I once walked through the second floor of the House of Work Ability with a group of HR professionals from large employers. That model was devised by the Finnish professor Juhani Ilmarinen and has four floors: health, competences, values and attitudes, and work. VfPf The values floor is about drivers, motivation and attitude. For me, that is the most decisive floor of the house.
Dozens of topics play a role there: drivers, personality, how you deal with setbacks, ability to change, self-management and the balance between work and private life. But also generations, your norms and values and the purpose of your organisation. What do you exist for as an organisation, where do you want to go and how well does that fit the employee? An organisation's culture is partly shaped by what happens here. I could write a book about it.
How strong is the cement in your organisation?
It made me think of our second house, which I am renovating. It had fallen into disrepair and become a shed, but it is becoming a fully-fledged home again. That is possible because the foundation is still excellent: a strong foundation (health), on which the rest of the house rests. And a cavity wall in which the cement still holds every brick perfectly in place. How strong is the cement in your organisation? How solid is your house, and that of your colleagues?
The importance of connection
You can interpret cement in many ways, but here I mainly mean connection and social interaction. According to self-determination theory, relatedness is one of the three basic psychological needs of every human being, alongside autonomy and competence. Self-Determination Theory
Since we have been working much more at home and in hybrid ways, that connection has come under pressure. You can fill your whole day with online meetings. But does that make you happy? Perhaps you notice too that such a day is tiring, even though you don't work more hours. As an engaged person, I too was genuinely tired after a day full of calls. It is not only strenuous, it doesn't necessarily make me happy either. Out of engagement, I listen to those signals and give in to them. That is the basis of recovery.
Do you ever worry about what remote working does to the connection between colleagues, within teams and in your organisation? And how that affects motivation, involvement and work engagement? Are all your colleagues nicely in a flow? Are they dedicated? And how about their vitality?
The balance can be disturbed
That brings me back to the cement. You could also call it the lubricant of the organisation. A lot of work can be done perfectly well at home. But meanwhile, the balance between energy drains and energy sources changes. According to the Job Demands-Resources model of Wilmar Schaufeli and colleagues, that balance is exactly what determines whether people stay engaged or become exhausted. Schaufeli
Think of the spontaneous five-minute chats you normally have at work. They are enormously valuable for the feeling of connection, and for your energy. The cement is also in that pat on the back, that compliment or the support you get from colleagues. According to Gallup, employees who feel sufficiently recognised for their work are four times as likely to be engaged. Gallup However many measures you come up with to keep people working healthily and happily, the social interaction in an organisation remains incredibly important.
Questions to ask yourself
On that important second floor, it is also about everyone's need for support, cooperation, autonomy, development and recognition. So ask yourself these questions:
- How do you organise support when your colleague isn't sitting next to you?
- How do you work together well when you work online a lot?
- Does everyone experience the greater freedom at home as positive, and can everyone handle it well?
- How do you work on development when the usual learning moments at work happen less naturally?
- And how do you make sure employees feel seen and heard?
Also read: leading a hybrid organisation and connection with the team.
About this article: written by Frank Brinkmans and updated by the editors of Alles over bevlogenheid.
