Small Business Today Magazine JUN 2014 MASTERWORD SERVICES INC | Page 24
EDITORIALFEATURE
Understanding
Employee Productivity
By Dr. John Demartini
H
ave you ever wondered what it
costs businesses when employees
are not productive? Every day that
employees are uninspired, uncreative, and unproductive, they cost their
companies millions or billions of dollars.
This may surprise you but no employee is
loyal to a company. They are only loyal to
the fulfilment of their highest values and
aspirations. By values I mean the aspects
of life that they perceive as most valuable
to them. That is why it’s vital to hire people who have a congruency between their
highest values and their job description.
When we live congruently according to
our highest values, we are inspired from
within and require no outside motivation
to meet our objectives. But when we set
goals or objectives that are more aligned
with our lower values, things less or least
important to us, we require outside motivation and reminding repeatedly to move
us into action. If we are requiring outside
motivation to get into action, then we are
not being true to our highest, most meaningful priorities, values, or purpose in life.
This also holds true for individuals in their
work capacity. If workers can see how their
job descriptions and goals are aligned with
the things that are most important and
meaningful to them, they are automatically self-reliant, inspired, and do not require
outside motivation to get their jobs done.
There are six areas of life in which people can be inspired: family, social, spiritual,
financial, physical, and vocational.Whatever
areas are highest on their list of priorities
or values will determine what will most
inspire them.
Here is a brief outline of them:
1. Family- Some people are dedicated
primarily to their families and secondarily to their jobs. For example, a
woman who has a high value on her
family and a low value on work and
who is focused mostly on her children
is likely to be less inspired and possibly less consistently productive in her
job.The minute the children are ill, she
may want to go home to them and
let her work duties slide.
If we are requiring outside motivation to get into
action, then we are not
being true to our highest,
most meaningful priorities,
values, or purpose in life.
2. Social- Then you have people who
are dedicated to meeting and interacting with people and desiring to
travel. They will more likely shine and
excel at work primarily when their job
duties require social interaction.
3. Spiritual- In the case of someone with
a spiritual focus, the person looks for
spiritual rewards. They may feel isolated if there is no one else in their faith
available to commune with at work or
they may feel unfulfilled if their work
doesn’t allow them to express their
spirituality in some form that they
perceive valuable.
4. Financial- Those with a money/financial focus will be inspired to work
primarily because of the financial rewards or incentives.
5. Physical- People with a high value on
physical activities are more likely to be
22 SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE [ JUNE 2014 ]
inspired by a job in the health, healing,
beauty, or sports industries depending
on the form of physical activities they
value and are able to incorporate into
their job.
6. Vocational- Those with an entrepreneurial focus will want to help build
the company if their job descriptions
are aligned with their highest values.
They may even desire to become
partners or shareholders and will focus their energies at work.
As I explained earlier, no one is loyal to
a company.They are loyal to the fulfillment
of their highest values. If their highest values are fulfilled by their job duties - they
will be inspired to go to work and deliver
an innovative service.
Inspired employees will help their employers get what they want if they perceive they are getting what they want.
When employees feel they can fulfill their
highest values, they will see opportunities
and act on them, retain learned information on that opportunity, and be more
creative and self-initiated which leads to
increased productivity.
A tell-tale sign of the potential degree
of congruency is when the employee asks,
“What activities will I get to do in the position?” and “What services will I be able
to provide?” versus “What are the benefits
package of this job?” and “How many days
leave do I get?”
In addition to being an internationally published author, Dr. John Demartini is an educator and a human
behavior specialist. Contact Dr. Demartini by email at
[email protected] or visit his website at www.
DrDemartini.com. To download a free Value Determination Process Workbook, please visit www.DrDemartini.com/pm_determine_your_values.