Employee Engagement - Hygiene Factors
Are hygiene factors important? - Brenda Roper raises the question...
Most of us have some recollection, however vague, of Hertzberg and his ‘hygiene factors’ but are only reminded of them when the meeting room chair is uncomfortable or the room temperature overpowers the content of the meeting.
I have been forcibly reminded of the importance of hygiene factors several times in the recent past and have been left convinced that HR ignores the basic details of the working environment at their peril.
During the Spring I undertook a quality audit of safeguarding across a range of establishments in the South. Looking back it is not their adherence (or otherwise) to good safeguarding practices that I remember about the organisations I visited – it is the hygiene factors that loom largest in my memory. For example, one organisation provided me with a very comfortable office with all mod cons and an attentive administrative assistance to smooth the way but my abiding memory is of being in a windowless office - I couldn’t wait to leave. Another organisation was based in a Victorian building with paint peeling off the walls and a view of rubbish strewn flat roofs, despite the sunshine I found the experience profoundly depressing.
Most recently, a hospital stay where I experienced first class medical attention which undoubtedly saved my life is overshadowed by memories of noise, poor quality food and those nursing staff who forgot to smile.
Whilst unemployment remains high, organisations will be able to find staff with the skills and competence to do the job. When things change, as is inevitable, will those staff stay if the environment in which they have to spend significant amounts of their lives has facets that irritate? How productive can staff be if they are uncomfortable, find it hard to concentrate because of noise or light problems, or the photocopier is constantly out of order?
Employee engagement is a high agenda item for all HR professionals but employee engagement is not just about strategic plans, staff attitude surveys and developmental opportunities. None of these will be effective if we ignore the day to day experiences of staff. Many HR professionals who have staff fora complain that the focus of the forum tends to be “parking, tea and toilets” and consider this to be small minded, yet it is just these kinds of ‘hygiene factors’ that loom large in the psyche of staff and will make the difference when mobility returns to the employment market.
Most staff are McGregor Y and if they feel they are unable to achieve because of poor ‘hygiene factors’ they will move on to an environment where they can achieve. The failure of managers to concern themselves with the basic daily experience of staff can only lead to costly recruitment processes and reduced productivity however laudable your strategic people plans. Hygiene factors are important.
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