Moral and motivation worth $305bn - Thomson Reuters

A disengaged and demotivated workforce is costing Australia $305bn annually, according to Ernst and Young research.
The study found 85% of Australian employees could be 21% more productive at work by improving staff engagement, motivation, reward and recognition and well being in the workplace.
Ernst & Young Oceania advisory leader Neil Plumridge told HRR to restore productivity HR needs to stop being ?an advocate of people? and become ?an advisor on productivity?.
Workforce ?prepared to do their part?
He said the results of the fourth six-monthly Ernst & Young Australian Productivity Pulse showed productivity and discretionary effort had plateaued since last year, but ?the workforce is prepared to do their part? to turn that around. ?We have a real opportunity to do things better, not just through industrial relations or infrastructure, but by engaging the workforce to want to deliver a high performance,? Plumridge said.
He said the results showed 400,000 employees across the country were in roles where they felt underutilised. ?Outsourcing has resulted in corporate restructures where employees are no longer doing the job they used to. Whereas previously they might have been managing 200 staff, now they are managing a contract and a project,? he said.
Age groups identify different motivations
He said the attitudes of age groups provided HR with an opportunity to introduce specific projects to tap into future potential.
The survey found employees aged 25 and younger were the most disengaged, but offered the most potential. Plumridge said they felt underutilised by their employers, offering the greatest opportunity for increased productivity through increased engagement. Employees aged 55 and over were the most engaged and the group who felt they ?still had a lot of value to add? to their employer.
Plumridge said the results should help highlight to CEOs and boards that HR, engagement and motivation have substantial effects on business profitability. ?Most enlightened CEOs get this,? he said. However he said HR needed to take a more proactive step towards measuring business inputs and outputs specifically tailored to the business. ?HR tends to measure employee opinions surveys, turnover, development cycles, goals, all those business as usual stuff, rather than measuring the level of input required against things like customer numbers and value,? he said.
HR should be strategic and operational
?HR needs to be integrated into strategy and at the front line of operations,? he said. ?HR needs to stop leaving business operations to the CFO.?
Australian Human Resources Institute national president Peter Wilson told HRR the results were not surprising. He said he believed in the 20:60:20 rule where 20% of staff were actively engaged, 60% were ambivalent and ?doing it on autopilot? and 20% were actively disengaged. He said not engaging the 60% was an ?opportunity forgone? by employers. He said HR needed to ?start a conversation in a trusted place? as many employees tried to conceal their disengagement. He said using the enthusiasm of younger employees to ?speak up about the organisation?s potential? was a positive conversation to hold.
Is your HR engaged?
Leadership coaching consultancy Altus Q CEO Andrew Mackenzie told HRR often times employees were engaged with the ?task at hand? but not the organisation. ?When organisations restructure, that?s when you get disengagement,? he said. He advised HR to identify who in the organisation was engaged and workshop with them what they enjoyed about the organisation, as opposed to their job. ?Work with the engaged ? help them identify the story you want to tell the entire staff,? he said.

Source: http://sites.thomsonreuters.com.au/workplace/2013/05/08/moral-and-motivation-worth-305bn/

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