WorkPuzzle

The Psychology of Being Laid-Off: Effort and Reward

As many of you know, we work with a lot of real estate companies.  More specifically, we help these companies design their hiring systems to significantly increase the number of candidates they are interfacing with on a weekly basis.

Companies hire us to do this work because, on the surface, it is difficult to successfully attract candidates into an industry that has been so battered and bruised in recent years.  To be successful, we must understand and apply the psychology of work. 

While there is some complexity to how this is done, one principle we observe continually is that people innately want a connection between the effort they put forth and the reward (compensation, recognition, perks, etc.) they receive for completing the job.

When the effort-reward connection is missing, talented people become frustrated and ultimately, dissatisfied with the companies they work for.  We constantly interface with people who have good jobs, excellent educations, and above average competencies, but are deeply frustrated that they are not rewarded for their efforts.

The real estate industry certainly attracts the people who most acutely feel this pain.  However, it should be a red flag to anyone who desires to preserve their job and grow their career.  Why?  Because businesses tend to value people they believe contribute directly to the organization’s success.  That value is communicated through a visible effort-reward relationship.

If you find yourself in a role where you don’t frequently get recognized (via compensation or otherwise), it is an indication that your contribution is not viewed as valuable.  This may lead to you being laid-off if your company needs to cut expenses.

To combat this situation, look for opportunities in your existing organization where your efforts can be noticed and rewarded.  Don’t wait for something to come your way—be proactive and seek out new responsibilities.  Like the principle of autonomy, this is a win-win for you and your employer.  Your personal sense of well-being will increase if you’re appropriately rewarded for your efforts.

If you’ve already been laid-off and you’re looking for a job, consider positions where there is a direct connection between effort and reward.  This may force you to look into some nontraditional areas of employment. 

If you’re willing to consider these nontraditional areas, there is a win-win here as well.  Lots of people shy away from jobs where their performance determines their paycheck.  This means there is less competition for these jobs.  If you’re motivated and “wired” to perform the tasks associated with the job, high performance in such a role can lead to job satisfaction beyond what you’ve experienced in the past.

The Psychologyof Being Laid-Off: Complexity

During any recession, there are a large number of people who “need” a job.  As Abraham Maslow taught us, when there’s a mortgage to pay and kids to feed, the goal of finding self-actualization at work gives way to the need for security.

An employer who is hiring during a time when there is a surplus of talented candidates may be tempted to select people who are exceptionally qualified for a position.  While this certainly makes sense on one level, it is important to understand the need individuals have for complexity in their work.

In past discussions, we’ve explored the principles that allow people to “tap into their best work”.  More specifically, we’ve addressed the concept of psychological flow and how it contributes to an individual’s sense of well-being.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the psychologist who studied and popularized the concept of flow, discovered that a balance must be struck between the challenge of a task and the skill of the performer.  If the task is too easy or too difficult, flow cannot occur: 

“A flow experience has to be challenging. Anything that is not up to par is going to be irritating or ignored.” (Interview with Wired Magazine)

It is difficult for a person who is above the "challenge level" of a job to remain engaged in their work over time.  The talented employee, who you thought was perfect for the job, may turn into someone who languishes. 

If you are a hiring manager planning to employ someone who is over-qualified, it would be wise to expand the scope of the new employee’s responsibilities to the place where he or she is experiencing a higher level of complexity.

This same principle applies if you have recently been laid-off and are among the masses of people seeking employment.  At some point, you may be offered a job that is not very challenging. There is a downside to accepting such a role—it won’t be long before you’re bored.

Certainly, there are situations where an individual can’t make the ideal choice.  If you need a job, paying the bills will take priority over landing a job that has the appropriate level of complexity and fulfillment. 

If you’re forced to take a job below your ability level, then quickly and proactively seek out ways to expand the job to your level of complexity.  While this will be good for you own well-being, it will also make you more valuable to your new organization.

The Psychology of Being Laid-Off: Finding Autonomy

As we discussed yesterday, being laid-off strikes at a person’s sense of autonomy.  In order to find meaning in work, a person must experience some level of autonomy.

