The Great Debate – How to Engage and Motivate Employees

Considering we are in the midst of the 2012 U.S. Presidential Debates, let’s think about the debate over how to engage and motivate employees—a popular and challenging topic throughout many organizations today.

The two primary political parties in the United States are preparing to square off face-to-face over a wide variety of domestic and international issues.  Both parties will address various topics, which each will defend and attack one another’s opinions and viewpoints.  The media will have a variety of opinions and do its best to sway viewpoints, as to who won, who was best on his feet, and who should be our next president.

The debate over how to engage employees also has a wide variety of issues, opinions, and viewpoints.  The biggest challenge in this arena is to make the right decisions that complement the realities, true culture, and the needs/expectations of the employee population for each organization.

Let’s look into this debate from the viewpoints of the employer and the employee…

Dr. Kenneth Novack conducted a study in 1986. The focus of the study was on what engages and motivates employees—a debate from both the employers view verses the employee’s viewpoints.  He surveyed a cross-section of employees across the U. S., as to what are the top ten things that engages and motivates them to do a good job for an employer. In other words, what makes you want to stay engaged with your employer?

As part of this study, Novack also asked a cross-section of managers across the U. S. what they think engages and motivates their employees…and here are the results.  The results, which still hold true, are a bit shocking and quite profound as to how out-of-sync most managers are with their employees.

The debate goes on, and based on this study, at best a typical manager has a rather cloudy idea of how to effectively engage and motivate employees.

If you seek to develop a sustainable Employee Engagement and Motivation Program for your employees, please contact the People * Leadership * Process * Solutions, Inc. ™ team.  These experienced professionals have more than thirty years of hands-on success in assisting organizations in the development, design, and implementation of highly effective and sustainable employee engagement and motivational programs.