Myths Employers Continue to Accept about their Workforce

Sirota Europe, a specialist in attitude research has uncovered thirty-three myths that employers continue to accept about their employees which are destroying the enthusiasm and morale of workforces across the globe. Four of these pervasive myths are discussed below.



Through research spanning 30 years, Sirotaís findings have revealed that most companies unwittingly demotivate their staff through a fundamental misunderstanding of their disposition and needs. Employees entering an organisation are disposed to be enthusiastic about their work and would continue feeling that way if three basic needs were satisfied. These are: 1) To be treated justly, 2) To take pride in their accomplishments, and 3) To have warm and cooperative relations with others in the workplace.

Unfortunately initial employee enthusiasm quickly wanes in about 90% of the organisations studied since these institutions are saddled with a belief in one or more of the thirty-three myths.

Four of the myths outlined by Sirota include:

- Traditional Merit Pay Systems Work
The survey data shows that large numbers of employees working under a traditional ëmerit payí system feel that, contrary to the promises of the system, their pay increases have little to do with their performance.

David Sirota, Chairman Emeritus of Sirota and author of ëThe Enthusiastic Employee: How companies profit by giving workers what they wantí, argues that the system is not working for these employees because unless employees believe there is a connection between what they do and what they earn there is none!

The fluctuating nature of salary increase budgets and the levelling off of salary increases ñ no matter what the employeeís performance ñ as pay grows, are all reasons for these results. There are different, but equally dysfunctional problems with other payment systems, such as piecework. The research reported by Sirota clearly demonstrates that for many types of work the most effective pay-for-performance method is ëgainsharingí, through which a group of employees share in the financial achievements of their group (such as increases in the efficiency that they achieve). The research shows improvements of 5% to 78% under gainsharing, the average improvement being about 25%. Profit sharing ñ a superficially similar but very different approach, often does not produce discernible improvements, and when it does, are in the neighbourhood of 2-6%.

- Professionals are much more concerned about doing a quality job than are non professionals.
David argues: ìSince the overwhelming majority of people want to be proud of their work, it is untrue that most people donít care whether they do a quality job. This is the case both for so-called professionals and non-professionals. A major reason workers at all levels get frustrated, as we discovered in our surveys, is from not being able to get the job done, or done well because of obstacles such as poor equipment, insufficient training, bureaucracy and conflict among various parts of an organisation.î The desire to do a good job holds true for 95% of an average workforce. The other 5% can be described as ëallergicí to work.î

- Whether workers should be treated as thinking human beings depends on the type of work they do.
Thereís a widely accepted theory that the way people should be managed depends on the type of work they do. David explained: ìThe basic idea is that when there is no apparent need to think, donít ask workers to do it. This makes participative management inapplicable to most blue collar manufacturing jobs but highly relevant for professional tasks.î David suggests that the problem, with this bit of ëcommon senseí is that it is contradicted by the legion of extraordinarily participative initiatives in manufacturing plants throughout the world. ìThe fact isî, says Sirota, ìthat there is no category of worker for whom involving workers in decisions ñ asking them to help through thinking ñ is not appropriate.î

- There are major differences between generations in what people want from their jobs and young people today are much less concerned with job security than were previous generations. ìThis is simply not true,î argues David. The research carried out by Sirota demonstrates clearly that there are no differences in the basic three goals by occupation, industry, age, sex, gender, nation or culture. People everywhere and in every station of life want to be treated fairly, be proud of what they do and for whom they do it, and have good relationships with their co-workers. Much of what is written about generational differences or national differences is nonsense. So is the notion that professional employees are more interested in doing a quality job than non professionals.

David concluded: ìItís hard for employees to be enthusiastic about an employer that is not enthusiastic about them. Itís vital that instead of continuing to perpetrate these myths, management policies need to be directed toward satisfying the three primary goals that matter most to all employees ñ equity, achievement and camaraderie.î

Employees who work for companies where just one of these three factors is missing are three times less enthusiastic than workers at companies where all elements are present. They also receive more customer complaints, have higher employee turnover, and lower quality.