| Danial Norjidi |
JOBSEEKERS should look for employing organisations that have cultures and value systems that are aligned with their own personal values, while also asking about opportunities to develop and grow with the organisation.
At the same time, organisations that include in their interview and recruitment process factors pertaining to strong self-motivation tend to have employees who are self-driven, more motivated and have a purpose.
These were some of the points highlighted by Karen Goh, Practice Leader, Executive Leadership Development at Align SMA Pte Ltd, Singapore in a recent interview with the Bulletin.
Karen recently featured at a recent Human Resources Retreat Seminar in which she spoke on the importance of employee engagement, highlighting that engaged employees work with passion and feel a profound connection to their company. Disengaged employees sleepwalk through their day putting time, but no energy or passion, into their work. Actively disengaged employees are those who are not only unhappy at work but act out their unhappiness.
She spoke on the importance of having both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation among employees, and how a balance between the two is crucial for achieving employee engagement and thus better performance and long-term sustainability.
Extrinsic motivation includes benefits, salary, praise, titles, awards, promotion, discipline and recognition, while intrinsic motivation includes things like autonomy, purpose, mastery, love, passion, fun, drive, belonging, self-knowledge and learning.
Karen Goh, Practice Leader, Executive Leadership Development of Align SMA Pte Ltd. – DANIAL NOR-JIDI
In the interview, Karen highlighted that, when it comes to having employees with high levels of intrinsic motivation, a lot of it comes down to recruitment policy.
“We noticed that, based on evidence and research, when we already recruit people with intrinsic motivation, the tendency is that they tend to be more motivated, have more self-drive and they tend to be people who have a purpose – they tend to have all these elements.
“So that’s where we have also worked with organisations and consultants for them to try and include these factors in their interview and recruitment process.”
When asked if she had any advice for jobseekers going into interviews, particularly on how they can show that they have the necessary intrinsic motivation, she said, “We realised that all of us are different kind of pegs – some are round, some are square. So make sure you’re going to the right type of hole.”
“If you are a round peg, go and be part of a round hole. That means, basically, looking out for organisations whose cultures and value systems kind of resonate with yours. And then, naturally, you will feel that you can be part of the community.
“So this is one area people should look at, making sure that there’s alignment in terms of organisational culture and values with their own personal culture and values, on what they’re seeking out.
“And then, as they are looking at job interviews, when they go into the session, ask the panel of interviewers, ‘what do you have in terms of frameworks, in terms of policies or packages that allow me to grow with the company?’ Tell them you want to grow with the company, but at the same time as a jobseeker find out from them, ‘what do you have in place to help me grow?’”
She explained that this is because, “Once you see that kind of alignment, then you think, ‘maybe this is the right company for me’.”
While motivation is important, she did acknowledge that sometimes there are employees who are disgruntled and simply have lost or do not have any intention to help benefit the organisation they work for.
“Typically, every company will have their performance appraisal or performance management cycle or process. Over here, who are the two key stakeholders? The manager and the employee.
“What happens in that cycle is the manager gives feedback and checks out where the employee stands in terms of performance across time. These assignments are given to the individual. You are monitoring, coaching and helping the person to achieve it.
“So typically there is already a process that manages that within each organisation, so this is where the company should best leverage on this process in order to get the best, of knowing where the employee stands.
“If the employee is already showing a bad attitude and is very disgruntled, and you know that despite you sending him on training, coaching him one-to-one, giving him mentors, help from the co-workers, then the person is probably still not the right fit.
“Most importantly, what I want to emphasise is not just about meeting KPIs but really, it’s the connection between a good manager and an employee, because that will change things, that can have very good outcomes beyond just managing staff based on tasks.”
She also highlighted on the importance of “a good manager who knows how to use the system, performance appraisal process, and of course on a day-to-day basis, connect with the staff to get them to give the best value”.
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