By Tan Yen Yen

A PERENNIAL challenge faced by senior managers is to keep employees motivated at work. What drives someone to put in 100 per cent of his or her energy at work? What makes an employee consider a company a great employer?

Ask any leader and he or she will tell you that there is no simple answer. However, there is an appreciation of the need to stop the second-guessing and create a clear solution to keep employees motivated and inspired.

Perhaps there are many interesting insights senior managers can gain from the rapid proliferation of social networking websites and other similar platforms in the Web 2.0 space. MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and individual blog sites have given a new voice to the individual. These platforms allow individual voices to be expressed, to be heard: Who am I? What do I like? What are my aspirations? What are my fears?

Just as any company developing its sales and marketing campaign has to consider complementing its traditional media buys with an online strategy of having to move away from media monopolies to the fragmented Internet landscape of individual voices, senior managers would similarly have to get up to speed with the new profile of employees which is centred on the notion of 'I'.

Employees will increasingly not be faceless members of a team, but ones that demand recognition of their individual needs. They are individuals within a team as opposed to simply being a part of a team. Hence, a company that offers a 'one size fits all' approach, be it in job scoping, remuneration, benefits or career advancement opportunities, will not address the issue of employee motivation adequately. The company has to offer employees choice for the individual as opposed to making decisions on behalf of the collective whole.

Incorporating the 'I' component

The idea of tailoring human resources (HR) policies and even work-life practices around individuals may be considered a far stretch for many organisations. Companies will tend to presume that it is too expensive, too complex, or not in their role to adapt motivation and retention tools to individual needs.

However, working in an element of flexibility into HR policies so that the employees' function, age, gender and other unique factors in their and their family's lives are considered need not be a monumental task. It does not require a full revamp of the company's benefits system or a change in organisational structure. Companies simply have to give due consideration to evolving their HR practices such as work-life policies or compensation so that employees have a say and are engaged in the decision that impacts themselves.

Hewlett-Packard (HP) applied the individual perspective in modernising its compensation policies which are now differentiated across several factors. An example of this is the points-based system for rewards and recognition. This allows an employee, after being nominated for recognition by managers and peers, to tailor his or her rewards from a menu that includes cash, gifts and services that are relevant to their individual wants. The company gets to keep a certain structure and predictability within its rewards system, yet the employee gets to choose an incentive he thinks is most rewarding.

We also recognise that interaction and collaboration are important in fostering a sense of belonging for our employees. So HP has made use of the different Web 2.0 avenues to encourage that. There are many online communities that employees can join in, and this gives them the opportunity to form personalised, valuable connections with those who share the same work or personal interests - and these are no longer confined to a single country. In addition, webcasts and podcasts are used widely in HP to allow employees to keep abreast of company developments at their own time.

These complement the regular face-to-face sessions I have with the employees, whether they are formal planning or business review meetings or informal fun, bonding activities to, for example, celebrate a company milestone or a great year-end performance. The combination of the digital media and face-to-face approaches ensures that we keep our employees engaged on a broader level while satisfying their need for deeper connections with certain groups of colleagues.

Another clear trend emerging from the Web 2.0 era is the blurring of lines between work and personal life. In the baby-boomers' generation, staying in the office later than the boss was considered noble. Work and personal life were clearly separated and loyalty was measured by the number of years spent with the company.

But as the workplace evolves, the notion of 'going to work' has become less relevant as work is no longer about the location but the results delivered. Hence, trying to balance the number of hours one spends in the office versus the home is no longer as critical. The notion of work-life balance will increasingly be passe as what is truly needed will be workplace policies that propagate work-life integration.

The key to capitalising on this transformation is, again, in capturing the 'I' component. This is possible by structuring workplace policies that are underlined by trust and respect of the individual. Concepts such as flexi-time, condensed working hours, part time or job share have been practised for many years now, but there is still need for a more progressive mindset in management to recognise and reward the benefits that these practices bring to the company.

Achieving fulfilment

For example, at HP two employees share a single responsibility of managing the supply of personal computers from manufacture to sales departments. They are accustomed to using the same contact details, business notes and team members, each working on different days to the other. Their combined productivity exceeds every expectation, while colleagues and business associates benefit from diverse qualities that would be difficult to find in a single employee.

These two individual employees are able to achieve fulfilment in their careers, offer their employers increased productivity yet achieve their personal-life goals all at the same time. Their managers facilitate this process, not just by allowing job share to happen, but also to set appropriate performance objectives that are specific, measurable, realistic and timely.

How do we get managers to buy into such a work concept? The company IT, HR and support infrastructure will first have to make this feasible. Managers must then be able to keep an open mind and be willing to try it out to see the benefits it can reap, subsequently tweaking and refining the approach according to the results and feedback. Care will also have to be taken to ensure fairness in rewarding both employees in a work-share arrangement. It is of course an approach that will take time to yield the best benefits but senior managers should take the first step to champion it.

In view of the macro trends happening around us today, senior management, together with their HR teams, are truly in a unique position to impact workforce engagement more than ever before. Employees today are sophisticated but are also dealing with more demands in their work and personal lives. Let us lead the way in creating workplace environments that encourage creativity and entrepreneurship by celebrating the individual employee.

The writer is vice-president and managing director, Hewlett-Packard Singapore. She is also chairman of SiTF (Singapore infocomm Technology Federation).

This article was first published in The Business Times on October 23, 3008.