What’s more important to increasing the efficiency of your operation: a passion for pursuit of excellence or high levels of worker engagement?
The concept that engaged workers contribute more to the bottom line has had a long, successful run in the spotlight, but few have really peered deeply into the purported benefits of intrinsic employee motivation. It can be a mistake to assume engaged employees are the all-encompassing perfect answer to upping the bottom line.
People do have the capacity to feel very good about their on-the-job accomplishments even while wasting a lot of time on the job. Workers concoct all kinds of creative ways to give a convincing show of diligence and attention to detail.
Activities that engage employees are not necessarily what actually fuels gains in productivity. In fact encouraging workers to bring passion to their vocation is the true game changer, because it stirs the pot in a whole new fashion.
And despite assumptions to the contrary, small firms do not necessarily spark on-the-job passion to a greater degree than large companies. It remains the task of a company’s leadership team to craft a more favorable climate for increasing productivity, but a well-oiled machine functions with or without “good” feelings among staff.
That’s not to say that workers should be treated in a dismissive way. A workplace in which employees are respected is the starting point for productivity gains. And do turn your focus to ferreting out those problematic areas that create a lag in productivity. Just don’t make assumptions before you’ve investigated the issue. Get to the bottom of the productivity lag, whatever the case may be.