The results are in. After over a quarter of a century of expensive corporate initiatives aimed at improving employee engagement, satisfaction, and well-being, we should now be able to see some evidence that these efforts are having a positive impact.
Well, you might be surprised to learn that they haven’t.
In Gallup’s most recent survey of US employees, satisfaction levels have dropped to their lowest levels in 10 years. Perhaps even more strikingly, the needle hasn’t moved significantly from its original 2000 baseline. In fact, the UK CIPD recently reported that as many as 60 percent of us are disillusioned with our work.
Given the correlation between employee engagement, productivity, and superior company performance, this should be a cause for concern. However, what should be even more galling is that this has occurred despite HR functions around the world launching numerous programs with employee engagement-related labels.
Deloitte reports that US companies have spent $1 billion per year on employee engagement initiatives. That is a cumulative $24 billion of investment over the Gallup survey time frame.
The Boreout Phenomenon
Employee engagement initiatives don’t sit in a vacuum. When we separate them from the broader picture, they can easily become follies… exercises in futility. Indeed, they can even become counterproductive, fuelling mistrust and cynicism.
Our analysis points to the following mega-trends that are contributing to an erosion in work satisfaction and engagement:
- Less compelling work. We are suffering from the cumulative ‘unintended consequences’ of standardisation, centralisation, and automation of work. Jobs have become fragmented, less coherent, and the degrees of discretion have been reduced. The one thing we know about motivation is that it’s optimised when employees have the space, power, and authority to make a difference.
- Less tolerance to suffer. As a society, we have become increasingly conscious of the central role that work plays in our lives. Part of this is generational, but it is a more pervasive dynamic. In simple terms, we are less and less willing to ‘suffer’ or make big sacrifices just to earn a salary. A good example of this is the current WFH/RTO tug of war.
- A greater need for purpose and authenticity. Linked to the above is the blurring of previously separate domains, work/life. A combination of contextual differences in how Generation Z and Millennials have been encouraged to view the world, combined with an incumbent workforce that has become fatigued and disillusioned with corporate bureaucracies.
Boreout and its sister term, Quiet Quitting, point to the growing intolerance of suffering in unfulfilling jobs. They are the two-headed monsters that emerge when companies either misdiagnose employee engagement problems or simply don’t care. Employees become disaffected and withhold critical capability while testing the limits of minimum necessary effort.
A Boreout Vaccine
It’s tempting to paint the rising levels of employee dissatisfaction as its own metaphorical pandemic. For CHROs and CLOs, the answer is to address the root causes. Set aside the superficial and work on the substance.
The antidote to Boreout is rooted in:
- Conveying how business goals contribute to social good
Companies that integrate social impact into their business strategy, not just as an afterthought, create far more compelling workplaces.
- Paying careful attention to degrees of freedom
Autonomy is the secret sauce to unleash discretionary effort. Be careful not to incrementally erode human discretion. It’s easy to pursue centralisation, systematisation, and automation efforts and forget how this impacts existing jobs. Ensure you constantly ‘defrag’ your organisation to maintain jobs’ ongoing impact and coherence.
- Embracing authentic Adult-Level Leadership
We have written extensively about the corrosive and outdated legacy leadership models entrenched in many organisations. Agile work and SCRUM concepts are poor substitutes for delayering and dismantling unhelpful job title power structures. We have offered the concept of Adult-Level Leadership as a practical and powerful alternative.
- Fostering a culture of integrity
People want to work for companies they trust. Organisations should prioritize transparency, ethical decision-making, and accountability. When employees see their company acting with integrity, they take pride in being part of it. Above all, act quickly to remove bad behaviours. What often torpedoes efforts is a misguided tolerance for those who act badly.
Boreout and Burnout Conclusion
The deeper truth here is an eternal one. What unites all human beings is our need for security, affiliation, recognition, and personal growth. Our need to relentlessly search for meaning and fulfilment is what makes us human. It is easy to confuse the overwhelming ocean of employee benefits and welfare offers as methods to address what is ultimately a much deeper and more basic set of needs.
After all, we now have the data to support what we already knew (but may have forgotten). Substance trumps form… in the long run.
