Societal and demographic shifts are only set to increase the pressure on organisations to connect more deeply with their workers. According to the World Economic Forum, Gen Z will make up more than 27% of the workforce by 2025. This is a cohort that values meaning as much as salary, that is willing to pay for purpose, and that is proactive about quitting jobs that fail to provide engagement and satisfaction or alignment in values and mission.
So, what sustainable and impactful measures can organisations take to connect with and mobilise their workforce?
Dan Cable is Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School. He has developed an extensive body of research looking at effective, cost-efficient and scalable interventions to positively recalibrate the relationship between employers and employees.
Unlocking employee potential
A major tranche of Cable’s recent work relates to and stems from Alive at Work, his 2018 internationally best-selling exploration of the biology of engagement. The book delves into the neurological processes attached to learning—seeking systems or circuits in the prefrontal cortex that are activated when we engage with new environments, tasks or challenges. Once switched on, these circuits produce dopamine, a feel-good hormone that spurs and rewards more exploring and learning, creating a positive behavioural loop or “contagion,” says Cable; one that motivates us to lean into curiosity, to adapt and to pivot ahead of change. Alive at Work has led to numerous speaking engagements, as well as major field studies and projects with organisations worldwide, looking at simple but innovative ways to disrupt the routinisation of work, among them: inviting employees to devise their own job titles; having new employees articulate their personal strengths in a dedicated setting; and assessing the impact of honesty in job interviews—how a warts-and-all mindset yields happier and more productive experiences in the workplace.
