I was looking at Gallup.com’s “Year in Review” this morning and saw their note on “A Low-Quality Job Makes a Tough Economy Tougher.”
“In the first 26 weeks of 2008, the average weekly well-being of those in high-quality jobs has been substantially higher than those in low-quality jobs. In the average week this year, more than half of those in high-quality jobs (56%) are thriving, 42% struggling, and 2% suffering. It is a different story for those in low-quality jobs, 39% are thriving, 56% are struggling, and 5% are suffering.” (emphasis added)
Note: this is not saying in a high-paying job, but rather a high-quality job.
This is an interesting social fact that leaders and managers should pay attention to.
Gallup’s job quality is defined as:
“Positive work environments are characterized as those where workers express satisfaction with their work, report using their strengths in their area of work, and work in a culture of trust and partnership. Conversely, negative work environments lack satisfying work and are characterized by poor supervision.” (emphasis added)
Let’s highlight those keys again:
- Positive work environments include:
- Satisfying work
- Using one’s strengths
- Working in a culture of trust and partnership
- And – by inference – good supervision
- Negative work environments include:
- A lack of satisfying work
- Poor supervision
- And – by inference – not using one’s strengths, or being underutilized
So Gallup finds that more people with high-quality jobs are “thriving” and more people with low-quality jobs are “struggling.” What does this have to do with your business? A lot!
It has to do with Revenue, Cost, and Profits, and a host of other things.
Gallup, the Corporate Leadership Council, Mercer, Hewitt, and others have all found direct connection between how employees feel about their work (i.e., whether they feel they have a positive work environment or a negative one) – commonly termed as employee engagement - and many organizational performance outcomes like attendance, safety, retention, productivity, customer service and customer satisfaction, and profitability.
If your employees are “thriving” they are more likely to have good attendance, work safely, be more productive and serve your customers better – and you will be more likely to have better revenues and profits.
If your employees are “struggling” they are more likely to have workplace accidents, be out sick, underperform and give poor customer service – and you will be more likely to have higher costs and lower revenues and profits.
It’s your choice:
- Allow employees to be underutilized and performing less than satisfying work in a difficult environment, or
- Identify and manage to employees’ strengths and interests (here is a great tool to do that), create a culture of trust and partnership (this tool will help identify your current culture and possible needs), and help your managers succeed (see your management teams’ strengths with this tool).
How will you build your winning organization? Faster.
Thanks for posting the article, was certainly a great read!
I appreciate the feedback, Dan – hopefully the information helps leaders deal with the challenges of our new economy.