Episode 105. Clean Up Your Company with Herzberg's Hygiene Theory
Staff Researcher: Evelyn Gilliard
Personal hygiene is a must, but did you know that concept extends to your business as well?! That’s right! I’m talking about Herzberg’s Hygiene Theory.
You already know, when team members are satisfied, it leads to incredible benefits like increased productivity and engagement. But today, instead of focusing on how to increase satisfaction, we’re going to take the opposite approach… let’s decrease dissatisfaction by practicing some basic business hygiene!
BACKGROUND
Back in the 1950’s Fredrick Herzberg interviewed a group of employees by asking them two simple questions.
Think of a time when you felt especially good about your job. Why did you feel that way?
Think of a time when you felt especially bad about your job. Why did you feel that way?
From these questions, Herzberg developed his theory about the two dimensions of employee satisfaction - motivation and “hygiene.”
Hygiene refers to factors that create an employee’s work environment, such as: :
Company Policies
Supervision
Salary
Interpersonal Relations
Working Conditions
Motivation creates satisfaction by fulfilling individuals' needs for meaning and personal growth like:
Achievement
Recognition
The Work Itself
Responsibility
Advancement
Once the hygiene areas are addressed, said Herzberg, the motivators will promote job satisfaction and encourage production. Read that sentence again. Hygiene comes first, and THEN motivators take center stage.
Now that you know what the Herzberg Hygiene Theory consists of, let's focus on the “hygiene” dimension in depth so you can apply these principles to your own company.
1. COMPANY POLICIES
I want you to take a moment and think back to the beginning of your career pre-business owner when you were working for someone else. Did you ever feel that there was a lot of red tape to cut through, and nothing ever got done as a result which left progress stagnant? While your team members will not increase their motivation or satisfaction due to your policies, you can decrease dissatisfaction by making your policies fair and well thought out.
Let’s face the facts: a company's policies can be incredibly frustrating for all team members if they are unclear, unnecessary, or unfair. That is why creating these policies is so important to be thoughtful and intentional with what you are truly asking for.
As a reminder, it is a good practice to make sure your policies are in a policies and procedures manual online (like Google Drive), so they are easily accessible to all.
Not sure where to start? Here are a few tips:
Get your current team’s input. After all, they are the ones who will be following this procedure every day, and perhaps they have ideas for improvement.
Include this information in your onboarding. If you need additional information regarding how to onboard during this time or onboarding myths, you can watch the TyePod episode “3 Tips for Virtual Onboarding During COVID-19” and 5 Onboarding Myths That Are Holding You Back from Having a High-Performing Team.
Compare your policies to those of similar industries online and ask yourself the following questions:
Are these policies unreasonably strict?
Are the penalties for not following the policies too harsh?
2. SUPERVISION
As you scale your company by building out your leadership team, you must remember that not all good employees make good leaders. Some people just want to do their work in peace without the additional responsibilities of supervising others, and that’s OK! The role of being a supervisor is a difficult one, especially in this space of remote leadership.
As the CEO, you already know how it is and the issues that you face on a weekly basis, so you want to make sure that whomever you choose is the right person for the job as it requires leadership skills and the ability to treat all employees fairly, which can be difficult in a small team where you might become close with your peers. Therefore, your supervisors should do the following, so no one feels singled out:
Use positive feedback whenever possible.
Establish a set means of feedback.
Have regular employee evaluations.
3. SALARY
Sometimes we can feel like Mr. Krabs from Spongebob where we think to ourselves, “Money, Money, Money.” We all want to live comfortably and be paid fairly, but “ you get what you pay for” in terms of team members. For example, if someone were to pay minimum wage for a job classified as “entry-level,” what would you get? That’s right, Squidward: a team member who will be putting in minimum effort for minimum wage. Not everyone is a Spongebob who is intrinsically motivated to be the best fry cook there ever was.
However, salary is not a top motivator for employees. You would think that it would be. That if you just offer more money, they have more motivation, but that’s not the case. But with that being said, if they believe they are being paid unfairly, they will be unhappy working for you; just take a look at the Great Resignation where teams are across the United States are leaving their jobs for better pay and working conditions (#5). So what can you do to decrease dissatisfaction regarding pay?
Have clear policies related to salaries, raises, and bonuses.
Compare what you are offering against your competition because you can bet that all talented candidates will.
5. INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS
There should be a reasonable time for socialization during the workweek (lunch and breaks) that isn’t about work to develop a sense of camaraderie and teamwork. By allowing this, you are decreasing the dissatisfaction of being lonely working from your home. If you need assistance or ideas for how to use team-building activities to establish interpersonal relations, you should check out the episode Easy Virtual Team Building Activities.
6. WORKING CONDITIONS
Working conditions are usually seen as the physical conditions of working in a specific environment. Whether the room is clean and safe or if there will be a lot of physical labor in the demand of this job. Working conditions actually go beyond that and are the demands, physical environment, and terms of a job that influence the team’s satisfaction. The physicality of the workspace is still important, though. As an online business owner, you want to make sure that your environment, whether a home office or a spot at the dining room table, is clean, well-lit, and well-decorated. If possible, your team should be acquiring items that they can write off on their taxes for a desk, an office chair, or even a mug heater for those who drink coffee all day long. They should avoid spaces that are overcrowded with people or junk. This would not be the best physical working conditions for remote teams.
As mentioned, there are other working conditions to take into account that are not physical such as:
Employee Benefits - Whether or not your company can offer benefits such as health insurance you want to remain competitive in your industry. How? By offering some other type of employee benefits that are more in alignment with what you can (i.e., career development, parental leave, or wellness programs) to decrease dissatisfaction.
Workload - A traditional workload would be full-time at 40 hours/week, but the type of workload can drastically differ if additional overtime hours are needed to complete a project or if it is physically exhausting. In order to decrease dissatisfaction in regards to their workload, you want to limit the amount of overtime for your W-2 employees and your Contracted employees have to undertake. Every now and again is aright, but if it’s a regular occurrence it can lead to burnout. For example, if they are contracted to work 25 hours/week but you are consistently asking them to work 35 hours/week, then you are increasing their dissatisfaction because most likely you are not their only client.
Work Schedule - As we mentioned, a traditional workload is 40 hours/week, but if those 40 hours are consistently shifting throughout the day for your W2 employees that affect their start and end times while having no control over their schedule it will decrease satisfaction. To decrease dissatisfaction instead, their work hours should mainly stay consistent to plan their life outside of work accordingly.
Occupational Stress - Stress will be relevant in any job you work, no matter the role or industry, as it is related to workload, schedule, workplace conflict, and office politics. Especially if their role is customer-facing where they might have to handle any incoming complaints from disgruntled customers. However, to decrease dissatisfaction, your company should focus on the workload and schedule as previously mentioned but ensure that workplace conflict and office politics do not have a place in your company and that all issues are handled accordingly. While you might not stop customer complaints entirely, you can have your teams back when situations arise.
You can easily implement these ideas regarding Herzberg’s Hygiene Theory to decrease dissatisfaction, but if you want to learn how to lead your leaders or need assistance with thinking through your policies intentionally and strategically, you can apply for the upcoming cohort The Leader’s Circle Mastermind, or if you need assistance ASAP, you can sign up for a VIP Day instead for all of your team and operational strategies. How will you show up for your team to decrease dissatisfaction?
