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What a Uni student taught me about morale and engagement at work

In the world of managing staffing companies, I imagine the last few years are up there amongst the hardest ever.

Anyone who runs a business will be well aware of the challenge of morale, engagement and staff retention right through the downturn, but a little scenario  played a couple of years ago, close to home for me,  that still resonates when it comes to the question of engaging staff.

I have a daughter, who at the time of this story was just completing second year of a Bachelor of Business in Marketing at University in Sydney. (I will call her ‘M‘ here because mentioning her name on my blog will provoke World War 3 at home). Being a true child of her generation, ‘M’ can’t envisage life without a car, massive mobile phone bills, and a not inconsiderable social life. Equally, I can’t imagine a world where I pay for these trappings of her good life.

So ‘M’ had a job. And a good job too – on the surface. For reasons soon to become clear, I won’t mention her employers’ name, but she had a retail role in one of the flagship outlets. It’s well paid too, and with Sunday overtime, it kept her in the style she feels she deserves, while enabling her to complete university as well.

Having a father in the recruitment industry is a double edged sword for ‘M’ however, because I encouraged her (vigorously) to also look for experience in a field closer to her career goal. And to her credit she secured “work experience” with Pulse Communications, a successful PR company, which is part of the STW Communications Group in Sydney. This arrangement is like an internship, and she worked every Friday at Pulse for three months. Great experience, but unpaid.

Now this is where it gets interesting. ‘M’ detested her well paid ‘real’ job. People were cold and disinterested. They operated in cliques that excluded newcomers. Her boss did not work the days she did, so she has never met her! On one occasion the supervisor left at 4 pm and all five of the other employees working on the same shift as ‘M’, moved out back into the staff room and stayed there until closing time. The fact they had left a trainee to handle a long line of irate customers, while they smoked and joked, apparently caused them no concern at all. The culture is such that when she arrived for work a cheerful “good morning” is met with stony silence more often than not. When she leaves maybe one person out of five will say goodbye. The tiniest error is met with derision and scolding. I was saddened to have her tell me she goes to work with “a heavy feeling of dread in her stomach”.

But Pulse was so different. As I warned her she would, she stacked boxes and stuffed envelopes, but they have also gave her interesting research and included her in client meetings as an observer. On her second day she was invited to lunch with the team celebrating a big win. People knew her name, included her in all goings on, and the CEO asked her how things are going. She loved going there, and learned so much she was totally re-enthused about a career in communications.

I was stunned and delighted be told by ‘M’ that during her (obscenely long) Uni vacation, she has volunteered to work at Pulse three days a week. And she is not paid one cent.

So what do we learn from this? ‘M’ hates her paid job and only turns up for the money. She does her best, but no doubt her unhappiness must show in her customer service – or at least it will eventually. She is looking for a new job and will leave as soon as she can. But Pulse, where she is not even paid, brings a sparkle to her eye. She looks forward to going there. She speaks in awe of the people who work there, and has taken a renewed interest in her university studies as a result.

And so I reflected on this lesson.The importance of creating a culture and an environment where people want to be is clearer than ever. Commercial success is important, but so is belief in the business and a return on our efforts that are to measured in fun and self-respect, as well as dollars

 

  • Posted by Greg Savage
  • On December 14, 2009
  • 5 Comments
Tags: Employee engagement, Leadership

5 Comments

Tracey Dunn
  • Dec 14 2009
  • Reply
Great post Greg I have had the same experience from the other side - we employed a german intern for one month who was unpaid. We took her to lunch on her frst and last day - we treated her like a grown up not as the hired help. We gave her interesting stuff to do. She worked really hard - and cried when she had to leave. She worked so hard that she brought in a new client in germany ( and as the smart cookie she was, she made sure that the new client was in berlin - which is where she lives)Theresult? She will now be freelancing for us in germany working on that new client !
Alan Whitford
  • Dec 14 2009
  • Reply
Hi Greg Thanks for sharing this very personal story. As in all things recruitment, it is so easy for the 'personal' experience of the candidate/employee to be lost. Companies talk about having a streamlined recruitment process, technology vendors talk about making sure that the workflow is managed effectively and and agencies and job boards alike talk about their massive candidate reach or databases. But as a candidate (and employee) though, I do not want to be in a 'process' or managed through a workflow or be part of the great unknown in a giant database. I want to be treated with respect, kept informed of my 'status' in the 'process' and actually treated like a member of the human race. I wish "M" all the best of luck in her career. And, as bad as her 'real' job experience has been, I have high hopes for her as both and employee and eventually as an employer in the future.
Dakota
  • Dec 15 2009
  • Reply
Hi Greg, I liked this post a lot, you should publish a book one day. Having read that, I looked back at the last couple of years which I spent working in different offices of the same company. To this day it strikes me how much the employees' engagement varies in these different offices even though on the surface the corporate culture is the same in all of them. For sure, the company has always spent substantial amounts on entertainment and yet this generosity has failed to generate any gratefulness from its emploees in certain locations. As banal as it may sound, the sole factor that seems to distinguish the high-emloyee-engagement-offices from the low engagement ones is the sense of responsibility that each employee has for the performance of the whole office. I recall a situation from one very productive office where 2 girls literally screamed at their colleague to stop chatting to friends on facebook during working hours because his laziness might prevent the office from hitting its targets which could result in all employees not being sent to a training... And all these people were good friends after work! So long story short, it's absolutely true that good atmospheare at work makes us all want to go there and do our best. But when we additionally see how OUR performance affects the overall standing of the company and what we get back as a result, then the whole company is bound to excel!!!
Dixie Gillaspie
  • Jan 24 2010
  • Reply
Culture is everything - and a sense of belonging is one of the most basic (if not THE most basic) need humans have of any culture they are in. Not only is M not paid in her position at Pulse, she isn't even spending all of her time doing things that engage her passions or challenge her intellegence. But because she is included and valued she'd rather do "grunt work" for no pay than continue to be excluded and treated as the "plebe." There is a lot here to learn in company culture but also in world culture. Thanks!
pineappleskip
  • Nov 11 2010
  • Reply
Story rings true Greg. The people in our office in Port Moresby look a little ragtag compared to Australia, second hand clothes and often thongs because that's all they can afford. They don't always smell nice, because they don't have water on in the settlements where they live and can't shower. But a very cooperative attitude among them. And most of them are graduates. We had some work experience people in the office for a few months, fresh out of Uni. They were very well supported by the other staff, and they were paid - by the other staff. Every payday everyone chipped in for 'bus fares'. It was perhaps the most uplifting experience I've had here - these staff, who hardly had anything, were forking out what was significant money to them to support the work experience people. Everyone was heartbroken when they left; they'd found a new family, a new tribe. There were tears all round. I hope they have good jobs now.

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Greg is the founder of leading recruitment companies Firebrand Talent Search, People2People and Recruitment Solutions, and a current shareholder and director of several others, including Consult Recruitment. He is a regular keynote speaker worldwide and provides specialised advice for Recruitment, Professional Services & Social Media companies.





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