Employees Need to Feel Like They’re Contributing

July 30, 2015 Leave a comment

How people feel about what they are doing (intrinsic motivation) is a key to sustaining their focus, energy, and commitment. One of the ways for companies to tap into this intrinsic motivation is to find ways for employees to feel as if they are contributing to the organization’s success (which is consistent with lessons from positive psychology).

As you can see in the chart below, people who believe they are contributing are:

  • More than twice as likely to help someone at work
  • Almost four times as likely to do something unexpectedly good for the company
  • More than twice as likely to make a recommendation
  • More than twice as likely to recommend that a friend apply for a job
  • 36% less likely to look for a new job
  • 30% less likely to take more than one sick day

1507_PowerOfContributing

The bottom line: When people feel like they contribute, they contribute even more.

Filed under CCXP1 Customer-Centric Culture, Customer experience, Employee Engagement

About Bruce Temkin, CCXP
I'm an experience (XM) management catalyst; helping organizations improve results by engaging the hearts and minds of their employees, customers, and partners. I enjoy researching and speaking about these topics. I lead the Qualtrics XM Institute, which is the world's best job. We're igniting a global community of XM Professionals who are inspired and empowered to radically improve the human experience. To achieve this goal, my team focuses on thought leadership, training, and community building. My work is driven by a set of fundamental beliefs: 1) Everything starts and ends with human beings, so you need to understand how people think, feel, and behave; 2) XM is a discipline that needs to be woven throughout an organization's entire operating fabric; and 3) Building the XM discipline requires a combination of culture, competency, and technology.

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