One of the most important things an employer needs to do is to keep employees motivated in their jobs and keen to stay with the company. One of the best ways of doing this is by encouraging employees to become more involved in the way things are done within the organisation.
Many organisations operate by having each employee perform their individual role in the way that role has traditionally been performed (not counting changes that occur naturally as technology changes). The same goes for teams, who are expected to meet certain criteria or perform certain duties. None of the team members get any say in the way things are done; they’re simply expected to follow protocol.
This may seem quite a logical way of doing things, and in a sense it is. However, what it lacks is true employee “ownership” or engagement. If an individual or team are given a goal to work towards, and are asked to have some input into how that goal is achieved, they are better able to personalise the goal, and will be more motivated to achieve it.
In some situations it may initially appear difficult to reform the workplace so that employees are given more ownership of their positions and tasks. Some jobs seem to lend themselves to routine work, and don’t appear to possess a great deal of flexibility. However, there are ways that those in even the most routine of positions can be given some flexibility and involvement in their own job.
One way of really involving people is to get employees together as a team, and encourage them to learn more about the other roles in the organisation, and get people to involve themselves more in how the organisation works as a whole, not just their own little part of it.
In The New Pioneers: The Men and Women Who are Transforming the Workplace and the Marketplace, the author Thomas Petzinger discusses the revolution taking place in the workplace today, and which is changing the face of business in the US and around the world.
Petzinger’s research led him to better understand the themes which relate to employee vision, involvement, communication, work tools, training and commitment. From these he began to examine new paradigms for the workplace which revolved around more involvement by each employee and more ownership over his or her own role and position within the organisation.
When people see how their role affects not just themselves or their small area, but the entire company, and how it interrelates with the roles of others, they are more inspired and therefore motivated. Such employees are more likely to remain a part of an organisation and are more likely to involve themselves in the company.
