Over the years of my professional life and through conversations with people from various companies and industries, one common trend I have seen is that people everywhere are unhappy at work, or have some issue to complain about regarding HR policies or practices at their organizations. Many companies are making the same mistakes with regards to human resources, and many employees make mistakes with regards to how to respond to issues they see. The combination makes it impossible to create a positive environment, and problems just get amplified in a difficult economic environment. However, good HR practices are important no matter what the economy is doing, and employees need to understand how to take control of their own career track and workplace happiness.
Advice for HR Leaders
One big problem among creating corporate HR practices is that many things involved in HR are expensive (benefits, incentives, raises, bonuses, perks, etc.), and while every company wants its employees to be satisfied, these things are often seen as unnecessary for the core operations of the business, so in good times, companies will employ these practices to be competitive, but in difficult times, they are often the first thing on the chopping block. The reality is that the employees are really what make or break the company, so their satisfaction with the workplace is supremely important for achieving all other goals. When you take away perks or benefits, you are also taking away productivity and even your best employees altogether (who will leave for greener pastures).
Another problem is that companies often put HR policies and practices in place and believe they are doing the right thing, but the implementation of these practices comes out very differently at the end of the tunnel (the employees) than they were envisioned in the planning stages, thus creating a disconnect preventing top leadership from understanding the needs and satisfaction levels of their workers.
In response to these problems, I will list some suggestions for companies and employees with regards to their human resources practices. These suggestions are for HR leaders:
When it comes to performance evaluations and setting goals, be very specific, and follow through.
It is important for every employee at every level to understand exactly what is expected of him/her. This means knowing what it takes to do the job sufficiently, what it would take to earn a raise or promotion, and what it takes to stand out among the crowd. These goals need to be as specific as possible, recognizing positive results rather than punishing bad ones, and most importantly, the boss or HR rep needs to follow-through on promises once the goals are reached. Just like animals and little children, we respond best to positive rewards for positive results, but our positive results will only happen if we know exactly what the reward will be, and actually get it once we deliver our part of the bargain.
Incentives don’t always have to be monetary
Many managers assume that money is what it takes to make employees happy and to put in their best work. But the truth is, happiness among employees comes from a variety of places, and money is only one of them. Knowing that someone recognizes our good work is a great motivator, so verbalizing recognition for good work regularly is important. It is also nice to know that the boss cares, so simply asking how they are doing goes a long way, and so does allowing people to leave early once in a while, or give the opportunity to take an afternoon to volunteer in the community (without taking away pay). These things may sometimes seem like a waste of productivity, but employees are often more productive during the time they are working if they are happy in their work and motivated by perks like this. These things do not really cost much money, but because of the increase in happiness and productivity among workers, they are a really good investment.
…but the monetary ones do help
I’m not going to lie; a little extra money goes a long way to make someone happier at work. But that money needs to be specifically tied to a measureable result. It’s a downward spiral to let employees feel entitled to yearly raises and bonuses, but tying it to an achievable, measureable result will ensure that those results are achieved and workers have more control over their own successes.
Watch the pipeline and react appropriately
Implementing policies is a lot like playing telephone—the message changes more and more the further along it gets in the chain. And most HR managers or senior leadership don’t really follow what happens to these policies after they sign their approval except for periodic top-level updates. Keep tabs on exactly how the practices are being communicated, executed, evaluated, and modified at every level of the organization. There is no need to micro-manage the process, but it is important to watch the process at every level and in a variety of different departments because with all the different styles of management and work implementation, messages and policies are going to be different to virtually every person, so you need to stay on the pulse of what people are saying about the procedures not only to make sure they are understood correctly, but also to make sure you didn’t miss anything when planning them out. And by the way, before you even decide on any incentive policies or benefits or whatever, you should ask the employees what would work for them. This happens very rarely, and it would help employees to feel empowered to have a say in how the organization is run. But be careful how you do this. No employee should feel he/she is being judged for the feedback given or feel that job security is in jeopardy depending on how the feedback is received.
