Respect, Dignity and Hope: three key words for Employees Engagement and Retention

Work with Pride! Feel dignified at home! Talk with swollen chest in the Society

           Abraham and John (names changed) applied for a job of lower grades in a different department within the same organisation. Lower grade meant lower salary by a few hundred bucks. That meant reduction in their take home salary by about five percent. During the interview, they both said that money does not matter, they wanted to work where they got respect, dignity and hope.

        Respect and dignity will manifest from working in the organisation/company with pride. How do a manager or leader develop sense of pride, firstly in themselves and secondly in their employees?

      One cannot separate home (family) from work environment. These two are the two sides of a coin totally dependent upon each other. These two influence each other. When he or she is at home, should be able to tell family members that “look; I work for an organisation/company and I feel blessed that I belong to such an organisation”. How can a manager or leader inculcate this dignity in themselves and amongst his/her employees?

We all live in a society. All of us want to have a status in the society. There are several factors that contribute to the status, but one of the most important factors is the sense of belonging to an organisation and proudly talk in the society that he/she belongs to a particular organisation/company. How to develop this feeling?

Yes, the responsibilities to develop RESPECT, DIGNITY and HOPE in an employee, has to be shouldered by the leadership, managers and team leaders. How can they achieve these?

     There are numerous factors contributing to it. After meeting the basic needs; leaders, managers and team leaders have to work on developing genuine respect, dignity and hope.

Respect is earned and it flows both ways. If one gives respect then only he or she will get respect. Most important factor is as to how the manager/leader communicates. The communication has to be followed by appropriate actions, self-example and achievements. Mere hollow communication, irrespective of the method followed, will fall flat. Here, deeds become one of the best communicator. Respect will automatically permeates (pour) as the organisational objectives are achieved in a dignified manner. How can these objectives be achieved in the most dignified and economical way?

It can only be achieved if all employees including leaders, managers and team leaders work from their strengths zone. If employees work from their respective strengths zone, they will be able to consistently provide near – perfect or perfect performance. They will be able to consistently produce a positive outcome through near perfect or perfect performance in a specific task. They will always meet the targets because everyone is working with pride in their strengths zone. People working in their strengths zone: (a) Look forward to going to work;(b) have more positive than negative interactions with co-workers; (c) treat customers better (d) achieve more on a daily basis (e) have more positive, creative and innovative moments (adapted from Gallup Strengths Finder work Book).

In order to ensure every one works in their respective strengths zones, the actions have to be taken at each stage ie recruitment/talent selection, employees engagement, performance management and development. The recommended steps to be taken are:

(a)  Determination of strengths zones of the managers/leaders, so that they know their strengths and leverage these strengths to provide dignity, respect and hope to themselves and their employees.

(b)  Determination of strengths zones of employees at the time of recruitment and assigning responsibilities as per the strengths zones, eg if a person is required for the research and development then the mere qualification of the individual would not be sufficient to recruit but he/she has to have the aptitude and attitude for the research and development. He /she should have talent to think and accept new ideas.

(c)  In the case of existing employees, determination of the strengths zone will help in appropriate delegation and if required re- assignment to the appropriate department.

(d)  Once these strengths zones are determined, deliberate efforts have to be made to develop on these to ensure achievements of the par excellence results. The training programmes of the employees have to be based on such development, taking into account unique talents of individual, life ambition of individual and organisational objectives.

(e)  Each individual is born with unique talents that can be developed into strengths, so understanding of these unique talents of each employee is sine qua non for the getting the best out of each employee.

        After working continuously in the same job, even though in their respective strengths zone, will usher in boredom and work fatigue. This can only be overcome by giving hope for future to employees at all levels. Hope has got two facets. Firstly, the scope of the organisation in future. Where will the organisation be after five/ten years? What will be its shape and size? The second is the scope of the employees to reach his or her life goals in the existing organisation. If these two are in affirmative, then the employees will have hope in the existing organisation and may continue working for the organisation.

  

   

Therefore, to Work with Pride, Feel dignified at home, Talk with swollen chest in the Society: one has to discover his or her strengths, understand these strengths and leverage these to achieve their goals; not only organisational goals but the personal life ambitions as well.  The organisation must assign/delegate responsibility as per the individuals’ unique talents/strengths. This will lead to the full engagement of the employees into their respective strengths zones, resulting in better productivity, excellent employee’s engagement and retention. The respect and dignity will automatically come when one excels in his/her job and gets the recognition. The hope will be from the overall future of the organisation and the opportunities provided to individuals to develop in their respective strengths zones.