How Thriving Employees Drive Engagement, Purpose & Growth at Work

Ketika berada di New York, saya jarang melewatkan perjalanan ke sungai Hudson dan menyusuri bentangan sungai yang menjadi saksi pemandangan paling aneh, yaitu pesawat komersial yang mendarat dengan sempurna di permukaan es. 

Pada tanggal 15 Januari 2009, tak lama setelah lepas landas dari Bandara LaGuardia, US Airways Penerbangan 1549 menabrak sekumpulan angsa. Angsa-angsa tersebut kemudian tersedot ke dalam mesin kembar pesawat, menyebabkan kerusakan mesin total dan hilangnya daya dorong yang menyebabkan Kapten Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger dari Penerbangan 1549 menghadapi krisis ekstrem dan bergulat dengan berbagai tantangan. 

Dia tidak hanya harus menjaga pesawat tetap terkendali, tetapi dia juga harus dengan cepat memutuskan apakah mereka dapat melakukan pendaratan darurat di bandara terdekat - atau menemukan alternatif lain untuk menurunkan pesawat dengan aman di salah satu wilayah paling ramai di Amerika Serikat. 

Back home in Bengaluru, recently, a student of mine, who heads Talent Management for a reputed organization, called me with a not so strange request, considering her job role - What suggestions do I have to help her manage talent in her organization? Attrition rates were spiralling and important projects were negatively impacted! 

I spun her a curveball - What are your incumbent talent management strategies? Well, she said with some asperity, we do the following: 

1. Kami membayar orang dengan baik 
2. Kami memiliki fleksibilitas di tempat kerja dan bekerja dari rumah 
3. Kami memberi mereka bonus tahunan 
4. Kami mengajak mereka ke pesta TGIF (Terima kasih Tuhan untuk hari Jumatnya) 
5. Kami memiliki pertunjukan hiburan internal 

Luar biasa, kata saya, tetapi apakah karyawan Anda merasa hidup? Apakah mereka merasa berenergi dan memancarkan antusiasme saat datang ke tempat kerja? Keheningan itu memekakkan telinga! Faktanya adalah bahwa karyawan terlibat dan dilibatkan hanya ketika mereka berkembang. 

Untuk berkembang, seseorang harus hidup dan percaya bahwa ia hidup. Agar hal ini terjadi, manusia harus kreatif dan memiliki otonomi yang diperlukan untuk menjalankan kreativitas tersebut. Lebih penting lagi, karyawan harus percaya bahwa kontribusi mereka tidak hanya berguna tetapi juga berdampak. Hal ini menjelaskan mengapa beberapa profesi memiliki karyawan yang sangat terlibat - Angkatan Bersenjata, Layanan Medis dan Sekutu, Guru. 

Pada akhirnya, manajemen talenta bukan hanya tentang uang, pesta, atau pertunjukan hiburan. Ini lebih tentang kreativitas, inovasi, dampak, manfaat, dan kemampuan untuk melihat diri sendiri secara positif. Akhirnya, seorang karyawan harus hidup dan berkembang untuk tetap terlibat. 

I eventually told my former student - Ask your employees if they feel alive and whether they are thriving? Do they like to come to work? That should take care of talent management! This is easily done by using employee satisfaction surveys or during exit interviews. 

Thriving employees are less susceptible to stress and burnout - and are much healthier, overall. When employees are thriving, they are not satisfied with the status quo and behave proactively to impact their job environment in ways that enable more thriving amongst their peers.  

When employees thrive, they feel alive, energized, and committed and are constantly looking for opportunities to make a difference. They not only drive themselves but their peers too – they have a vitality that is hard to miss. Importantly people who thrive also have a great thirst for learning and try to alter the incumbent and grow all the time. Growth is sustainable because the person is learning fresh skills and competencies at every turn. 

A great example of how people who thrive work and live is the brilliant Capt. Sully Sullenberger, air force veteran and commercial pilot. Chesley Burnett "Sully" Sullenberger III (born January 23, 1951) is an American retired Air Force fighter pilot and airline captain. The act of safely landing his stricken aircraft in the Hudson and saving the lives of his passengers and crew is often described by aviation experts as a sheer genius and the act of an inspired person.  

