Motivation directly impacts experience
In this article, I share my experiences working at two very different companies over the course of 6 months, and how my experiences at each were shaped by my own motivation
When looking for a job, one typically has an idea of the type of job one is looking for. These are usually specific job aspects like salary, industry, job scope, company name, flexibility, etc. For reasons I needn’t go into in this article, these aspects should remain the key considerations of job seekers finding suitable jobs that align with their personal goals. But at the same time, instead of parsing potential jobs through this non-exhaustive, undocumented, self-imposed list of criteria, I want to suggest adding just another important ‘criterion’. This will hopefully give jobs that would otherwise be rejected based on lower salary, smaller company name and the like, the more balanced appraisal they deserve – motivation.
Upon completing National Service, I went through this process of job applications, albeit with a narrower pool of available jobs than would typically be accessible to university graduates and professionals. As is the case for many A-Level certificate holders fresh out of NS, I applied, through a recruiting company, to several administrative jobs at large multi-national corporations (MNCs) and big government statutory boards. At the same time, I was on the lookout for meaningful internships at local startups, where some friends were already working. I interviewed at a few of these MNCs, and one local startup, but eventually took up an administrative role at a big multi-national insurance company.
As mentioned previously, I personally had my own set of selection criteria that was implicit, unspoken, and somewhat arbitrary, but still somewhat weighted based on criterion – of which salary and company culture were entirely absent. The crux of my decision was simply built on my expectations of what I would learn and do at that insurance job, and undeniably the company’s name. These drove my decision more than any other equally salient aspects that I could have considered – like types of coworkers, company culture, and motivation.
While my first job at the large multi-national insurance company did not entirely meet my expectation of learning fundamental actuary from industry professionals, it was enjoyable in its own right, at least for the various new experiences I gained in terms of working within a smaller specialized group of individuals as part of a bigger organization. I was hired as an administrative assistant in the Accident & Health department, in charge of preparing weekly and monthly reports, cleaning up data in Excel sheets, preparing basic insurance quotations, among other basic admin duties. I was assigned and attached to this mentor who majored in actuarial science, but was ostensibly underemployed based on her job scope. This disparity in terms of my expected learning value of the job and what it actually had to offer led to a general indifference towards my work and eventually my premature termination. Perhaps not coincidentally, the aforementioned mentor has also recently left the company for another job that uses more of her professional skillset.
In stark contrast, my short stint at TalentKraft has been nothing short of fulfilling. It was everything I expected, and a little more. I joined TalentKraft because I wanted to experience startup culture and life in a small company, and at the same time expose myself to the various aspects of human resource and strategy consulting, like research, writing, digital marketing, and client meetings. Fortunately, my experience here aligned completely with what I’d sought to gain from TalentKraft. I attended a few client meetings, participated in team discussions, was given opportunities to provide input and be heard, was given responsibilities chiefly in terms of managing digital marketing and the company website, and played an important role in the designing of presentation deck slides for major talks and events.
A notable aspect of working at TalentKraft was the inclusivity with which the co-founders treated all interns and employees, despite our varying ages and backgrounds. As an intern, I was invited to sit in on co-founders’ discussions with other employees on current projects that I was not directly involved in. I was always encouraged to give feedback, and was always asked by my bosses if there was anything in particular that I’d like to work on. This high level of engagement gave me room to explore my interests, as well as improve on and grow my existing skills. This was exactly what I was really looking for as an intern fresh out of NS looking to gain work experience before furthering my studies.
Towards the end of my internship at TalentKraft, I was tasked by a fellow colleague to research the topic of workplace motivation. From the findings, I sought to develop a clear definition of motivation and a framework to measure motivation, and flesh out actionable recommendations for employee engagement. This small project led me to realize, at least for myself, that motivation was the central factor that made or broke my two work experiences.
Allow me to provide some context in terms of workplace motivation in order to explain what I mean.
Workplace motivation
Let’s first define workplace motivation as being based on two factors – intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. The former refers to the more intangible aspects of work and progression that are normally more closely associated with work motivation, such as nature of work, autonomy, achievement, responsibility, advancement and recognition. The latter encompasses tangible aspects like company policies and administration, working conditions, peers and salary – some of which are often overlooked. Intrinsic motivators can be further broken down into the five key job characteristics, namely skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and task feedback.
Skill Variety | Degree to which the job requires the use of different skills and talents |
Task Identity | Degree to which the job has contributed to a clearly identifiable larger project |
Task Significance | Degree to which the job affects the lives or work of other people |
Autonomy | Degree to which the employee has independence, freedom, and discretion in carrying out the job |
Task Feedback | Degree to which the employee is provided with clear, specific, detailed, actionable information about the effectiveness of his or her job performance |
This is significant because it identifies the job aspects that directly affect motivation, which has an established two-way causal link with satisfaction. Hence this can explain my very different levels of satisfaction while working at a large MNC and at a small startup like TalentKraft.
Skill Variety
While I basically only engaged in mundane administrative tasks and simple data entry and organization at my first job at the insurance company, at TalentKraft I was assigned various different tasks that required me to employ a wide spectrum of skills. At TalentKraft I mostly did design and digital marketing, but in addition, I was assigned a presentation task to the whole team, opportunities to join client meetings, an article-writing assignment (the outcome of which you are currently reading!), among others. I feel these stretched my potential and challenged me, both in terms of critical and creative thinking and expression, and kept me always gainfully employed, motivated and never bored.
