This episode is the final part of a recruitment mini-series; where I have been focusing on various characteristics that I believe are important in recruitment. And while I think many of these themes are universal, I have, of course, been focusing on software development. In this episode, I will close out this recruitment mini-series, with a discussion on getting the most from your new employee and keeping them engaged.
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Published: Thu, 26 Mar 2020 18:18:49 GMT
Transcript
This episode is the final part of a recruitment mini-series; where I have been focusing on various characteristics that I believe are important in recruitment. And while I think many of these themes are universal, I have, of course, been focusing on software development.
In this episode, I will close out this recruitment mini-series, with a discussion on getting the most from your new employee and keeping them engaged.
There are two things that you to need to operate a successful business.
To produce something that your customers value.
And to have happy, engaged employees.
Everything else is a side effect.
Financial earning are purely a result of those two factors.
Too often, the focus is on the outcome - revenue & profit - rather than the inputs that generate them.
So if you've invested considerable effort, time and money into the recruitment of a great developer - how are you going to keep them happy and engaged?
It's not enough to give them a firm handshake and some pleasant-sounding platitudes on their first day on the job.
You need to create an environment in which they want to stay. The last thing you want is for them to leave within a month after all that investment you've put in.
Recruiting them is just the start.
You need to create an environment in which they can thrive - to be happy and productive.
Now I'm not going to cover how to do this in just this podcast - but hopefully, you've been paying attention to the series so far as I've touched on various concrete activities to foster that environment.
But I am going to talk about crucial principals of motivation.
Daniel Pink in his book Drive talks about three drivers of human behaviour;
Biological, External and Intrinsic.
The Biological drive are things like the need to eat, drink and sleep.
The External drive are things like reward and punishment.
The Intrinsic drive are things we do for our enjoyment and a sense of purpose.
We should be providing an environment that encourages the development of those Intrinsic motivators.
Traditional management techniques, management based on the theory X philosophy would have us motivate via the external drives - the reward and punishment - the carrot and stick.
In the book, Daniel advocates the theory Y philosophy of providing an environment that encourages the intrinsic drive.
When it comes to motivation; we want our people to think of their work as play - rather than ... well, work.
The external drive - the reward and punishment - very much pushes a "this is work" mindset. It is all about the transaction of my time for an agreed value.
Whereas those motivated through the Intrinsic drive see their work more as "play" - which promotes an entirely different mindset.
One in which the book goes into great details on why this is beneficial for your organisation.
Punishment is rarely a maintainable motivator for an individual's best work - and oddly, reward can be just as bad - If not possible worse.
Overemphasis on reward can often result in dysfunctional outcomes.
Just look at most commission-based sales schemes to see a drive for getting the sale "at any cost".
It also produces an expected reward state; in which motivation may improve in the short term - but the reward becomes expected and quickly becomes the "norm" - thus producing no further motivation. Or worse, it becomes a massive demotivator if the reward is withdrawn.
Whereas if you can tap into an individual's Intrinsic drive, then they affectively motivate themselves to their best work.
While obviously remuneration is essential, Daniel advocates ensuring that it is at the level to take it "off the table".
Paying enough that it feels fair - maybe just a touch above the market rate - but not so much that it becomes the singular focus for the individual.
In the book, Daniel highlights three motivations as part of the Intrinsic drive.
Autonomy—the desire to direct our own lives
Mastery—the urge to get better and better at something that matters
And Purpose—the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.
It is these elements that our employees should be motivated by - we need to provide the environment to do that.
Understanding the value of this has been a core aim of this podcast series and will continue to be so.
I feel more than anything that providing your employees with that ability to be motivated by their intrinsic motivators is not just a great way to retain them - but for them to be able to do their best work.
And ultimately provide the best return on your investment.
Traditional management techniques, those based on the theory X mindset, assumes that management knows best.
It is for management to have all the ideas and the staff to carry them out.
Traditional management techniques are simply an ineffective way of getting the best from our organisations.
It limits the capability for creative thinking to a narrow subset. We are constrained to the highest-paid person's option. Often someone a considerable distance away from the coal face.
Instead, we should be looking to encourage and enable the entire organisation not just to be able to have that creating thinking, but also support and nurture its realisation.
Daniel provides several examples of world-changing innovations that have come from allowing employees the time to explore whatever they felt was relevant.
At Google, it's called 20% time. Where employees can use 20% of their time to work on any project that catches their fancy. 20% time has resulted in the birth of products like Gmail and Google News.
At Atlassian, a major software provider, its called FedEx days - the staff are given a day to deliver something. Individuals can work on their own or join with colleagues to prototype new products, add new features or fix some bug - basically to scratch an itch - and that itch is personal to each individual. Then after 24 hours, everyone does a show 'n' tell.
At 3M, a similar scheme is credited with the production of the now-infamous Post-It note.
All of these things came from peoples individuals intrinsic drive - not an edict from above.
I'll repeat, there are two things that you to need to operate a successful business.
To produce something that your customers value.
And to have happy, engaged employees.
As demonstrated by Daniels book, employees are happiest when they are motivated their intrinsic drive.
In this episode, the last in my recruitment mini-series, I've talked about the importance of retaining the individual once you have recruited them.
I've stressed the importance of happy, engaged employees to the success of your organisation.
I've then shared lessons from the book Drive by Daniel Pink on the motivators that enable our employees to be happy and engaged.
I hope this mini-series on recruitment has been useful to you. There are plenty of areas I could further explore - please let me know if there are any particular subjects you would like me to cover.