Money alone can't buy happy workers
Lack of feedback is why some employees are unhappy
Liang Dingzi
IT'S almost ironic that efficient Singapore should face an increasing number of "actively disengaged" employees.
.
A Gallup poll of 1,006 working Singaporeans aged 18 to 54 shows this rising by a third, from 9 to 12 per cent last year. Most of them are unhappy about how they are treated at work.
.
The findings are not surprising, in the light of older workers fearing premature lay-off, younger workers not staying in their jobs and national leaders expressing concerns about falling customer service standards.
.
Many of them would change their line of work if they could turn back the clock.
.
One word provides the clue to this state of affairs — pride, or the lack of it, on the part of the worker in what he does.
.
While the wage packet is a major driver in the choice of work, it is not the only compensation, as some employers choose to believe, that workers seek.
.
Take the case of a big company that pooh-poohed the entry of a small competitor. It believed doggedly that no sensible person would forgo his or her compensation of better pay and attractive perks to join a fledgling company. But its arrogance was to prove it wrong. What's worse is that the better workers left, because they were unhappy where they were.
.
According to the poll, 44 per cent of the unhappy workers said they had not received feedback on their performance in the past six months, which in turn reflects an employer's lack of interest in the performance of its workers.
.
If employers want to instill pride in work, they have to recognise the desire and capacity — however limited — of workers to do better, before they can expect them to give better results. And that means regular and timely feedback, if handled correctly, will provide greater motivation.
.
Somehow, most companies in Singapore are shy of face-to-face appraisals, and the result is either nil feedback or an academic exercise that benefits neither the company nor the worker.
.
In its place, companies prefer a detached, closed-door, one-way assessment enshrouded in secrecy loosely linked to a management-driven rewards and punishment scheme.
.
No worker likes to be surprised by feedback on something he had fallen short of, too long ago for him to recall. If there were lessons to learn from it, precious time would have been lost. Can you then blame him for continually making the same mistake?
.
Sadly, it is often in bad times that an employer scrambles to complete backdated appraisals out of expedience to get rid of workers. It makes the bitter pill of retrenchment much more difficult to swallow.
.
As pointed out by the poll, employees want to be treated as more than just workers — they want to be partners in the business and feel proud that their contributions matter in its success. It's immaterial at which level of the corporate hierarchy they function.
.
I have seen wheelchair attendants who exude pride in their work because they earnestly believe that they are doing an important job.
.
On the other hand, some of their supervisors who earn four times more are disgruntled because they find their bosses disinterested in what they are doing, their efforts unappreciated.
.
The absence of pride underlies the national concern of falling customer service standards. One can be efficient, but not warm, friendly and helpful at the same time. The task is then performed without frills. Such cold efficiency may work well in a backroom operation or a production line — but not in a situation when we want to impress the customer.
.
Bosses should know that happy hands make light work and happy hearts go the extra mile. Together, they excel.
.
The author is a Singaporean freelance writer retired from the aviation industry.
