Imagine a workplace that you truly look forward to arriving at every day — one that meets your most important needs so that you feel freed and inspired to bring your best to work.
In my last post, I wrote about why even the companies on “best places to work” lists often deplete rather than energize employees. Many of us have no experience of the possible at work, and as a result we don’t expect very much from our employers.
But what are the ingredients of a truly great place to work? Here is a first draft for an Employee Bill of Rights and a blueprint for companies looking to attract and retain the best employees.
Pay every employee a living wage.
This is the basic price of admission. It’s not nearly sufficient, but it’s absolutely necessary. If full-time employees aren’t paid enough to cover their basic expenses of food, shelter, health care, clothing and electricity, how can a company possibly be a great place to work? And if people are not paid enough to live, how can they possibly be fully focused on their jobs?
As part of its Poverty in America project, M.I.T. designed a Living Wage Calculator. The national minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is insufficient to meet that standard in any of the states, the project found.
Numerous worker rights groups have called for a minimum wage of $15 an hour. At least one city, Seattle, has passed legislation requiring all employers to reach $15 an hour over the next five years.
Encourage employees to regularly renew themselves.
This means giving employees the freedom and support to take breaks during the day to renew and refuel, including reasonable time off for meals. Intermittent renewal fuels rather than detracts from performance. The Energy Project, my company, conducted a study with the Harvard Business Review, which found that the more breaks employees took during the day, the higher their levels of focus, engagement and well-being.
Give employees the opportunity to have a full life outside of work.
Companies need to create better boundaries between what they expect from employees on and off the job. If it’s common practice for employees at a company to work 50, 60 and even 70 hours a week, there is no way they will have any significant time for activities outside of work, including sufficient sleep , which is critical to sustainable productivity.
In a similar way, the expectation that employees will check work email outside of office hours and weekends means they are effectively working even when they’re ostensibly off.
Finally, we each need sufficient time off. The United States remains the only first-world country that does not guarantee workers any paid vacation. In Europe, the government mandates a minimum of four weeks of vacation, and some countries provide up to six. A great place to work not only provides a minimum of four weeks of vacation to all full-time employees, but also ensures that they take it.
Make each employee feel valued, valuable and appreciated.
After food and shelter, feeling valued and appreciated is our deepest human need. No single factor drives more loyalty and engagement to an employer than the experience of feeling genuinely cared for by a direct supervisor, and more broadly by the company as a consequence of its policies, practices and values.
Even a little goes a long way. None of us lacks for sufficient criticism, and much of it is self-inflicted. The hunger to feel valued and appreciated is sufficiently large in each of us and so rarely satisfied. Any acknowledgment or praise, genuinely proffered, is likely to have a positive impact. The same is true when companies genuinely are open to suggestions and feedback from employees.
Treat all employees like adults.
This requires the assumption that employees are responsible and trustworthy, unless they prove otherwise. Specifically, it means providing autonomy to employees in return for accountability.
With rare exceptions, employees know best themselves how to get their work done most effectively and efficiently. Wherever possible, let them decide when and where to do their work, and hold them accountable only for the value they deliver.
Be transparent about nearly everything (except maybe people’s salaries).
People want to be included in decisions that affect them. Secrecy necessarily excludes, and it raises anxiety and distrust for those outside the inner circle. The more a company freely shares with employees, the less energy those employees expend worrying about what is going on behind the scenes and the more energy that frees up to do their real jobs. Sharing salaries is the exception, since it invites competition, envy and conflict.
Provide employees with opportunities to learn, grow and develop.
The psychologists Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey have coined the term “deliberately developmental organizations.” They aren’t referring to organizations that support the growth of some employees, through high potential and leadership programs, or executive coaching. Rather, they’re talking about a commitment to the development of all employees and a culture that makes people’s growth part of every aspect of their working life.
This approach requires a belief that people have the potential and intrinsic desire to grow, but also the fear of resistance to change we nearly all share. Encouraging growth and development, therefore, requires a culture of trust and safety that views weaknesses and mistakes not as failures but as opportunities for growth.
Define and pursue a higher purpose that makes employees proud.
Employees have a vested interest in working for companies that earn a profit. Most people don’t derive much excitement from how much profit their employer earns, unless they share in that bounty. By contrast, it is motivating to work for a company committed to serving a greater good beyond profit.
That doesn’t have to mean products or services that clearly add value in the world, although that certainly helps. Toms, for example, sells shoes, which are an ordinary product. But for each pair the company sells, it donates another pair to someone who is needy. Who wouldn’t want to work for a company with that commitment instead of one focused solely on maximizing profits?
I have yet to come across a company that fully embodies these precepts, in part because meeting the full range of people’s needs simply hasn’t yet been embraced. The more that companies embrace these ideas, the better and more sustainably their employees will perform.