The Globe and Mail (Canada), December 5, 2008, Friday

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The Globe and Mail (Canada)

December 5, 2008, Friday

SECTION: REPORT ON BUSINESS: GLOBE CAREERS; ECONOMY: ENGAGEMENT; Pg. B16

HEADLINE: You're valuable to us - it's not just lip service; Managers who spur employees to think about what they bring to the team boost attendance, morale and productivity, studies find

BYLINE: WALLACE IMMEN

BODY:
Managers be warned: In these tough economic times, a growing number of unhappy employees who'd otherwise play hooky will drag themselves into work for fear of losing their jobs - but they won't be much good to you because they're so unmotivated, a study suggests.

One way you can get them to show up, perk up and be more productive: Get them to think about what they really love about their work, another study finds.

Both absenteeism and presenteeism - when employees show up but don't perform with any enthusiasm - can be reduced when managers make workers think about what excites them about their jobs, the second study by the Univer-sity of Alberta found.

The effects of an encouraging boss on attendance and motivation are consistent over time, found John Hausknecht, a professor of human resource studies at Cornell University, who carried out the first study on New York State workers over a six-year period.

The study asked 12,500 transportation department employees to fill out extensive questionnaires annually on their job satisfaction, and assessments of how they were being managed, from 1998 through 2003.

In years when the economy was good and unemployment low, workers who reported low levels of job satisfaction took an average of one more day a year off work than those who rated their job satisfaction high, Prof. Hausknecht found. (It may not seem like much but it was consistent over time and translates into millions in productivity losses, he says.)

But in years when unemployment rose, absenteeism in low-satisfaction workers was about the same as in high-satisfaction workers. found the study, which is reported in the current Academy of Management Journal.

"Fear of being singled out as expendable at a time when they are not sure their job is secure makes people less likely to take a chance and skip work," Prof. Hausknecht says.

However, while the low-satisfaction workers may have been showing up more to work, their satisfaction, motiva-tion and productivity levels as reported on the questionnaires were actually lower than they were in the good years, he found.

That bodes ill for productivity if the current downturn continues, he suggests. "If we have a long period of reces-sion and rising unemployment, I think we will see a lot more of this presenteeism due to fear."

The message to those in charge? "Intervene now, to get people feeling more committed to their work," he says.

How to do that?

"A manager who encourages employees to think about the value of their jobs and the benefits they provide to others can significantly boost their morale" and slash both absenteeism and presenteeism, says Val Kinjerski, who did the University of Alberta study.

That research compared the job satisfaction and attendance levels of two groups of health care workers. One group attended a day-long workshop and weekly hour-long follow-up sessions over eight weeks in which they did exercises where they were asked to focus on their value to others and what excited and satisfied them about their work. The second group did not have any such coaching.

When the nurses recalled times that they were "excited and fully engaged and feeling energized by their work, as they presented their responses, you could see them smile and get enthusiastic," Ms. Kinjerski says.

And such coaching had effects on the job. When all participants filled out questionnaires before the workshop and, again, five months later, the group that did the workshop reported an average 23-per-cent increase in teamwork, a 10-per-cent hike in job satisfaction and a 17-per-cent jump in workplace morale over that period.

The group that did not participate reported no significant change, says Ms. Kinjerski, who reported her study in a recent Journal of Gerontological Nursing.

Moreover, the rate of absenteeism among the workshop group fell significantly. At the start of the research, em-ployees in both groups had an absenteeism rate of about 4 per cent a month. Five months later, time off work had dropped to 1.7 per cent for those who took the workshop and to just 3.5 per cent for those who did not get the encou-ragement, Ms. Kinjerski says.

"People can lose sight of why they and the work they do matter."

She was a doctoral student when the research began and now has turned her findings into a program, "Spirit at Work," that she offers through her job as director of organizational consultancy firm Kaizen Solutions for Human Ser-vices in St. Albert, Alta.

Managers would do well to keep reminding employees. Among the U.S. transportation department workers, what employees with good attendance and high job satisfaction had in common were being given recognition and encou-ragement from their supervisor as well as being allowed to think independently and take personal responsibility and action, Prof. Hausknecht says.

The results show that regular reminders about the value employees provide in their work can be a real motivator, says career coach Cassandra Gierden, principal of Prophet Coaching in Vancouver.

She says she encourages clients "to come up with one thing that they feel good about achieving in their day," and that helps them feel more confident that they are moving forward and not just coasting.

"When people understand the underlying need for what they do and how much it is appreciated, they want to be at work, because they can see that what they do does make a difference," she says.

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