Your Business With James Caan 2017 - 170
Motivation madness Do you value your employees? How do you show them? Jonathan Richards, CEO of breatheHR, looks at the role appraisals have to play in employer/employee relationships A key part of your employees feeling valued at work is the opportunities they are given. They need to be offered a career path that challenges them and pushes them to reach their full potential. Achieving this is largely down to your employees having a personal development plan in place and meeting regularly with their manager to stay on track. Personal development is a way for people to assess their skills and qualities, consider their aims in life and set aspirational goals. According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, we're all striving to reach the top of the pyramid, where we can reach our full potential. There's not only a business but a human need to get it right. Untapped potential A recent survey by breatheHR discovered that 30% of employees never have meetings about their personal development. SMEs in the UK employ 15.7 million people. This means 4.7 million people - almost one-third of the SME workforce - aren't getting the input needed to further their careers. A further 37% of employees only have meetings with their manager about personal development once a year. That's a staggering amount of potential being stifled. Much like buying an apple tree but not giving it the water or nutrients it needs to produce any apples. To produce the Pink Lady of all employees, you need to find out what makes them tick. One way to ensure an employee is able to reach their full potential is motivation. If someone isn't motivated by what they're doing or where they're going, it's difficult for them to refrain from laziness. The same breatheHR survey revealed that 46% of employers found appraisals motivating, yet only 20% of employees agreed with them, with fewer than one in five considering them to be valuable. Something in the process is clearly not working, so what Appraisals are an opportunity, not a chore is the reason for this disconcerting disconnect between the motivation felt from appraisals by employers and employees? Chore or priority? Appraisals are often thought of as a chore for employers, as conducting them involves a stack of paperwork and preparation. For many, its seen simply as an annual "box tick" exercise. In fact, when employers were asked about their business priorities, employee satisfaction and appraisals ranked fourth behind customer retention, new business and cashflow, clearly demonstrating employers' feelings of indifference towards the task. This explains why employers are more likely to feel motivated after completing an appraisal. It's another job off the list - enough to make anyone feel motivated. Employees, however, want to feel as though they have got to grips with their performance
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