pandemic has influenced us in different ways. Younger workers, new employees, and introverts have reported more difficulty in contributing to the team, and in feeling engaged, due to the loss of spontaneous connections and interactions.To increase the emphasis on human centricity, one technology corporation is leveraging real-time data to iterate approaches that work for specific groups around office re-entry, facilities management, workplace safety, and contact tracing and care management.

Develop “inclusive” tailored solutions

Do not forget how much has been achieved virtually. People have built the muscle to reconnect previously lapsed connections with long-distance family and friends online during the pandemic; virtual hangouts and other creative ways have emerged to meet social connection needs.While many employers may be ready to return to significant in-person presence, nearly three-quarters of employees would like to work from home two or more days per week. Organizations should expect and prepare for a mix of virtual and in-person teams.

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career

#employeeengagement

IDEAS ABOUT #employeeengagement

The science of what makes work meaningful

The Assumptions Employees Make When They Don’t Get Feedback

It's time to

READ

LIKE

A PRO!

Why Microlearning is Better for Your Learners

Victory Through Organization: Why the War for Talent is Failing Your Company and What You Can Do About It

Socio-emotional ties: A secret ingredient to success

Bite-sized knowledgeto upgradeyour career

#employeeengagement

IDEAS ABOUT #employeeengagement

The science of what makes work meaningful

The Assumptions Employees Make When They Don’t Get Feedback

It's time to

READ

LIKE

A PRO!

Why Microlearning is Better for Your Learners

Victory Through Organization: Why the War for Talent is Failing Your Company and What You Can Do About It

Socio-emotional ties: A secret ingredient to success

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career