Advice for Employees
Before all the fingers start pointing just at the HR leaders, it should be noted for as often as I see problems in corporate HR, I also see workers place blame for their unhappiness on HR and senior leadership before they search inside themselves. Yes, sometimes the company makes mistakes, but we can’t depend on the company for all of our happiness, especially since we, too, make mistakes. Here are the suggestions I have for employees:
Put your expectations in check
I hate to be the deliverer of tough love, but I feel that it needs to be said. It is a workplace, not a camp. Your HR representative is not a counselor or therapist and is paid to keep the company’s best interests in mind just as much as yours (if not more). Your boss isn’t paid to worship the ground you walk on; your boss is there to make sure you do your job. You are paid to do a job, and you are not entitled to additional money, or promotions, or play time, or unnecessary luxuries. Sure, those extra things make you happy, but I think so many people wind up disappointed with their jobs because they expect the job to be something it isn’t. They expect pats on the back for doing what they are supposed to do anyway. They spend much more time complaining about the workplace or the boss or the job rather than doing something to make it better. The boss is human. No work project is perfect, and there are always problems. What is going to make the biggest difference in your happiness is how you handle those problems and how you learn to deal with a difficult boss or colleague. Your happiness is up to you.
Manage your boss
Now that I am sure I have made everyone reading this mad at me for the tough love part, let me clarify one piece of how you can take ownership for your own work happiness. We have all had bad bosses and dumb bosses and bosses that do so little we wonder why we couldn’t be paid to do just what they’re doing and do it better. But the only way to succeed in an organization and be happy working there is to find some way to work with your boss. Your boss cannot read your mind and does not know what circumstances are best for you to do your best work, so you need to have a constant discussion about that. Do you need that pat on the back when you do good work? Schedule a wrap-up evaluation meeting when your project is done so that you can ask what went well and what to improve on. And by the way, as cliché as it sounds, you should learn how to take criticism as an opportunity to improve yourself rather than an identification of weakness. Do you want a raise? Tell your boss you will do whatever it takes to get it, ask specifically what he/she would want you to do to be considered for a raise (actual, measureable goals), and do it. If you deliver the results, follow-up with him/her and ask for your raise. No one is going to have a raise or promotion gift-wrapped and delivered to your desk. You have to do the legwork.
Manage your environment
This one is kind of tricky. Workplace happiness is a living, breathing thing. We all want to make friends at work, which is important to our workplace happiness, but if one person is unhappy, the complaining can turn to gossip, which can turn to empathy, which can turn to other people feeling unhappy, and before you know it, you are feeling unhappy and nothing about your job has really changed—only your attitude has changed. This kind of sharing and recycling of negativity is what creates a toxic environment. A toxic environment is easy to create, but nearly impossible to escape. The only way to manage this is to stay strong in your own workplace satisfaction and managing your own environment. Don’t take part in workplace gossip when it turns to bashing bosses and complaining about company policies. This type of talk is usually done by people who do not know how to do the above suggestions (keeping expectations in check, manage the boss). You cannot let others’ dissatisfaction infect your own. If you really are unhappy about something, do something about it. Yes, there will always be office politics which make getting your voice heard or changes implemented all the more difficult. But no one ever got anywhere by whining about it. So learn the system and the politics, and find a way. If you can’t find a way, decide if it is something you can live with. If not, find somewhere else to work. There are a thousand stresses in life, and you make it exponentially worse for yourself by letting things bother you, or by complaining about them and not taking action. Take control. Either do something, or live with it. If it’s the latter, don’t let yourself complain or be subjected to complaints by others.
Conclusion
The truth is, no workplace is perfect, and no person working in a job is perfect. Whether you are a corporate leader or Joe Worker, it is always beneficial to step into someone else’s shoes to understand why they make the decisions that they do, and also be introspective to understand how you can improve yourself. On the side of the company, there needs to be more focus on finding out what employees need directly from them—they will be happier, more loyal to you, and will probably work harder, too. On the side of the employees, there needs to be more ownership for workplaces satisfaction and less entitlement—do something about a problem, and if you find yourself with an unavoidable toxic attitude, maybe it’s time for a change in your career. There will always be problems. But it is how we deal with the problems that define how strong we are both as individuals and as organizations.
Further Reading
http://www.dirjournal.com/guides/the-best-hr-practices-that-successful-companies-practice/
http://www.entrepreneur.com/humanresources/humanresourceburtongoldfield/article204482.html
http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/24-tips-for-being-happy-at-work-631166/
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