Ignite Your Passion
Written by Lily Li, founder and CEO of Hygea
Igniting passion in the workplace also means being a passionate manager or a leader. After all, your employees look to you for direction and advice. If you’re not passionate about what you do, they won’t be passionate about what they do either. Make sure that your team knows that you care about supporting them.
The reason that most organisations struggle with improving their employee engagement is that they don’t do what needs to be done to ignite employee passion, especially for the organisation
Passion For The Job
Some research shows that passion for the job and the organisation are keys to increasing employee engagement. When people are passionate about their jobs and the organisation they work for, they love coming to work, they are committed to achieving their goals, and they feel inspired to give their best work every day.
Start working on increasing employee passion, and engagement will take care of itself.
When you ignite employee passion, you will transform your organisation.
Gabby Ma, owner of cleaning business The Cleaning Fairy, has been working with Hygea for the last two months and is a great testimony to that. In just a few months she has been able to grow her business with her hardworking team. Gabby sees that her and Hygea’s goals align with her passion for creating quality standardised cleaning experiences for clients and cleaners alike.
She believes that in order for a business to succeed, and for quality to prevail in the work, one has to enjoy what they are doing and perform their job with passion. Gabby described most cleaning agencies as a bridge between the client and the cleaner, however, she believes that agencies and team leaders should be an integral part of the business, in order to spark passion in employees.
Passion Inspires Pride & Commitment
Passionate employees have a strong emotional connection to the organisation they work for. They love coming to work and feel a sense of pride and commitment toward the organisation. They are the promoters of your organisation and will happily tell anyone who will listen what a great place it is to work. As a result, they deliver exceptional value to customers, both external and internal.
Engaged employees may like the work they do, but if they don’t have a strong emotional connection to the organisation, they also may not care whether the organisation succeeds or not. And maybe ready and willing to go elsewhere to do the work they enjoy.
Gabby has created a space for women who want to find a fulfilling job in the cleaning industry. “I want to encourage women. I hire women who are looking to enter the job market, like mums who are providing for their kids, and women who are ESL speakers,” said Gabby.
Gabby credits her success to her passionate team and their dynamic. She views herself and her team as a unit that grows by learning from one another while enjoying what they do.
Research has identified that 78 per cent of employees enjoy their work and get satisfaction from knowing that what they do is making a difference. But only 44 per cent are also passionate about the organisation.
This gap – the passion deficit – underlines the hidden emotional disconnect among otherwise engaged employees.
Employee Needs For Igniting Passion
Five employee needs that we identified are:
- The need to be respected – Employees need to know that they are respected and valued by their immediate manager, and by the leaders of the organisation.
- The need to learn and grow – When people feel respected, they want to contribute more. The need to learn and grow is instinctive. Little babies want to get up and walk – they want to get into everything. When the right environment exists, this need can be reignited in even the most disengaged employees.
- The need to be an insider – To know I am on the same team as my manager – I am involved in problem-solving and decision making – my input is valued.
- The need to do meaningful work – To know that what I do is making a difference – I am making life easier or better for someone else.
- The need to be on a winning team – We are kicking goals! Being part of a great team of passionate high performing people creates a high level of team spirit.
Having identified these needs was in fact significantly important to employees, and the satisfaction of these needs resulted in higher levels of employee passion.
Conclusion
People want to be respected, they want to learn and improve themselves, they want to be included, they want to know that what they do is making a difference, and they want to be part of a successful team. And yet our research is telling us that more than 55 per cent of employees are not getting these needs met to their satisfaction. No wonder they are disengaged.
When you satisfy needs, trust increases. When trust increases, passion increases. When passion increases, engagement increases.
