Penna Consulting : The great office romance

When it comes to productivity, it's widely accepted that engaged employees who are happy in their jobs perform better than those that aren't. We also know that organisations that put effort into engaging their employees, helping them find satisfaction in their work, enjoy improved financial performance as a result.

Sometimes though, employees fall out of love with what they are doing, with engagement and effort being the immediate casualties. Left unaddressed the impact on a company's overall business performance can be significant. This isn't scaremongering: our recent research revealed that those looking to change jobs had been considering doing so for 11 months. That's 11 months of potentially not giving their best - something that no company can afford.

So what can you do to help employees fall back in love with their career and stop them looking for something else.

Build confidence
There's no escaping the role of career developmen t in engaging and retaining employees - ultimately contributing to the commercial success of a business - so encouraging all people managers within your business to put quality time aside to speak to their teams about their careers and aspirations is important - increasingly so in a more buoyant market.

Make sure managers are confident and competent in holding conversations with their teams. Give them the skills and techniques they need to hold them. Any new manager should have a clear understanding of the link between career development, engagement and business success. Take them through how to structure a conversation and what the options are for development in the organisation - don't assume they know all this. Likewise provide existing managers with a quick refresher on how to deal with difficult questions or manage the expectations of different generations.

Talk to them about it
It might seem like an obvious place to start, but it's important to open up a conversation with employees about their careers, and then do this regularly. By understanding our teams better we can spot issues or frustrations they may be experiencing early on; providing an opportunity to address challenges rather than allowing them to fester.

Holding regular career conversations doesn't just enable issues to be raised or identified, they also build trust and openness and encourage discussion around aspirations about where they could go next, or how to get a better work life balance. This enables a plan to be put in place, that shows them they are valued and can increase their engagement and contribution as they know they are working towards what they want as well as what the business needs.

Keep them focussed on the big picture
It's natural to get used to things when they've been around for a while. Doing the same thing, in the same place, with the same people can lose its sheen after a while. Your conversations can help remind them to look beyond day to day tasks which may feel a little monotonous, focusing instead on how what they do is pushing the business forward.

Encourage them to focus on the positive aspects of their jobs. Flexibility in working patterns, an easy commute, the benefits package, colleagues - get them to consider how they feel about these things. Perhaps there are elements that could be better than they are currently (there always will be), but could they also be worse?

Face the changes
We all change over time. What we want for ourselves changes, what we need changes as our circumstances change, our motivators shift, and our energy levels can go up and down at different stages of life. All of these things going in the wrong direction can make people fall out of love with their career, but it's not necessarily the careers fault.

There might be really valid reasons why what worked for them at work in the past doesn't anymore, but you can benefit from helping them critically evaluate whether feeling differently about their career is because something at work has changed, or whether it's something else and they are blaming the job. Whatever the reason, you can then support them in an appropriate way.

Investing in helping your team feel engaged in their careers can have a positive impact on business performance and it needn't take up too much time or be resource heavy. Short, regular career conversations can help prevent the pain of losing valuable skills and expertise from your business and the cost of recruiting replacements, by showing people they matter to you and that you can work together to re-ignite the spark in their career with you.

Steven Ross,
Head of Career Development