“I PRAISE loudly. I blame softly,” said Catherine the Great. Smart advice for modern-day managers, says a quintet of motivational gurus interviewed by Human Resources (Feb).
The motivators tell the magazine that money, expensive reward schemes and exotic incentive trips don’t press our buttons as much as a bit of good old-fashioned praise.
Lynda Gratton, a professor of management practice at the London Business School, also says that the key to retention, especially among younger employees, is the creation of a strong sense of camaraderie.
Perhaps forged while driving blindfold cross-country in a 4x4, splashing about in a dragon boat or banging drums alongside Norman from accounts? These are just a few of the ways Local Government Manager (Winter) suggests that teams bond and motivate. Although quite how warm and fuzzy you’ll feel after the boss has directed your 4x4 into a bog is a moot point.
Enforced joviality while beating drums is not to everyone’s liking though. Richard Reeves, the director of the Intelligence Agency, writes in Management Today (Feb) that William Cowper’s couplet “Freedom has a thousand charms to show, That slaves, howe’er contented, never know”, “should be nailed above the desk of every boss in the land”. He says employees want job autonomy and a greater say over how, where and when their job is done. “We need to start paying as much attention to the degrees of freedom offered by a new job as to the size of the engine of the imminent company car. We outlawed contractual slavery 150 years ago. Surely it’s now time to free the wage slaves too,” he says.
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But be careful not to confuse free with freedom, nor wage slavery with slave labour. A survey by the UK Film Council and Skillset shows that 45 per cent of recruits to the film industry are unpaid. Dinah Caine, the chief executive of Skillset, says: “Obviously this is not ideal and creates obstacles for many talented individuals who don’t have connections and simply cannot afford to work for free.”
Too right, say the 1,000 workers interviewed for Vodafone’s Working Nation survey. They believe that better pay and conditions foster loyalty. And they can’t understand why the 300 employers surveyed insisted on banging-on about staff social events.
www.skillset.org, www.vodafone.com/uk/workingnation
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WHAT ELSE HAPPENED