The race to succeed
Today’s organizations face a dynamic and challenging competitive landscape. Increased globalization, the pressure of an “always on” audience, and a tight labor market mean that most organizations are on the lookout for anything that can help them win. And while there are many approaches to success, all of them hinge on an organization’s people. People bring an organization’s strategy to life—they plan, execute, communicate, and innovate. Increasingly organizations win or lose on the strength of their people.
The ability to attract, engage, develop and retain employees has become a critical success factor for most organizations. Whether you compete on innovation, customer service, collaboration, or operational excellence, it’s likely that engaged, high-performing teams are the foundation for creating competitive advantage. Yet once the hiring process is complete, many organizations struggle to meet their employees’ growing expectations.
What would help organizations develop and retain happy, high-performing employees?
How did we get here?
Let’s start with a quick look back. The Industrial Revolution ushered in new manufacturing processes that accelerated production and economic growth. With those processes came a focus on the cost and supply of the goods and people needed for production. That translated to an environment where people at work were often treated like assets—to be accounted for and controlled. Over time, Human Resource (HR) systems were established to maximize employee productivity without much regard for an individual’s preferences, needs, or wants. Many of today’s HR programs and practices evolved from this view. Goal setting, performance appraisal, and performance ratings have been around for decades and are rooted in this mentality. If organizations don’t modernize these programs, they perpetuate the same command-and-control environment that delivers short term results and stifles the true potential of an individual.
The high impact of intrinsic motivation
How did these programs get out of sync with their objective to drive high performance and business results? Many did not evolve as the industrial economy gave way to the information age. Efficient production is largely being replaced by people-driven sources of competitive advantage such as innovation or customer service. As such, modern organizations need programs that focus less on human resources and more on human motivation—specifically, intrinsic motivation.
Performance is highly impacted by motivation. There are two types of motivation: extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic motivation comes from external rewards such as money and recognition. Intrinsic motivation, on the other hand, comes from within. It includes the personal rewards associated with a sense of achievement or purpose, for example, the joy one feels after accomplishing a challenging task. Intrinsic motivation is the more powerful and sustainable of the two, but it is much harder to quantify and control. Traditional HR programs and systems have not typically factored in intrinsic motivation. Instead, they have largely focused on performance-based external rewards, such as ratings, bonuses, and perks—ultimately at the cost of people’s happiness and of optimal business results.
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