Task Identity
I think one of the most crippling factors of working at a large company is the tendency for a sense of clearly defined and aligned company purpose to be lost amidst the myriad of daily processes and snaking chains of command. When an aligned sense of purpose or mission is absent, or not clearly established, employees naturally lose the drive to strive, as they become increasingly estranged from the greater purpose. Conversely, this is why schools always emphasize on their motto, why the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) obstinately drills the core values into its soldiers, and why the most renown companies have the most identifiable slogans.
A case in point here is the 2014 rebranding of Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler (KPMG), in which the corporation’s leadership team conducted hundreds of employee interviews asking about company culture, analysed the qualitative data through an extensive comment coding process, then launched the Higher Purpose Initiative which included the introduction of a new purpose statement: “Inspire Confidence. Empower Change.” To further strengthen this identity, the company invited employees around the world to share their own stories of purpose-driven work, collecting more than 40,000 stories from their 29,000 employees and featuring them in campaigns across a variety of print, digital and live channels.
Unsurprisingly, having leaders talk about purposeful work had a significant impact on their employee’s sense of company pride and, importantly, work satisfaction. KPMG’s research revealed that employees whose leaders talked about purpose scored significantly higher on retention, brand, and purpose-related items than those whose leaders did not.
Task Significance
Defined as the degree to which one’s job affects the lives or work of other people, this job aspect is closely tied to task identity. Having a clearly defined and aligned sense of purpose among all employees within the company helps to establish an informed understanding of one’s work and his/her impact on society as part of greater company objectives.
Autonomy
Autonomy in the workplace is perhaps the job aspect that is most emphasized today, as our society experiences ongoing rapid technological advancements and shifts towards across-the-board technology-enabled solutions and processes. Conference calls, text messaging, web development and high-speed networking have contributed to heightened levels of productivity, while maintaining equal or fewer man hours of work, by reducing the need for short-term travel, and vastly increasing the speeds at which information can be sent and received. Available computer software and hardware are constantly evolving to keep pace with increasing productivity. All these factors enable the workplace to become less strict in terms of working hours, as employees are increasingly given more freedom over their personal working terms and conditions, like start time and end time, work location, and being physically present in the office.
It should not surprise anyone, therefore, that Google’s approach to autonomy is one based predominantly and strongly on transparency and freedom, as it “[formalizes] that people spend 20% of their time doing something outside their normal work function”. Google believes that breaking down barriers encourages creativity and collaboration, and creates habits of creativity.
At TalentKraft, my fellow interns and I were given freedom to choose the days we wanted to come to office, how long we wanted to work, and importantly, the projects we wanted to engage in. Timelines were set for end goals, but we were not micromanaged. We were even allowed to choose to work from home. In contrast, at the large insurance company, everyone was assigned similar tasks daily and with strict deadlines, all while working on company intranet on company-provided laptops. Limited workplace autonomy inhibits interest and excitement in work, stifles creativity, and may even discourage striving, leading to lower levels of motivation.
Task Feedback
One key step to figure out the level of motivation in the workplace is to measure growth. Both personal and organizational growth are crucial for prolonged workplace motivation. Lack of company growth directly correlates to a lack of motivation among employees, as employees do not see any tangible effects of their hard work and efforts. Similarly, lack of individual employee progression gives employees the impression that they are not valued. Both of these have the potential to create a gloomy and disengaged office, as employees lose the motivation and drive to work harder towards positive outcomes.
Task feedback, wherein employers give constructive and actionable feedback to employees on their performance and prospective areas of improvement, is important because it leads to individual employee growth, and ultimately open up doors to company growth.
The American multinational hospitality company Hyatt Hotels Corporation understands this. The company focuses on employee development by promoting from within, which triggers in its people the inner motivation that comes from knowing that you’re growing and developing.
Unfortunately, this was barely present in my 3 months at the insurance company. In contrast, at TalentKraft, weekly team meetings and periodic check-ins by my bosses Zanyu and Eugene really helped to keep me firmly rooted in my goals, and allowed me to learn new things and correct my mistakes. For instance, one of my bosses, Eugene, conducted a mini “workshop” on writing where he analyzed and addressed the issues in the writing styles of all employees, and taught us how to write effectively and purposefully in the active voice. Hopefully the fruits of his labour are visible in this article!
Conclusion
In the beginning of this article, I recommended job seekers to add ‘motivation’ to their list of job aspects criteria, because I believe it will provide them with a fresh perspective. They should consider the intrinsic job aspects like skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, task feedback, and not just focus on extrinsic aspects like salary.
Motivation directly impacts satisfaction, creativity, drive, and overall experience. Having an intrinsic sense of purpose and the desire to work harder towards achieving a shared goal in your comfort zone at your own pace, knowing that your work is and will be valued, and that your colleagues and bosses aren’t afraid to give you constructive feedback, is more important than you might think. So the next time you are out on the job market looking for a job, broaden your scope and consider these more intangible job aspects. They could very well be the factors that make or break your experience.
As a company, it is therefore important to understand your employees and to build a company culture that attracts the right team members. However, critically analysing and interpreting data, and then figuring out how to use these findings can be very daunting and complex for the uninitiated. Fortunately, HR tech solutions such as TalentKraft’s TeamSight can help smoothen this process and help you take the first step towards a strengthened company brand, culture, purpose, and most importantly, better hires.
Written by: Zhixiang Teoh
Zhixiang interned at TalentKraft in 2018 after his National Service. He is currently pursuing his tertiary education at the University of Pittsburgh.
Like this article?
Want to get insights on your team's culture?
Click on this button to find out how you can do that with TalentKraft’s TeamSight.
