France Telecom & Employee Motivation

Tweet

France Telecom announced last week that it plans to begin basing up to 30% of a manager's bonus on social criteria, including job satisfaction of the people on the manager's team.  The change was implemented as part of a plan to address the company's rash of suicides over the last two years. [story]

Many of the people at the company who committed or attempted to commit suicide blamed their actions on working conditions, forced transfers, or fear of job loss.  In response to the problem, France Telecom's leaders have implemented training programs for managers and supervisors, and hired additional physicians, psychologists, and human relations personnel. Last week's decision to tie bonuses to worker satisfaction, absenteeism, and other people-oriented measures was the latest effort to deal with the problem.

Why Wait for Suicides?

My initial thought about this latest action was that it was a good move to improve the environment and working conditions at the company.  In addition to stopping the suicides, it can result in improving productivity and quality of service.

Upon further consideration, however, I wonder why it would take a rash of suicides for a company to understand the need to hold managers accountable for the satisfaction of those who report to them.

It is the responsibility of anyone in a supervisory position to create a positive environment for those on his or her team.  This includes coaching, motivating, and developing people, as well as creating an atmosphere that continually challenges people to improve.  A good leader also has to truly like people.  Although liking people does not necessarily make someone a good leader, disliking people definitely makes for a bad one.

Also, senior leaders must accept the responsibility to promote and hire only people with leadership capabilities into management positions, and commit to regularly develop the abilities of these people to become better leaders.

Remember Maslow?

Those who learned in management classes about Abraham Maslow's theory of motivation will undoubtedly remember his hierarchy of needs.  In his book, Motivation and Personality (HarperCollins, 2006),  Maslow theorized that people have five levels of needs, ranging from the most basic (physiological, safety, and love/belongingness) to the highest (self-esteem and self-actualization).  Maslow further stated that people cannot be motivated by appealing to higher level needs when they feel their basic needs are not consistently met.

When applied to the workplace, it becomes clear that fear and other aspects of poor leadership keep people at lower levels - specifically, the need for safety and security.  Change, innovation, and improving productivity, on the other hand, require people to be at higher levels.  In other words, we will never achieve the type of environment that fosters quality, improvement, and dedication necessary for long-term success and growth without helping team members satisfy their lower level needs.

Unfortunately, France Telecom is learning this the hard way.  Other companies can learn from their misfortune and create the type of environment that values employees.   The results of such an effort will be rewarding, not only for workers, but for all stakeholders.