블로그 게시물

Break the Engagement Funk: Why Companies Must Close the ’Passion Gap’

Cornerstone Editors

Bored. Complacent. Uninspired. Those adjectives describe (at least some of the time) a vast majority of employees in the modern workforce. New Deloitte research found that more than 87 percent of America’s workforce fails to reach their full potential because they lack passion for their work.

This "passion gap" is a drag that prevents people from doing their best work. But the bad news doesn’t end there. The malaise can be contagious, threatening to pull down other employees’ satisfaction and performance.

"In today’s rapidly changing business environment, companies need passionate workers because such workers can drive extreme and sustained performance improvement — more than the one-time performance ’bump’ that follows a bonus or the implementation of a worker engagement initiative," says Deloitte.

There’s no panacea, no quick fix, to fight the affliction. A promotion or an employee outing might improve engagement, but passion runs deeper. Deloitte defines passion through three attributes: commitment to a specialty or area of expertise, questioning, and connecting. The ardent people who possess all three are driven, model employees that every business leader strives for. Some just don’t know it yet.

Recognize Workplace Passion as a Positive

So how can business leaders help employees break out of the funk and inject a bit of passion into the workplace? Business leaders' first step should be shedding bad connotations they might have with passionate employees. Passion is often trumpeted as a noble characteristic in life, but in the office that same quality is often (too often, according to Deloitte) associated with the emotional, risky behavior that makes an employee a HR nightmare. Not so, says Deloitte.

Shedding prejudices against passion is the first step. Then, managers should rid those same prejudices from the businesses’ processes. Institutional and business processes that stress conformity and process over creativity and passion can stifle passionate employees. The study suggests four workplace conditions that nurture passion among employees:

  1. Encourage connections: Allow and encourage employees to work with people in different departments, both within the company and in the industry broadly.

  1. Reward curiosity: Encourage employees to tackle projects and work that inspire them, even if those projects go beyond their daily responsibilities.

  1. Nix xenophobia: It’s a big world out there. Encourage employees to work and collaborate with people in the broader industry, beyond the office walls.

  1. Listen and innovate: Keep an open dialogue, at all levels of the organization, with customers to encourage fresh thinking.

Perhaps passion is one component of what Josh Bersin, founder of talent management consulting firm Bersin by Deloitte, calls the "irresistible workplace," an antidote to the engagement and performance problems that plague companies.

Photo: Can Stock

관련 리소스

더 많은 정보를 원하시나요? 제품, 고객 사례 및 최신 산업에 대한 인사이트에 대해 더 알아보십시오.

Bristlecone이 자기주도 학습 문화를 만든 방법

고객 이야기

Bristlecone이 자기주도 학습 문화를 만든 방법

Bristlecone Group(Mahindra 그룹사)은 연계된 공급망을 위한 AI 기반 애플리케이션 변환 서비스를 제공하는 선두업체입니다. 25년간의 업력을 지닌 이 기업은 12개 이상의 글로벌 허브와 2,500명 이상의 컨설턴트를 통해 컨설팅 중심의 접근 방식을 취하고 있습니다.

1:1 맞춤형 서비스를 받아 보세요

조직에 필요한 인력 관리 요구 사항을 지원하는 것과 관련해 Cornerstone 전문가와 상담하실 수 있습니다.

© Cornerstone 2024
법적 고지 사항