In The Widsom of Crowds, James Surowiecki quotes two economists, Joseph Blasi and Eric Kruse, who said “[t]he tangible rewards of employee ownership or some form of sharing the fruits of ownership must go hand in hand with work practices that give workers greater decision-making.”
In his article, How Do You Motivate Employees?, Frederick Herzberg explains that “[i]n attempting to enrich certain jobs, management often reduces the personal contribution of employees rather than giving them opportunities for growth.”
A few weeks ago, I said that one of the “first principles” I’m advocating for in this blog is that “business should exist to make life less difficult for as many people as it can.
That statement has bothered me. Not because it’s untrue, but because it’s not really what I meant and I knew that it wasn’t when I said it. It’s too lukewarm.
Yes, business should exist to make life less difficult for as many people as it can, especially its customers. Yes, I liked the opaque reference to T.S. Eliot’s question, “What do we live for; if it is not to make life less difficult to each other?” But what I really wanted to say was that “businesses should exist to serve their employees.”
A few weeks ago I saw an article on LinkedIn about why millennials are so notoriously quick to dump a job. It’s written by Elizabeth McLeod, and I almost quit reading it after the first couple of lines. But as I scanned it quickly, the last two paragraphs caught my eye. There, at the end, she said,
I was raised to believe I could change the world. I’m desperate for you to show me that the work we do here matters, even just a little bit. I’ll make copies, I’ll fetch coffee, I’ll do the grunt work. But I’m not doing it to help you get a new Mercedes.
I’ll give you everything I’ve got, but I need to know it makes a difference to something bigger than your bottom line.
It would be easy to write this off as youthful arrogance. Probably a few people have. But I think Elizabeth has put her finger on the same idea that James Surowiecki, Frederick Herzberg, and I are all circling around: people want to contribute to something meaningful.
It’s not particularly insightful to point out that a successful business has to serve its customers, and that it does that best by making life less difficult.
But what if making our employees’ lives less difficult was our top priority as well? Even more that maximizing our own profit. Could we pay them more? Trust them more? Give them more meaningful responsibilities? Expect more out of them? Teach them new skills? Could we love them?
I’d like to find out.
