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The frustrated employee:
help me
help you
Many organizations today are focused on enhancing levels of employee
engagement – with good reason >>
In the rapidly changing environments most organizations
now face, where roles and responsibilities are continually
evolving, organizations depend on employees to act
independently in ways consistent with their cultures,
objectives and values. And faced with a challenging global
economic climate, many organizations are needing to do
more with less, making the discretionary effort of employees
willing to ‘go the extra mile’ all the more important.
©2012 Hay Group. All rights reserved
However, many firms that enjoy high levels of employee
engagement nonetheless struggle with performance. In
these environments, employees are energized by goals and
objectives and are eager to help their employers succeed.
But they themselves often indicate that they do not feel as
productive as they could be. Engaging employees alone, while
clearly important, is not sufficient to sustain maximum levels
of individual and team effectiveness over time.
The frustrated employee: help me help you
The frustrated employee:
help me help you
Faced with a challenging global economic climate, organizations
need to do more with less, making the discretionary effort of
employees willing to ‘go the extra mile’ all the more important.
What’s the missing piece? To borrow a line
from the movie Jerry Maguire, engaged
employees seem often to be saying to their
leaders, “help me help you.” In other words,
put us in roles that leverage our skills and
abilities and allow us to do what we do best.
Give us the tools, technology, information,
support, and other resources we need to
be effective.
And, finally, get out of our way. Don’t dilute
our focus and consume our energy with tasks
that don’t add value. And don’t introduce
procedural barriers that will interfere with
our ability to get things done.
Most organizations today employ a sizeable
number of people who are hindered at work.
These individuals are aligned with corporate
goals and objectives and are enthusiastic
about making a difference – but they are
held back by roles that do not suit them
and work environments that get in their way.
These ‘frustrated employees’ represent a lost
opportunity as commendably high levels of
motivation are not being translated into high
productivity, undermining the impact of
employee satisfaction programmes.
©2012 Hay Group. All rights reserved
this situation and I think things will change
for the better eventually. But waiting for that
time to come is very challenging. I’m almost
ready to throw in the towel.”
This comment is reflective of themes that
are common in many of our clients. This
individual is committed to his or her job
and anxious to make a positive contribution.
However, the lack of support from the
organization and its leadership makes success
hard to achieve. While still committed
now, there are ominous signs of potential
disengagement or turnover in the future.
Our research points to the fact that frustrated
employees are unlikely to persist over
the long term in this state. Where strong
motivation to succeed is not paired with
similar levels of support for success, one of
three things is likely to happen.
Frustration as an overlooked problem
in the work environment
Research from Hay Group Insight – our
employee survey division – indicates that
in organizations today frustrated employees
may represent 20 per cent or more of
the total workforce. Below is a verbatim
comment from one of these employees,
drawn from a recent Hay Group Insight
employee opinion survey:
Some engaged employees may certainly,
through force of effort, find ways to break
through the barriers presented by low level
support and upgrade the work arrangements
to match their motivational levels. But other
frustrated employees may find equilibrium
by reducing their motivation to match their
limited opportunities to succeed. That is,
some engaged employees, weary of beating
their heads against a wall, simply decide that
giving their best effort is not worth their
time and stop trying. Still other frustrated
employees can be expected to vote with their
feet and leave in search of greener pastures
where their strong motivation to succeed can
be matched with more supportive working
conditions, leading to an unfortunate drain
of an organization’s best and brightest talent.
“ I need support, and my manager and his
boss are not doing their best to provide it.
I am inundated with work, and I end up
staying here late each night. I believe in the
company and think we are one of the good
guys in the industry. I like my job despite
Unfortunately, organizations are generally
poorly positioned to identify and respond
to the concerns of frustrated employees.
Insofar as employee surveys have traditionally
focused on employee motivation (e.g.
satisfaction, commitment, engagement),
survey findings often fail to highlight issues related to
the supportiveness of work environments. And frustrated
employees may be reluctant to voice their concerns in
other ways. As they are typically highly committed to their
employers and their jobs, frustrated employees may not want
to complain – and those who do may be unlikely to press the
point if work arrangements are presented as intractable.
Addressing frustration at work:
providing adequate support for success
To get the most from engaged employees, organizations must
position them to channel their extra efforts productively.
That is, motivation to contribute has to be matched with the
ability to contribute. In our view, support for success (the
ability of engaged individuals and teams to make maximum
contributions) has two key components. The first, personal
utilization, requires that employees are effectively matched to
their roles, such that their skills and abilities are put to best
use. In deploying talent, leaders need to consider not only
the requirements of the job and an employee’s ability to meet
them, but also the extent to which the job will draw upon
the employee’s distinctive competencies and aptitudes and
fully stretch them.
The second component, an enabling environment, involves
structuring work arrangements such that they facilitate,
rather than hinder, individual productivity. In an enabling
environment, employees are supported by processes,
procedures, and resources (e.g. information, technology,
tools and equipment, and finance) that help get the job
done. They are able to focus on their most important
accountabilities without having to work around obstacles in
the form of non-essential tasks or procedural red tape.
