Although many companies has understood that having high
scores in satisfaction surveys does not correlate strongly with customer satisfaction
and financial results anymore, they are struggling to understand why and what
to do about it. Some companies have found that having high employee engagement impacts
customer engagement which in return does create positive financial returns for
the corporation, but don’t understand how to increases employee engagement. The
increasing importance of employee engagement and the resulting lower importance
of employee satisfaction have its roots in the generational mixture of the
corporation in question.
The new generation is very different from Baby boomers (born
1940-60) that was motivated by duty to the corporation they served and generation X (1960-80) with a focus on
individual return versus the sacrifice of serving the corporation. Generation Y
(1980-2000) is only loyal to the corporation if it serves a higher purpose, listens
to them and invests in them.
This is very important to understand when designing an
engagement survey for a given corporation. The questions themselves can create
or destroy engagement – make sure you ask the right questions.
To create additional engagement you should think about
including questions about the future direction of the corporation – get the
employees opinion of what is important. The fact that you ask will increase employee
engagement and if you ask questions about the future purpose of the corporation
it will go even higher. GenY is motivated by purpose in opposition to Baby
boomers acceptance of a focus on shareholder and the more personal
gain/sacrifice view of GenX motivated through
profit sharing .
If you accept that pay itself does not motivate (too little
can demotivate however) this is an overview of what motivated the different
generations:
Motivated by
|
Willing to
|
Activity should
benefit
|
Employee measurement
|
|
Baby Boomers
|
Duty
|
Sacrifice
|
Shareholders
|
Retention
|
Gen X
|
Balance
|
Sacrifice for personal gain.
|
Shareholders, Management and Employees
|
Satisfaction
Survey
|
Gen Y
|
Purpose
|
Engage in return for benefits to society
|
Society and environment before corporation
|
Engagement
Survey
|