Chapter 4: It s Their Lifestyle Not Your Workstyle That Counts

To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.

Robert Louis Stevenson

There is only one success, to be able to spend your life in your own way.

Christopher Morley

Where do we begin?

Having established that our employees are not necessarily going to swallow everything top management says and that they are going to be suspicious of many of our actions, where can we hope to begin in building a climate that thrives on engagement and commitment? The most obvious answer is for every organisation to realise that they are not managing in the same world as they were ten or even five years ago.

Today's business climate is different. The people, the technology, the overall work environment have moved on. As I said in an earlier chapter, if there is one word that defines the next decade of work it is flexibility . And that flexibility comes into play in all sorts of ways:

• flexibility in lifestyle

• flexibility in time

• flexibility in work

• flexibility in reward.

But more than that, our employees now clearly define themselves by the lifestyles that they have chosen to lead. They no longer define themselves as engineers , chemists, pilots, nurses, teachers and the like. They define themselves through the lifestyle that meets their needs; the job they do, the career they opt for, is only a part of that. They are a gym going, opera-loving, bicycle-riding, single mother of two, who also happens to be a biochemist; or a Harley-Davidson- riding , Herman Hesse-reading, 55-year-old grandfather, who also happens to be a vice- president of marketing for a supermarket chain. Their definition of who they are has changed forever. You can hire them and fire them, reward them and disappoint them, but they are still what they are. They are not yours. They don't say ˜I'm a product manager with the XYZ corporation' anymore. That is not their identity, that's just how you define them, not how they define themselves. And in regarding them in this way you make a huge mistake. If you want to engage the new-age employee you will have to do better than that. If you want to gain their respect and consequently their commitment you have to know who they really are. Build from that premiss and you'll be a winner.

Our task as managers is to understand the needs and expectations of our employees, and would-be employees, and their chosen lifestyle. Set this under- standing within the context of the subtle changes that have taken place in the last few years and we can then begin to create a work structure that allows for maximum flexibility. The task also involves a good dose of innovation and a willingness to adapt the way the employer approaches the job with the employee.

Most of the available research I have consulted points to the SME category being more able to cope with these demands, because the smaller size of the firm frequently creates a family-type atmosphere. But this is not always the case. Often SMEs lack the financial and manpower resources to react quickly enough to emerging trends or to make effective decisions. The lifestyle revolution is no different. Far from identifying closely with your products or services some employees, at least, will find that the job is not what they get out of bed for five days a week. In an SME, this can have dramatic consequences.

Of course, there's been a focus on flexibility in business - both in the private and public sectors - before this. We've already seen trends like telecommuting , job-sharing, part-time work, interim and outsourced work, but this time it's different. Vast numbers of employees are redefining their lifestyles and consequently workstyles too. Whether this really is a post 9/11 and post economic recession reaction or just a huge new trend I am not sure. What I am sure about is that this is a major trend that will affect how, when and who we hire for our businesses in the future. Basically, it means that people everywhere will self-select employers on the basis of how they want to build their lives. Employers, therefore, who are not open to drastic change in how they run their businesses will see themselves starved of the very talent they require to succeed. Employers who make the changes in how they organise for work will earn the respect of their employees, they will become the new ˜great places to work.' If we want to re-engage our workforces we have to be prepared to meet their needs more fully and far more flexibly than we do today.

However, not everyone wants to do that. According to Paul Smith, a director of recruiting firm Harvey Nash, some companies will go to all sorts of lengths to avoid flexible working. ˜Employers have approached us' he told The Guardian newspaper, ˜and asked if we can devise a way to skew the recruitment process in favour of young, single people, to keep parents and their demands for flexible working at bay. They also mention targeting gay people because they want to limit the risk of losing money through maternity and paternity leave and the extra costs of providing flexible working.'

Of course, this type of thing does go on. But you'll never make employer of choice using these kinds of tactics. It may work short term , but it won't help you create and nurture a committed, engaged workforce.

But dinosaur companies aside, if there are any doubts about the necessity of a new approach a 2003 study by Towers Perrin ^[1] of 35,000 workers described levels of engagement in this way: ˜A key focus of [the] research was measuring the respondents' level of engagement in their work. Just under a fifth of our total respondent group - a disturbingly small percentage - are highly engaged, freely giving that extra effort on an ongoing basis. An equal number are disengaged, meaning they have probably checked out from their work, as so many employers fear. The remainder - roughly two- thirds - are 'moderately' engaged at best.'

The Towers Perrin study goes on to ask the ultimate question: why does engagement matter so much? ˜Because', they conclude, ˜engagement remains the ultimate prize for employers. Companies may use different names or define it slightly differently, but the endgame is the same for everyone - discretionary effort.' Then they add, ˜But employees' willingness to deliver is neither infinite nor self-renewing. And the flip side of the coin - diminishing co-operativeness and engagement - is all about risk for the employer. Risk that the moderately engaged will slide toward increasing disengagement. Risk that resiliency will harden into recalcitrance. Risk that job performance will erode over time. Risk that as the economy rebounds, less than fully engaged employees will seek other employment.'

Finally, Towers Perrin conclude that ˜the challenge lies with the large number of moderately engaged [whom they term the 'massive middle']. Left to their own devices,' they suggest, ˜these employees could easily slide toward the wrong end of the engagement scale. Indeed, the sheer size of this group - probably the single largest group in any organisation - means it will have a disproportionate impact on the mood and morale of the workforce overall. Strengthening this group's level of engagement may be the most critical task virtually every employer faces today.'

My view is that much of this engagement, much of this commitment, will be generated from being open to new ways to meet - within your workplace - the lifestyle choices of your employees. Accommodate their lifestyle into your workstyle and you will begin to earn not just engagement, but respect, as an employer who cares about the one thing that's most important to them - their lives.

Without our very best efforts as employers (aided, no doubt by ever cheaper technology) to meet the expectations of the individuals we employ on a case-by-case basis (that will change and metamorphose at different times in their lives) we will never be able to recruit and retain effectively. And we are not talking here about allowing the odd extra day off or extra vacation time. Changing demographics and fast- moving social trends mean that we have to have plans that meet these new developments head on. An ageing European population means that we will have to work longer (so we will need to know how to employ the over-60s). Changing legislation on gay marriages complicates benefit programmes. An increasing number of divorces, re-marriages, single mothers and sandwiched employees (faced with child and elder care simultaneously ), mean that those we seek to employ are part of whole new niches in society. We no longer employ thousands of John and Jean Smith look-a-likes. We employ a diverse mix of individuals, all with different needs. Let's look at these emerging issues of work, reward, time and lifestyle and develop some under- standing of what lies ahead.

^[1] TOWERS PERRIN (2003) Working Today: Understanding What Drives Employee Engagement.