“Getting the best out of your employees requires being a great leader, luckily to be a great leader you just have to care about your employees as much as you care about your work”
Ridwan Rasheed Leads, IderaOS//ZeroTo one Foundation//TOES
Employees are not allowed to use the WTF word anywhere close to any formal gathering or offices but when the WTF is used in the proper context, employers should expect their employees to use it many times.
I have served as Chief Operating Officer for an organization where I also play the HR role. It is a tasking role that when properly done would place the organization in the front role. It is the center that holds other bits, if not properly managed, things would surely fall apart.
“When the center holds no more, things fall apart” Chinua Achebe
New staff, experienced or interns at first would be new to the organizational culture and modus operandi of the organization.
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They have their own expectations and aspirations of joining you which I bet you they would know if they have made the right decision or not within the first few weeks.
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Win States matters to Employees
The desire of any employer is that their employees say WTF after work. WTF “wow that’s fun” is also called WIN STATE when placed in the context of workplace gamification.
The Win States is when business objectives or targets are met in a fun and thrilling manner just like managing to hit the target in a game. Gamification design helps groups or companies reach their Win States with minimum fuss.
“High salary is important but not as effective as employee talent management”
Adesina Sherif Magisterial Associate Ambassadors at Initiative for Sound Education, Relationship & Health
You as the Manager must have clear S.M.A.R.T goals that would be clearly communicated and understood by all and sundry in the organization. This would make all the ‘hands-on-deck’ work complementarily and not disjointly.
Why The WTF Word From Employees
Every employee participates at work differently because they have different set of aspirations. For some, they are in because of the ‘bumpy’ paycheck. While others, are with you to make you a stepping stone to the next job. For some others, your work is a chance to solve interesting problems and network with other ambitious people. And for some, it’s a personal sacrifice, a chance to change the world (for the better of course).
You would need to understand each member and know what motivates them rather than bark orders at them and make them work for the money you are paying them. In that case, expect the wrong use of the WTF word.
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People are generally highly motivated by the intrinsic nature of work, but extrinsic attributes matter too–sometimes certain parts of work are simply necessary and expectations related to consistent completion of unpleasant aspects should be made clear.
How To Gamify Employees Experience
Which Core Drive motivates your employee?
There are basically seven core drives that motivate in games which applies to real life as proposed by Yu-kai who was voted at the Gamification World Conference as the ‘Gamification Guru of the year’ in 2014 and 2015 (and among finalists in 2016) at GWC’s annual conference in Madrid:
Core Drive 1: Epic Meaning & Calling, Core Drive 2: Development & Accomplishment, Core Drive 3: Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback, Core Drive 4: Ownership & Possession, Core Drive 5: Social Influence & Relatedness, Core Drive 6: Impatience & Scarcity, Core Drive 7: Unpredictability & Curiosity, Core Drive 8: Loss & Avoidance
The interview stage is when you get to know your candidates properly, you employ them when you seem very impressed by them. You’ve vetted them and they may have even gone through screening upon screening to ensure they are the ideal candidate for the job. The interview then becomes an important time to understand how well candidates know themselves and what motivates them.
Onboarding
You are now satisfied with what your employees had exhibited in character and zeal. You have offered him the job and the next thing is to train them with manuals, meeting with a mentor, and probably a welcome lunch with fellow team members, and multiple other steps to learn about the team and company.
As the manager, in creating your onboarding steps, you should be very aware of how your employee will be perceived by the Onboarding team member. If possible, you can tailor your presentation to them to align with the Core Drives.
What I did when I was in charge of the recruitment process was that I ask the incoming employees of their aspirations.
I also make sure that I peg them to an outside-the-office-work assignment. This could be in the form of a new skill they have to learn or or personal project they have to achieve.
Scaffolding Stage
The scaffolding stage is where you can capitalize on an Employee’s primary motivators in creative ways.
Employees get into this stage after they must have learnt the ins and outs of their respective roles and responsibilities and have already made some minor contributions to the team and the company.
As this stage progresses you will have many opportunities as a manager to motivate your team.
As a method of motivation, I give premium to employees who are outstanding in their personal set goals. You should make sure they are well integrated into the system and make them see the world through the lenses they wish to see it.
Endgame
If you have successfully understood your employee which honestly sometimes you might need a Manager to help you with if you are the founder and have other tasks at hand. You may also have helped to develop strong employees that have really added to your team and company culture.
First off, well done. Employee retention isn’t easy. Life happens and even people that want to work together can’t. If you’ve created a culture and an employee-manager relationship that keeps people happy and motivated in their work, it’s something to celebrate.
Conclusion
Mistakes many Managers make is to add financial incentives as a source of motivation. The reason is that financial incentives would actually motivate your employee to do more work but actually think about it.
If you are compensated for commissions within a quota and you miss your quota (or sell somewhere below the commission cap), then you miss out on money in your pocket.
“Every word has its own right time of usage”
Adejugbe Michael | Digital Accolade
A better solution is to look through the lenses of each employee. Observe them during the interview stage and incorporate your findings of each employee into the onboarding and scaffolding stages.
Whenever your employee is about to leave you, it must be definitely because they have achieved with you while you must have gathered immense values from them too.