Employees are a lot like cars. The amount of care, attention to detail, and feelings of permanency we project toward our cars is comparable to the way employees view the employer-employee relationship. Consider this analogy.
Employee Renters
When we rent a car, most of us don’t spend a lot of time caring for it, nurturing it, or preserving it. When was the last time you gave your rental car a good wax job? With a rental vehicle when we hit a big bump on the road, we say, “no big deal… it’s a rental.” I admit I’m more likely to throw trash on the floor of my rental vehicle than I would my personal vehicle because I know my relationship with the rental is short term. Our attention to the little details are not as precise with a rental because we know our relationship with that particular car is not going to last very long.
Some of our employees are also renters. They view their jobs from a temporary perspective. In the short-timer view, employee renters are less likely to give great attention to the accuracy or precision of their work. They believe that the quality of their work is “no big deal” because they won’t be there for very long. As a result, performance suffers and they look to move on as quickly as they can, once they’ve gotten what they wanted from the employment relationship.
Employee Owners
On the flip side, when we own our own car, we are more likely to spend time on maintaining it. We are more likely to concern ourselves with the cleanliness and appearance of our personal property. If the car gets a scratch, we may touch it up. When trash litters the floor of the back seat, we are more likely to clean it out occasionally when the car is our own. Our personal property is something we are proud of and usually, we expect to own it for an extended length of time. Therefore, there’s a commitment.
Many of our employees are owners. They approach their work with a sense of pride. They work hard to maintain the quality of their work, as well as the quality of their relationships because they know that they’ll be there for an extended period.
Over the past decade, public employers have created more and more opportunities for the renters to thrive. Changes in retirement plans, health care coverage, and the prospect of layoffs have led public employees to question the long-term nature of their relationship with public agencies. As public sector leaders, we must do our best to create owners and the owner mentality.
Recently, the Gallup Organization interviewed two million employees at 700 organizations nationwide. A significant finding of the report was that employee tenure and productivity are directly related to the relationship between the employee and their immediate supervisor. Employee tenure and productivity are key indicators of an employee owner.
There’s never been a better time to consider the employment relationship in the public sector. If you are a manager, you are responsible for creating employee owners. Spend more time cultivating the owners and retaining them for the long term. Don’t spend your time on renters. They’re going to be moving on anyway.
