KEY POINTS:
Most privately owned businesses don't have the fundamentals in place to have an actively engaged workforce, says Simon Mundell, director of The Results Group.
He says the reason so many workers are not actively engaged in their jobs is because they're not put in positions that inspire them.
"What we readily do here is we put people into square boxes. 'There's your job, there's your job description, away you go'.
"And we don't stop to identify what the abilities are. What their strengths are and really look to put them into roles that play to those strengths."
Mundell says organisations need to know who they are so they can hire the right people and put them into the right positions.
"There's no point recruiting if you don't know the type of person you're looking for regardless of their skills.
"Recruit for fit and train for skill. You can always change what someone knows - you can teach someone anything, but you'll never change who they are."
To create more employee engagement and increase productivity, Mundell says the number eight fencing wire approach is not the way to go.
Saying you'll figure it out as you go means you won't go anywhere.
"Generally with a privately owned business, a more pressing task is at hand rather than trying to implement some of these structures and disciplines. So they sort of go by the wayside," Mundell says.
But it's important to know what the company is about and have a feel for what's going on within it.
"I'm not talking about some plaque on the wall. I'm talking about what really are the things that identify with that business, the personality of the company and the people within it."
Business should take the time to sort out who they are and recruit accordingly to improve employee engagement. Mundell says it's common procedure overseas.
"If you went into an American business, it's highly likely they're going to have a mission and a purpose statement. If you go into the average New Zealand business it's highly likely they won't," he says.
But local businesses can make up for it with their attitude.
"Business owners still have that Kiwi 'good bugger' attitude. Not all. This is a generic sort of statement but they naturally encourage people. They naturally pat people on the back," Mundell says.
If the mission and purpose is not clearly defined or if employees are in positions they aren't suited for, they can become actively disengaged.
"These are the people who don't like their job, they complain a lot, they're negative, they bring everyone down around them, they basically do the bare minimum just not to get fired. That's an actively disengaged person."
Mundell says there is only one thing to do with this type of employee.
"You need to free up their future. It's difficult to do that here but it is far less overall cost to the business in the long term to go through that maze and nightmare of having to go through the procedures to do that than it is the costs to have them stay in the business being actively disengaged."
It might even be in the best interest of the employee.
"The great news is just because they're actively disengaged in your business doesn't meant they're going to be actively disengaged in another business. They may just not suit your workplace.
"It's not just a good thing for you and your business; it's also a good thing for them."
At the other end of the spectrum, nothing is better than employing an actively engaged person.
"They're the lifeblood of your business. They live and breathe it. They are happy to start early and work late.
"They believe in your vision and your focus and your direction. They're excited about your business. They energise other people in your company. They energise your customers.
"They'll readily go the extra mile. They feel at home at work. They feel like it's an extension of them. They can be themselves."
Achieving this actively engaged workforce boils down to the fit.
"Where people are operating in a function which is aligned with their behavioural styles, then they will be more engaged because they are naturally good at what they do."
Mundell says this is not about retraining people or trying to fix weaknesses.
"Upskill your strengths but don't upskill your weaknesses, there's no point in it.
"An accountant is never going to be a good writer and a writer is never going to be a good accountant.
"Yes, they could learn to do it, but it will still stress them out and they still won't really enjoy it," he says.
People who are actively engaged at work are able to use their unique abilities at work every day. They have the tools and equipment to do the job right and feel their work is important.
"It's about getting people sitting in the right seats. Instead we just stay with the organisation chart-type thing and go, 'there's your function there'.
"And this isn't just a New Zealand problem - it's a Western world problem, period."
Mendell says psychometric profiling tools are a great way to identify behavioural tendencies and get people in the right seats.
"You can tell if they're going to be organised and structured; you can tell if they're going to be good at communicating with people, talking with people; you can tell if they're going to be a good CEO; you can tell a lot about someone just by looking at their profile." At The Results Group even the seats have been modified to fit the employees.
Some people have newly invented job titles to better describe their role.
The key is to allow people to work in their unique ability to maximise employee engagement.
"A unique ability is the sort of thing that you can do all day.
"It gives you more energy than it takes. It energises you and other people around you.
"We all have things - functions or tasks or whatever - that we can be in that environment and be in that unique ability where we can literally do it all day and it just gives more energy than it takes.
"When you look to identify people's strengths and put them into roles that play to those strengths, then you create a far higher level of engagement with that employee - they're far happier in their role and what they do.
"They're more likely to be going the extra mile and enjoying what they're doing."
Mundell says it also doesn't hurt to have some friends in the workplace. "If you're not friends with your work team you're just not going to last."
Work can and should be enjoyable.
"At the end of the day, you spend more of your waking life at work than anywhere else.
"So, far better that you enjoy being there, and if you're engaged you love what you do, you're passionate about it, you go the extra mile, it's great."
Working on it
* Workers need to be in jobs that inspire them and play to their strengths.
* Recruitment should be done with the view to creating worker engagement.
* Actively disengaged workers (moaners) should be pointed towards the front door.
