Are you working to live or are you living to work? This simple question undoubtedly poses a dilemma for many people. At the organisational level, if your organisation is concerned about losing valuable and talented employees, now is the time to inspire a “live to work” attitude at your company where people feel inspired and fulfilled by the contribution that they make to the company.
In contrast to a “live to work” attitude where people find personal satisfaction in their work, a “work to live” attitude exists when people execute duties just to get their paycheques. Let’s imagine this: if you are impatiently waiting for your shift to end, and wish you could be doing something else, perhaps anything else — you are working to live.
While most of us want to live to work in hope of the fulfillment that it provides, only a handful of companies achieve such a positive and productive attitude across the workforce. Rather, the predominant experience for most people in most companies is quite different, as many people are uninspired by their work. This results in diminished productivity, poor morale and limited loyalty.
Understanding how to achieve a “live to work” attitude and employee engagement begins with understanding how organisational culture is formed. By cultivating the right culture, an organisation can maximise the return on human capital.
However, it is one thing to have a vision. It is another to make that vision a reality. And achieving this cultural transition within an organisation takes skilled leaders who themselves need to perceive employees as an investment and not as a costly commodity.
So how does leadership start to develop a “live to work” organisational attitude and increase employee engagement? Leaders must start by focusing on three key employee needs: security, belonging and significance.
Sense of Security: According to the hierarchy of needs developed by the psychology Abraham Maslow, people need a sense of safety and security, including in their work environment. People perform best when they believe that they will be able to pay the rent and buy groceries or be able to take a long-planned vacation.
While companies are not always stable, how leadership responds to business challenges can either increase employee engagement and commitment or increase employee disengagement and abandonment. Employees can feel secure and be engaged even in times of great uncertainty if they believe that their company is looking after their interests as well as ownership’s interests.
Employees’ perceived security, especially in times of insecurity, needs to be leadership’s first focus in increasing employee engagement and thereby retaining valuable staff.
Sense of Belonging: Once people’s basic need for security is met, they will long for a sense of belonging and acceptance. Deep within their psyches, people are tribal and they are social. They want to belong to something that is more than themselves, be it a family, a club or a community, and it drives their behaviour and loyalty.
When properly supported by the organisation’s culture, people can find a sense of belonging where they work. Once they do, employees make significant contributions, excel in their performance, and inspire others to higher levels of achievements, all for the sake of the team.
Leaders who focus on developing “team” and interpersonal relationships and loyalties increase employee engagement and the desire to “live to work”. In this sense, structured and institutionalised “caring” is the key to an organisational culture that supports a person’s need to belong. This in turn optimises employee performance, commitment, loyalty and retention.
Sense of Significance: People also want to know and feel that they can make a difference to others around them. This is because most of us seek to live for something more than just ourselves. We want to know that our lives, our efforts, and our work have meaning and significance.
In fact, no one strives to be insignificant. As a result, employees who find meaning and purpose in their work respond by working harder and voluntarily devote themselves to the common cause of the team and the organisation.
Leaders who enable employees to find meaning and purpose in their work allow employees to recognise that they do make a difference, and that they have a significant role to play in the life of the company. Significant people are engaged people and live to work. Insignificant people are disengaged, have no reason to care, and work to live.
Now that you know the techniques for creating the culture of “Live to Work”, wouldn’t you want to try and turn your company into one that can proudly take its place on the list of companies that employees want to work for?
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Arinya Talerngsri is Group Managing Director at APMGroup, Thailand's leading Organisation and People Development Consultancy. She can be reached by e-mail at arinya_t@apm.co.th or https://www.linkedin.com/pub/arinya-talerngsri/a/81a/53b
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