“
An organization may be able to succeed by force of the will
of motivated employees in the short term, but sustained
performance is only built on adequate support for success.
Consider a case study example. For a major UK retailer, we
compared employee engagement and support for success
across approximately 500 stores with store-level measures of
customer satisfaction and fiscal year revenue against target,
collected at two different points in time.
Employee engagement and support for success were both
associated with better customer and financial outcomes –
but six months later, support for success was a much stronger
predictor of performance.
What’s needed to ensure that motivated employees have
the support they need to be optimally effective in their jobs?
While requirements vary by industry and context,
our research points to four common support drivers.
1. Performance management. Clarity on personal goals
and priorities enables performance by allowing employees
to focus on essential, value-added tasks. Likewise, by
continually ‘raising the bar,’ ongoing feedback about
performance helps ensure that employees are using their
full capability.
2. Authority and empowerment. Where employees have
appropriate autonomy and discretion, they are better able
to structure their working patterns to suit the way they
work best. And, by managing how they work, employees
are more likely to find opportunities to leverage their skills
and abilities fully in their job roles.
I need support, and my manager and his boss are not
doing their best to provide it. I am inundated with work,
and I end up staying here late each night. I believe in the
company and think we are one of the good guys in the
industry. I like my job despite this situation and I think
things will change for the better eventually. But waiting
for that time to come is very challenging. I’m almost
ready to throw in the towel.
”
The frustrated employee: help me help you
3. Availability of resources. An enabling environment
requires that employees have the information and resources
(e.g. tools, equipment, supplies) needed to do their jobs
effectively. And, where employees are being asked to work
hard, they understandably want to feel that they
are working smart as well.
4. Training. In an enabling environment, employees are
provided with job-related training to ensure they have
the knowledge and skills necessary to carry out key tasks
and deal effectively with internal and external customers.
Appropriate training, which can turn potential into
productivity, is also essential to ensure that organizations
get the most from the abilities of their employees.
Diffusing employee frustration:
recommendations
While the drivers of employee engagement tend to reflect
issues traditionally associated with leadership, factors
providing support for success relate directly to the quality
of management in the organization.
Unfortunately, recovering from an undue focus on
management early on, the pendulum has swung in more
recent years to an equally excessive focus on leadership
in executive assessment and development programmes.
Many have overlooked the importance of solid management,
as a foundation to effective leadership, for the success of
an organization.
We offer five recommendations for reducing frustration
in the work environment.
1. Leaders must recognize that a lack of support for
employees is a significant business issue. In an
environment where most organizations are straining to
do more with less, frustrated employees represent a massive
lost opportunity: you are leaving productivity on the table
and alienating your most effective staff.
2. Organizations should undertake strategic workforce
reviews to determine where support may be
particularly important and/or likely to be lacking.
Identifying support gaps is an obvious strategy for
more effectively leveraging employee motivation. But
it’s also important for leaders to consider where the
support component of employee effectiveness may be
especially vital. High turnover roles are one example.
When employees leave, they take their engagement with
them – but supportive work environments remain as an
organizational asset.
3. Support levels experienced by employees should be
monitored on an ongoing basis to give the frustrated
employee a voice. Engagement surveys, focused on
motivational outcomes, generally will not measure aspects
of the work environment critical to enabling contributions
from motivated employees. The old saying is that what gets
measured gets managed. But the corollary is equally true:
what is not measured will not be acted upon.
©2012 Hay Group. All rights reserved
It is critical that organizations identify and respond to the
drivers of support for success together with the drivers of
engagement.
4. Managerial development programmes need to
address key aspects of the work environment that are
creating frustration. In particular, managers should be
encouraged to treat managing employee performance as a
continual dialogue rather than an annual event. Managers
who regularly discuss performance objectives with their
employees are not only in a position to provide timely
feedback but also to stay attuned to factors in the work
environment that may be inhibiting employees’ success.
5. Leaders should identify broader organizational
programmes and initiatives which are out of alignment
with key support drivers. In evaluating training
budgets, systems for fostering communication between
departments, or succession planning processes, leaders
would be wise to consider the implications for fostering
high levels of personal utilization and creating enabling
work environments.
Conclusion
Organizations that focus exclusively on employee
engagement are likely to be disappointed by the extent
to which improvements in engagement translate into
enhanced performance. For companies seeking to maximize
individual and team contributions, we believe that engagement
is not enough.
From a productivity standpoint, the commitment and
discretionary effort offered by engaged employees can easily
be squandered if leaders are not careful to position employees
in roles that use their potential and to provide them with the
workplace supports they need to carry out their responsibilities.
Organizations need to build the dual notions of employee
engagement and support for success into their employee
feedback and survey programmes, their operating practices, and
their leadership and management development programmes to
increase employee performance and business success.
About Hay Group Insight
Hay Group Insight, Hay Group’s survey research
division, is a global leader in employee opinion
research. Through customized survey programs
focused on organizational objectives, we partner
with clients to attract and retain talent, improve
operating efficiency, manage change more
effectively, and enhance customer loyalty and
organizational performance.
To read more about how employee engagement can
create better financial performance, visit our website
www.haygroup.com/insight