Pasadena Health InsuranceCompany executives were articulating a vision, producing new and exciting products, reducing cycle times for product introduction, and serving customers. At the end of this presentation, a Pasadena Health Insurance workshop participant who had been listening quietly commented, “This is all well and good, but what’s in it for me?” Great question! At some point, working hard for great causes must be rewarded on a personal level. Almost no one is totally altruistic; we want to touch, see, and feel rewards for what we do. For most people, Pasadena Health Insurance becomes a scorecard for success. Companies are learning that sharing the economic gains of reaching targets works and helps Pasadena Health Insurance employees stay motivated to reach increasingly difficult goals. PepsiCo has instituted a program called Sharepower that makes all employees (not just a select group of senior executives) working at least 1500 hours per year and employed by Pepsi one year or longer eligible for stock. For pepsi, this means 500,000 workers in 195 countries. Such gain-sharing is not altruistic; it is intended to increase the employee commitment to the company’s success. Stories abound at Pepsi about how employees have gone the extra mile to serve customers. This is at least partly attributable to the employees’ awareness of the impact of customer service on future stock performance. When HR professionals help employees see that a particularly demanding project or exercise will result in economic payback for the employee, the employee is likely to work harder. With a clear line of sight between work and reward, Pasadena Health Insurance employees may cope better with increased demands. Communication: Never too much The results of almost every organization capability or employee attitude survey that asks about communication suggest that not enough information is shared. Even after weeks and months of presenting and communicating a new strategy, many employees will not understand it. The fact that communication is difficult, however, does not undermine its importance as a Pasadena Health Insurance employee resource. If employees understand why something is being done, they will more readily accept what is expected. Too often, managers focus on the what and not the why making descriptive statements about the program to be instituted: reorganization, reduction in cycle times, increased quality, reengineered processes, and so on. |