Two Approaches to Engaging Employees

If your CSR crew is falling behind or just seems disengaged with the company’s goals, there are two basic ways you can approach the fix. You can focus on fixing the employees, or take a look at fixing your system. Which one have you tried? Which one will provide the desired long-term results?

A focus on fixing the employee tends to be where most companies start. New guidelines, new incentives, promises of advancement/raises, and a plethora of motivational programs go into place. They may work for a while, but then it becomes business as usual and you’re back to square one. This approach is only temporary because it does not actually engage the employee or motivate them beyond the present goal. By offering short-term goals like prizes and other types of incentives, it all becomes about being motivated until the prize is achieved. After that, it requires another prize, and then another and the cycle continues.

Long-term change is usually acquired from looking at the overall system as the root issue. Could it be that the problem is with the types of people in their current positions? Are you examining employees for their strengths and weaknesses, and then placing them in positions best suited for them? Maybe a change in the seating-plan is needed? Once you get employees into the position that best suits them, where they feel most comfortable, it is more likely that they will spread their wings and fly to new-found success and become self-motivated. Rather than just dangling motivational prizes in front of them, find what it takes to turn them into self-motivated employees. Or, as Andrew McFarland put it, “Motivating employees is not as effective as finding ways they can contribute that relies on their intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivation. Think of the value you create when you match their skills/interests to work they find fulfilling, work that brings them a sense of achievement and opportunities for advancement.”

Everyone is motivated by different things. The goal is to find out the employee’s strengths as well as their goals and motivation, and use that to align them with a position that capitalizes on those aspects. This can be done through observation, listening or simply asking them outright. Finding out what that is, and then aligning that with the company’s goals as best as possible is what leads to better long-term satisfaction.

Sure, most employees appreciate advancement and more money, but when someone is working simply for the paycheck, that does not help the company or employee in the long-term scheme. Paychecks, bonus checks, commission checks all get cashed, spent and forgotten about until the next one comes around. Motivating the employee through prizes does not provide the same motivation that comes when someone is receiving real satisfaction and a sense of empowerment from their job. “Certain things like money, a nice office and job security can help people from becoming less motivated, but they usually don't help people to become more motivated. A key goal is to understand the motivations of each of your employees,” says Carter McNamara of Authenticity Consulting, LLC in the article Clearing Up Common Myths About Employee Motivation.

So, focusing the attention on the overall system and employee placement within the company will most often do more towards achieving a long-term goal of employee satisfaction and self-motivation and lead to overall company satisfaction.

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