Keep Employees Happy; Create a Workplace That Excites Them
Was channel surfing last night and paused for a few minutes to watch a TV show with Ray’s wife from Everyone Loves Raymond and the janitor from Scrubs. He was looking for a job – at a septic company. I must have come in late but I am assuming he was coached on how to appear enthusiastic during a job interview.
You’re cleaning crap out of a hole in the ground. Yeah, someones got to do it; but how the heck do you get enthusiastic about sewage? About feces?
Organizations seeking to keep employees happy usually tell me stories about how hard people work. When I arrive I also see how people seem to lose their identity when their foot steps through the workplace door; how they appear somewhat robotic. I believe the greatest value an employee has to offer his or her employer is their true identity.
I’ve worked in public accounting, agriculture, cement, travel, cosmetics and human capital. That’s just a bit of my past. Of all those industries the only one I really enjoyed was the travel industry; partially because I got to travel to our branch locations to really see what our business had to offer and how creative travel professionals can be. But mainly because I also got to play (be creative) with them in designing new and innovative programs. It was a lot of fun. I couldn’t get excited about lip gloss or cement. The coffin-sized cement slab when I walked off the elevator actually freaked me out.
Yesterday I launched a new company; a nonprofit dedicated to feeding the hungry. Check it out at http://onelessmeal.org. With a partner we opened a Virtual Diner where you order off a menu and you Don’t Eat It; but rather you Donate It! We’ve been having a blast. Why? Because it’s fun and we get to do something good. I got to create the very thing I talk to audiences about – designing a workspace and workplace where people look forward to contributing their personal identity.
What’s your personal identity? Is it really coming out in the workplace or is it being stifled by rules and policy that are keeping you from adding ROI to your organization. This is the conversation that needs to be occurring. This is the concept that I encourage Top Execs and HR Professionals to take a look at. How do you tap into each and every piece of human talent in your organization to create something exciting, fun, innovative and different. What really is the best role for every person in an organization? I think sometimes we forget why we hired someone. Did we hire them to be a programmer; or did we hire them because we liked something about their personality? You saw a company fit. So maybe their programming skills were not what you thought. Is there another place for this person in the organization? There just might be; after all you saw something in that person when you offered them that position; something more than a programmer. Figuring out how to best use people is what smart companies are doing to create exciting workplaces.
Or you can continue to let the robots wander aimlessly. Up to you.
P.S. He didn’t get the job; even the guy hiring him could not believe he was that enthusiastic about feces.
