If you’ve done any hiring in the past few years, chances are you’re familiar with the culture fit revolution. We talk a lot about it, struggle to define it, maintain it, or change it. But what did employees gravitate to before workplace culture became the new normal?
Work-life balance continues to be a common theme in recruiting circles, and a recent article made us look more closely at this lasting trend. Maybe there’s something inherent in the terminology that we’ve been missing. William Schiemann, author of The ACE Advantage: How Smart Companies Unleash Talent for Optimal Performance, has found a correlation between personal and professional goals that may give us some insight on long-term employee motivation.
Schiemann outlines 3 components necessary to foster employee motivation, and harness talent, using an ACE acronym:
- Employees who are aligned with the organization’s goals, its values, its customers, and others with whom they work
- Employees who have the right capabilities – competencies, information and resources to meet or exceed customer or client expectations
- Employees who are engaged with the organization – and are willing to put in additional effort as needed to accomplish goals, willing to recommend the organization as a place to work, and willing to volunteer for special projects at work or in the community
If personal goals are aligned with professional goals, or if personal engagement can be found in professional activities, we may place more value on our work and strive to consistently meet expectations. Attaining work-life balance may truly be realized when we do share values with the organization we have chosen for the professional part of our lives.