Sully thrives. Sully's story is one of dedication, hope, and preparedness, revealing the important lessons he learned through his life, in his military service, and his work as an airline pilot. It reminds us all that, even in these days of conflict, tragedy and uncertainty, there are values still worth fighting for—that life's challenges can be met if we're ready and prepared for them. Capt. Sullenberger, thought of only one thing in life – flying. It was his dream, his life and his hobby! 

Research indicates that people who are thriving invariably do better at work, their performance is more sustainable and they display greater acts of organization sustainable behaviour; that is, they are ready to travel beyond the normal call of duty in getting a job done. OCB is a rare trait these days where selfishness and short-sightedness permeate the workplace.  

What is it that enables thrivers to do so well? It is found that invariably they have personal missions of excellence, are better team players and create solid bonds with their team fellows and value relationships at work and very importantly are extremely resilient in the face of hardship and difficulty.  

People who thrive, more often than not, have high levels of self-efficacy and confidence and can deal with the rigours of work with panache. It is said that Capt. Sullenberger displayed great clarity of mind and icy calmness in landing his plane on the Hudson.  

The confidence of a person thriving brings passion and calmness and allows them to make decisions' that are more often than not right. 

Statistics around thrivers are staggering – they miss fewer days of work, are healthier, visit a doctor less, collaborate better and communicate more clearly and the important point is that they are vastly superior problem solvers.  

Thrivers create more of their kind at work and are great leaders as they signal vitality and passion to their subordinates and peers. Thriving is infectious and creates employees who are engaged and consistent high performers.  

People who thrive have an innate ability to prioritize their goals and, in an emergency, jettison the least important ones while zeroing on the most important, a critical trait for high performing and engaged employees. This is called goal sacrificing! Sully valued the concept of goal sacrificing.  

He instinctively knew that goal-sacrificing was paramount on Flight 1549. "By attempting a water landing," he says, "I would sacrifice the 'aeroplane goal'—trying not to destroy an aircraft valued at $60 million—for the goal of saving lives." At that critical moment, he was right in his decision making. 

So, my student shot back at me, what makes an employee thrive? Well, the answer is obvious but rarely understood and followed – healthy personal habits, regular and nutritious meals, sound sleep over eight hours, regular exercise and getting breaks from work to re-energize which includes decluttering the mind. Organizations must create a culture and nudge their employees towards leading healthy lifestyles. 

Thrivers also have meaningful jobs and it is an open secret that it is the quality of the job that keeps employees engaged. The well-researched job design model looks at four questions that high-performers ask in delivering great results. 

1. Sumber daya apa yang saya kendalikan secara langsung di dalam organisasi untuk menyelesaikan pekerjaan? (rentang kendali) 
2. Ukuran apa yang akan digunakan untuk mengevaluasi kinerja saya? (rentang waktu pertanggungjawaban) 
3. Siapa yang perlu saya pengaruhi untuk mencapai tujuan yang menjadi tanggung jawab saya? (rentang pengaruh) 
4. Berapa banyak dukungan yang dapat saya harapkan ketika saya meminta bantuan orang lain? (rentang dukungan) 

In having engaged employees and managing them organizers must create an environment which is conducive to innovation, autonomy, a free-flow of ideas and have an enabling culture that is conducive to learning. However, the stable business environment and captive talent pipelines in which such practices were born no longer exist. It's time for a fundamentally new approach to talent management and organizations need to create new paradigms in managing their talent in what is turning out to be an extremely complex and changing world where uncertainty is a norm.  

Carefully selected employees who are then mentored and coached need to be retained, not by pampering them but by painting and presenting challenges that pique interest and keep employees excited.  

Unfortunately, mundane, TGIF gigs are passed and do not work anymore. As Herzberg would say – go for the motivator and not the hygiene factor! Ensure that your scarce talent feels alive. 

How Empuls empowers thriving employees 

Empuls addresses every critical element mentioned in the article through a holistic, AI-led platform, to ensure employee wellbeing: 

Just as Sully made a decision that prioritized human life over equipment, organizations must pivot from superficial engagement to deeply human, thriving work cultures. And Empuls makes that not only possible—but scalable by prioritizing employee wellness. 

If you'd like help mapping this mindset into a strategic engagement plan using Empuls, just schedule a call!