Staff Recommendation

What Do Your Employees Want?

Many corporate executives have been searching years for practical ways to provide a work environment that will motivate employees and managers toward greater productivity, profitability, and job security.

Part of the solution lies in the values and attitudes managers and employees believe about each other. It is SESCO’s professional opinion and consulting philosophy that the most important assets of any business – regardless of industry – is not buildings, operating equipment, inventory, liquid assets or land. The most important assets of any business are your employees and management team.

The most productive and successful employers in business today are those who truly believe they are in the people business. Quality managers, supervisors and dedicated employees always make the difference between business success and failure in any organization. The best way to achieve quality and be the “best” in any business is to create a working atmosphere of complete trust, confidence and respect between management, supervisors, and employees.

We need to know what managers and employees want from their jobs before we can properly meet their on-the-job needs. After conducting, evaluating and listening to several hundred thousand employees and supervisors over the past 60 years conducting supervisory and employee opinion survey programs, we've found ten (10) major on-the-job objectives (needs) of working people:

  1. EMPLOYEES WANT to do interesting, challenging work in which they can assume some responsibility. Employees welcome work that is challenging and want the chance to think for themselves and contribute new ideas. If employees do not perform work that is challenging and motivating, they are forced to focus job satisfaction on compensation – more money and costly benefits. This results in more wage and benefit demands and turnover. Spiraling wage adjustments over the past several years have only motivated working people to look for their next wage increase. Benefits, which now cost employers approximately 40 percent of their annual payroll, do not motivate employees.
  1. EMPLOYEES WANT recognition for excellent job performance. Verbal and tangible recognition are equally important as pay increases. Recognition from management makes an employee feel important and appreciated. These basic self-esteem needs, when consistently provided by management and supervision, are some of the most powerful, intrinsic job motivators. Progressive management teams use Supervisor and Employee Opinion Survey Programs to satisfy employees’ need for recognition and participation.

  1. EMPLOYEES WANT to work with managers and supervisors who treat them with respect. Employees, supervisors and managers bring to the job a consistent need to be treated fairly, consistently, and with respect. They desire employee communications that are two-way, not one-way, and free of unrealistic demands and promises.
  1. EMPLOYEES WANT the chance to develop new job skills. Employees want the opportunity to advance and grow into more skillful people so they can move into more responsible, challenging and financially more rewarding jobs. The more employees are qualified to do, the more they are motivated. The less they are qualified to do, the less they are motivated.
  1. EMPLOYEES WANT to work with managers who listen and appreciate their ideas on how a job can be done better, more productively or more safely. Employees want to have the opportunity of sharing their opinion on how their company can be a better place to work. For many obvious and not so obvious reasons, employees don’t totally level with members of top management about concerns of their jobs. It is hard to look a supervisor in the eye and say, “This is wrong,” or “This is unfair and I think you should do this to correct the situation.” Employees seem to hedge just a bit and don’t totally reveal their innermost concerns to their employers.
  1. EMPLOYEES WANT a chance to think for themselves rather than just carry out rigid instructions. Today’s employees are more intelligent and better educated than any previous period in our economy’s history. Employers that implement employee involvement programs, employee focus groups, and management-supported employee suggestion systems have benefited greatly by meeting this on-the-job need of working people.
  1. EMPLOYEES WANT to see or know the “end results” of their work. Employees want to know how his/her job will contribute to achieving the organization’s mission, vision, and values. The need for job enrichment is not a one-time proposition, but a continuous management challenge – an ongoing journey.
  1. EMPLOYEES WANT to work with managers and supervisors that are dedicated and ethical. We all wish to work with a manager or supervisor that is an effective leader. Employees want to be loyal and supportive of their managers and supervisors. They want to work with ethical managers that believe there is no right way to do a wrong thing.
  1. EMPLOYEES WANT to know what is going on. Employees want to know how well the organization is doing and the problems and challenges facing their employer. Only in this way can employees and their families decide whether or not to go in debt for a new home, a new vehicle or to borrow money for other family needs.

10.EMPLOYEES WANT to feel good about working for their employer. They want to have pride in their contribution to the company’s objectives. Employees want to feel proud about where they work.

Over 75 years ago Elbert Hubbard, a pro-employer and pro-employee author wrote these suggestions:

If you work for a man, in heaven's name, work for him. If he pays you wages that supply your bread and butter, work for him, speak well of him, think well of him, stand by him, and stand by the institution he represents. I think if I worked for a man, I would work for him. I would not work for him a part of his time, but all of his time. I would give undivided service or none. If put to a pinch, an ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness. If you must vilify, condemn and eternally disparage, why, resign your position and when you are outside, damn to your heart's content. But, I pray you, so long as you are a part of the institution, do not condemn it. Not that you will injure the institution – not that – but, when you disparage the concern of which you are a part, you disparage yourself.

SESCO Management Consultants
P.O. Box 1848

Bristol, Tennessee 37621

(423) 764-4127

(423) 764-5869 (Fax)

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