According to the Happiness at Work Index by recruitment consultancy Badenoch & Clark, 94% of personnel managers are happy with their current roles, up from 76% from the last quarter.

This superficially sunny statement however belies the more revealing findings of the survey which polled 1,086 UK workers. 88% of personnel managers had seen their workloads increase, the highest increase of any profession with a quarter of those personnel managers adding that the extra work was the equivalent of one extra day per week. As a response to this increased workload, the delegation of tasks was one method used to share the additional burden while 29% of respondents went so far as to hand in their resignations as the workload became excessive.

That personnel professionals are resigning as a response to the increasing pressures they are facing, reveals the contradictory nature of the survey that those same people are proposed to be at their happiest since the Happiness Index Began. It also highlights how challenging the current employment situation is becoming in general with the “Credit Crunch” serving to be a financial noose on budgets.

“The results are particularly revealing for HR workers. It seems the job is becoming very labour intensive” said Allison Gray of Badenoch & Clark. “HR as a profession is facing some very serious challenges at the moment, and employers need to be seen to be tackling those challenges head on. If that doesn’t happen, employers leave themselves open to losing a lot of their best talent.”

This challenge for employers is universally relevant as in times of increased workloads and pressure; recognition is a key determining factor in retention. As pressures build, so too must an employee’s sense of recognition for the work they do. If this trend is to fail, they will inevitably begin to look to the door.

To create a correlation of recognition to increasing workload, Peoplevalue’s Excellence Awards allows an employer complete control over their employees’ reward and recognition, ensuring they feel appreciated and reimbursed in recognition terms for the additional work and responsibilities they are assuming as a result of their increased workloads.

A recent survey by management consultancy Hay Group of over one million people found that one in five (20%) of UK employees felt frustrated in their job.

In addition, 50% felt they lacked the authority to make decisions integral to their jobs and 35% felt their skills were being utilised to their full potential in their current roles.

Speaking of the survey’s findings, Ben Hubbard, regional director in the employee survey division of Hay Group said: “With fierce competition for the most talented employees, companies’ efforts to engage their people will be wasted if not backed by a supportive and enabling environment.”

A key factor in creating an “enabling environment” was highlighted to be the line managers’ reaction and response to underperformance and a lack of motivation. The survey found that only 48% of organisations dealt with underperformance effectively and a large portion of the blame was placed on line managers’ inability to create and promote a high-performance culture in the workplace. In fact, 40% of respondents believed that their line manager created a “demotivating” environment, something that if not controlled could be entirely counter-productive.

“Tolerating poor performers will only compound the frustration of productive colleagues to pick up the slack,” Hubbard concluded.

Peoplevalue’s innovative Excellence Awards are enabling for line managers who can determine the criteria for reward and use the technology to effectively promote the attitudes, behaviour and excellence that are the lynchpins of a high-performance culture.

“Summer Seasonal Affective Disorder” could see a slump in motivation and engagement at work in the summer months.

According to a poll by the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) as reported by Mike Berry of PersonnelToday.com, this seasonal variation of the more publicised Seasonal Affective Disorder can have a series of negative impacts in the workplace.

1,148 employees responded to the survey and over 20% admitted to spending the summer months daydreaming out of the window. In addition, 7% spent the summer months looking for another job.

That the sunshine could have such a negative influence on employees is something that is rarely considered when speaking of the motivation and engagement of key employees. For the success of any business, it is imperative that high levels of productivity be maintained at all times. While it is understandable that some employees may be de-motivated by being stuck in an office with the sun taunting them from outside, it is of key importance that these dissonant voices be minimised by a flexible motivation mechanism such as Peoplevalue’s Excellence Awards and not be allowed to negatively influence the mind frames of other employees.

The flexibility of Excellence Awards allow the employer to set the criteria for reward. This means that in the summer months, they can tailor their motivation scheme by rewarding those employees who display targeted behaviour like a sense of urgency, attention to detail and working on their own initiative despite the sunny skies outside.

With Peoplevalue and Excellence Awards helping you to combat the effects of “Summer Seasonal Affective Disorder”, you could see a less of a slump and more of a surge in motivation and engagement at work in the summer months.

Vodafone’s Working Nation report, now in its sixth year revealed the mid-career slump that accompanies the pressures of the family-stage part of your life.

Entitled “The Nature of Work“, the sixth volume of the report aimed to explore the key meaning of work in 2008. It concluded that of all the age ranges, the 31-35 year old age bracket topped every poll of topics involving negative feelings towards work. In the 31-35 year old category,

• 59% felt undervalued
• 49% felt unfulfilled
• 43% were de-motivated

The survey clearly revealed the “shifting landscape of employee expectations and motivations” which saw a scope for disillusionment in the traditionally optimistic “Generation Y” (those born between 1980 and 1990). Speaking of the group, Nick Rand of Opinion Leader, one of the companies behind the research revealed that “this young cohort is indeed highly ambitious and wants to succeed in a shorter time span than ever. But with these new, higher expectations comes the risk of greater disappointment.”

Suprisingly, the findings of the survey of 3,800 people, and the inter-generational focus groups that followed showed that employee satisfaction and motivation was highest in the older generations.

• 7 in 10 workers aged 50 or over said they were fulfilled compared to just 5 in 10 25-31 year olds.
• Employee Satisfaction was highest at 90% in the older age group of 65 and over.

With new generations come new technologies, new cultures and attitudes. What the survey succinctly showed was that with these generational variances, come variations of attitudes and variations of these attitudes when applied to the world of work.

To hit the moving targets of expectations and motivations, any reward solution must be flexible, adaptable and forward-thinking in its design.

Peoplevalue’s Excellence Awards are an innovative reward solution for the modern business. Their flexible design embraces technology to provide a bespoke, branded reward solution suitable for the vast variations of attitude and motivation in the modern workforce.

To find out more about Excellence Awards, please click here.