Two, four, six, eight. Who do we appreciate?
The oft-heard cheer of our youth at sports events and other activities was recognition for above-and-beyond effort or a task well done. If we were the targeted recipient of the chant, we could not help but … appreciate it.
We apparently feel the same at our jobs, based on results of surveys of employees who engaged in the AJC Top Workplaces 2015 project.
Participants were presented with 19 statements and were asked if each were important on how they evaluated their workplace.
And the winner is: “I feel genuinely appreciated at this company.” Some 71 percent indicated a sense of appreciation was a factor with the grade.
“This makes perfect sense from a most basic human standpoint. People want to feel like they are a valuable part of something good,” observed Jim Minnick, CEO and co-founder of the financial services firm eVestment, champion of the mid-sized employer category. “It would be more surprising if the opposite were true.
“We started the business to have a meaningful, positive impact on our industry, and we ourselves want our efforts to be appreciated. This basic desire then cascades through all the things we hope to do as a business and the type of daily work environment we strive to create.”
The notion was seconded by Anne Meisner, CEO and president of Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) at Southeastern Regional Medical Center.
“I believe that fundamentally what people want most in life is to feel a sense of purpose and belonging to a community,” she said. “Since so many of our waking hours are spent at work, it is no surprise that the most important factor in a great workplace is that a company recognizes and appreciates every member of the team.”
Tom Beaty, CEO and founder of the management consultant Insight Sourcing Group, recalled a peer at a large technology firm who referred to his employees as drones. The remark stunned Beaty, who wonders if workers there and elsewhere believe they are merely filling roles.
“Everyone wants to be appreciated and feel like they matter,” said Beaty, whose business earned Top Workplace honors in the small companies category.
He suggested that some companies seem more focused on quarterly performance than on their people.
“Anyone who invests their time helping build a great business alongside me deserves more than my appreciation,” he said. “The loyalty of my team members is humbling and creates an obligation for me to ensure that they have a great experience, are able to continue to grow and learn.”
Also at 71 percent, a fraction below the “appreciation” statement, was: “I believe this company is going in the right direction.”
One other statement received a thumbs-up from at least seven of every 10 respondents: “I have confidence in the leader of this company.”
The lofty consensus hit home with Beaty, who claims to have left “more than one company” because of a lack of confidence in the higher-ups.
“No leader has all the answers. As a result, a lot of people contribute to our major decisions, including people at our junior levels,” he said. “However, in the end, a strong leader makes the final decisions, charts a path, and drives the organization to success.”
To Minnick, employees naturally focus on the leaders, who have their hands on the wheel that determine the companies’ direction.
“As leaders then, you have to recognize that perception and be as transparent as possible about what that course is, what those decisions are and how they are made.” he said. “Importantly, you have to be open about both the good and the bad that you see – the successes and the challenges – and be willing to share the credit and accept the responsibility for each. An effective leader also needs to be able to openly admit when they do not know the answer.”
Meisner called confidence in leadership as “the cornerstone to trust.”
“Leaders need to demonstrate confidence in what they are doing and the direction they are leading the team so people will follow,” she said, explaining that communication is the winning tune played by a corporate pied piper.
Another “confidence” declaration generated the next highest affirmative responses at 66 percent: “I am confident about my future at this company.”
It was followed by whether the company operates by strong values and ethics (65 percent), senior managers understanding what is happening (64), things being done efficiently and well (63), the job making you feel a part of something meaningful (63) and the job meeting or exceeding your original expectations (60).
Next came the encouragement of new ideas at the company (59). Feeling informed about important decisions there rated at 56 percent.
Three statements about one’s immediate manager — cares about your concerns (57), makes it easier to do the job well (54), helps you learn and grow (53) — were bunched in the mid-50 percent range.
The two statements that were least critical to assessing the workplace are related to compensation.
Payment that is commensurate with performance scored only 51 percent. And bringing up the rear, at 37 percent, was how the benefits package stood up against others in the industry.
Beaty would not be surprised if those numbers reflected the feelings of the staff at Insight Sourcing.
“We tend to attract people who are not ‘all about the money,’ ” he said. “However, in my view, this creates a unique obligation on my part to ensure that they are well paid and have great benefits. This forms part of a social contract that we believe in where people do not hesitate to invest themselves in our organization and our vision — and, in turn, they will be taken care of and be well-treated.”
Echoed Minnick, “Compensation and benefits get a lot of attention because, in the aggregate, there is a lot of disparity in the marketplace. These are aspects of a career that are most easily quantified but, at the individual level, people realize that beyond a certain threshold, pay and benefits will not be the most important aspects of whether they are excited about their jobs.”
Meisner does not dismiss pay and benefits as insignificant, saying employees want fair compensation within their market and the financial security that accompanies it.
“To be truly happy,” she added, “people want to feel relevant, they want to have purpose and meaning in their lives and they want to be recognized and developed to realize their full potential.”
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