Why put people first in E2.0 projects: the data

Today I went across the following post: What Do Employees Want? 3 Simple Things That Will Improve Engagement…

Which, starting from these data :

Majority of American Workers Not Engaged in Their Jobs

Seventy-one percent of American workers are "not engaged" or "actively disengaged" in their work, meaning they are emotionally disconnected from their workplaces and are less likely to be productive. That leaves nearly one-third of American workers who are "engaged," or involved in and enthusiastic about their work and contributing to their organizations in a positive manner. This trend remained relatively stable throughout 2011.

Employees’ attitudes towards work

What motivates employees?

The global analysis also reveals that nonfinancial factors play a prominent role in influencing employee motivation and engagement …

…While other financial factors, such as benefits and incentive pay, can be important to other aspects of the employment relationship – such as attracting, retaining and rewarding employees – Mercer’s research shows they are considered less important by employees when it comes to their day-to-day motivation and engagement at work.

"Employee engagement reflects the total work experience, and a big part of it is how you are treated, what kind of work you do and how you feel about your co-workers, bosses and the general work environment," said Ms Wilson. "Without a doubt, financial factors like pay and benefits are a vital part of the employment deal, but employers need to consider and manage the full range of factors to ensure that their workforce is engaged."

Mercer’s research findings here

lead to the following conclusions:

What Do Employees Want? 3 Simple Things That Will Improve Engagement

3 things that employees want

So what is it employees want out of the employment deal? Employees largely understand and accept that a “job for life” as part of the employment deal is gone for good. Instead, employees are looking for:

1. Meaningful work – They don’t expect that every moment of every day at work will change the world, but they do want to know that what they do every day contributes to something bigger.
2. A sense of progress – None have put it better than Teresa Amabile in her research and book The Progress Principle – there is no better contributor to employee engagement than making progress on meaningful work.
3. Recognition – Give employees the big picture view and a sense of ongoing progress with recognition of their efforts within the context of how they’re contributing achieving your strategic goals.

I guess that the adoption of E2.0 (“social Intranet”) tools and platforms could help (provided one has an “engagement project”).