Is our instant gratification culture bad for employee engagement?

‘THE IDEA OF WAITING FOR SOMETHING MAKES IT MORE EXCITING.’
Andy Warhol

WAS ANDY WARHOL RIGHT? Sometimes the idea of waiting for something definitely does make it more exciting. The convenience of digital photos is stunning but doesn’t have the thrill of the Truprint envelope – remember those?

We’ve got used to generations XYZ and their desire for everything now, now, now. If they’re talking with friends and can’t remember the name of a film, it’s a case of looking it up on the internet on a mobile phone to check; no more mulling it over for hours and the satisfaction as you remember, let alone looking it up in a book when you get home. Things are more available, more transient, more disposable (Primark, you have a lot to answer for) than ever before. Technology, and the immediacy it enables, are life-enhancing but not without downsides in every day life – for sustainability, for relationships, and in employment terms.

The psychological contract – that unwritten set of perceived obligations between employer and employee – has its roots in the expectation of a long-lasting employment relationship. It is much harder to develop and sustain the bond of mutual trust and confidence (which of course doesn’t necessarily mean satisfaction or agreement) where there is no starting expectation that the employment will be long-lasting. As long as employers work hard at alternative routes for ensuring employee engagement with the organisation’s objectives, this may not matter, or it may even be a good thing. But in lots of cases, perhaps especially vocational occupations, as patients, passengers and customers we have seen and suffered from the lack of deep-seated connection between employer and employee.

More prosaically, how does the desire for instant gratification affect employee benefits? Who’s to know how much of our looming pensions crisis is directly attributable to a ‘spend today’culture, borne in part out of students so used to being in debt that a bit more makes no difference and provisioning for the future just a remote possibility? As employees, many of us want disposable income now rather than cutting back on non-essentials to fund retirement. NEST may force attention on to this area but it’s unlikely to have anything like the required impact. Employers largely collude in the rush to close or restrict final salary schemes, without enough thought being given to alternatives. A welcome ray of light in this area could be O2 where members have voted to increase contributions to prevent their scheme from closing¹.

As providers of salary sacrifice schemes, at Asperity we often find that parents don’t register for childcare vouchers because ‘it takes too long’. We make it really easy so it takes less than 10 minutes and they can save nearly £1,000 a year. Surely £1,000 is worth 10 minutes of their time!

Employees and employers do, of course, benefit from ‘instant gratification’ technology. Reward and recognition schemes are greatly enhanced by the recipient’s ability to choose literally any award they want from anywhere delivered immediately. If you’ve waited 25 years for a long service award, you don’ want to wait another 6 weeks for a gift not of your choosing. SMS vouchers for discounts which arrive while the shopper is at the checkout are another good example. In this case, the idea of waiting for something might make it more exciting but much less useful.

Savvy employers need to try and harness the best of both worlds. Instant gratification and deep-rooted commitment may sound mutually exclusive but they needn’t be. It is possible to take advantage of the efficiencies and excitement of technologies and not lose the human touch, the vital employment connection.

For many employers, it probably means a significant shift in thinking, new angles on reward and engagement strategies and investment in different ways of communicating with the workforce.

But employee engagement is so important in organisation success, we need to harness – not repress – the ‘now, now, now’ culture for the future.

1 http://www.employeebenefits.co.uk/item/12336/23/5/3