Researchers have known this for awhile.  For example, Harvard professor Boris Groysberg and Linda-Eling Lee have noted:

“From classic studies on worker motivation to seminal research on work re-design, the concept of autonomy plays an important role in understanding worker attitude and well-being.  Studies highlight the idea that lack of autonomy, or control over the process and product of one’s work, leads to worker dissatisfaction…  Greater autonomy allows individuals greater input into their work process and product, engendering greater work satisfaction and commitment.”

To many people, being laid off reveals that their sense of autonomy was based on something they could not control.  Of course, this can be devastating to a person’s sense of well-being, especially if the consequences of being without work begin to mount.

As Dave outlined in previous discussions, many people melt under these circumstances and sink into varying levels of despair.  Others see the same circumstances as a pathway to better things.

Finding that pathway means exercising a sense of control.  Resilient people figure out what they can control and focus on these things.  They ignore the things they can’t control.

This doesn’t mean ignoring the lessons learned from the past, rather using negative experiences to see the possibilities for the future.  Finding autonomy in our work is a lesson that can benefit each of us.

How can this principle be applied to your circumstances?  If you’re in a situation where you’re looking for work, try to find positions where you’ll have greater control over your personal destiny.  This may require that you push into some areas that feel uncomfortable at the moment.

If you have a job, be thankful.  But, don’t be lulled into complacency.  Use the time and your current work situation to increase your own level of autonomy.  This is a win-win situation: it will improve the level of satisfaction you experience at work, and at the same time help transform you into a more resilient person. 

The Psychology of Being Laid-Off

It’s been tough to watch the news in the last few weeks.  In fact, it’s downright depressing.  Company after company, many of them brands that we all know and trust, continue to announce layoffs.   

If you really want a dose of despair, you can track the nation’s lay-offs as they happen by checking Layoff Daily.  The owners of this site now have to provide updates four to eight times a day to keep up with the news! 

If you’re a recruiter or you’re coaching someone, in the near future you’ll probably come in contact with candidates, clients, and potential clients who have been laid-off.  Have you ever wondered what goes through the mind of someone in this situation?  It might be worth some additional thought.

Over the next few days we’ll be discussing this topic.  I’ll start by sharing some recent insight I gained from Malcolm Gladwell’s newest book called Outliers.  In this book, Mr. Gladwell tells the story of how Jewish immigrants to New York City in the late 1800s had a profound effect on how a small group of people were able to become wildly successful attorneys in the 1970s.  If you’ve read any of Gladwell’s previous books, you know he’s a master at making these odd connections.

During the development of this story, he makes an interesting observation.  Jewish immigrants who came to New York City were extremely hard workers.  They commonly worked in the garment industry and would put in 100 hour work weeks. 

“When [the main character in the story] came home at night to his children, he may have been tired and poor and overwhelmed, but he was alive.  He was his own boss.  He was responsible for his own decisions and direction.  His work was complex: it engaged his mind and imagination.  And in his work, there was a relationship between effort and reward…  Those three things—autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward—are, most people agree, the three qualities that work has to have to be satisfying.  Work that fulfills these three criteria is meaningful. ”

With these criteria in mind, what happens to a person who has recently been laid-off?  Many perceive that two of the three legs to their “stool of meaning at work” have been knocked out from under them. 

With a good job, a person has the perception of autonomy.  But when a lay-off occurs, that perception is shattered.  Self-sufficiency was really “company-sufficiency”, and is no longer available to that person.

In addition, many lay-offs are not performed along the lines of performance alone.  A person may be a very high performer and still get laid-off.  In the short term, this disrupts the desired connection between effort and reward.  To a person going though this experience, it doesn’t seem fair.

If you’re coaching someone, it is important to address these two issues.  Helping a person conceptualize how his previous job eventually lost its meaning is an important first step in establishing a new direction.

If you’re a hiring manager interviewing a person who has recently been laid-off, it might be worth probing on these two issues:  (1) Can the candidate find autonomy in your organization? and (2) Is there a connection between effort and reward in the position you need filled?  While these may not be pertinent issues during the interview (there are a lot of people who are desperate for jobs), they’ll become retention issues at a later time when conditions improve.

Finding the Pearls in a Crisis as an Organization

As an organization, it is easy to become inwardly focused during a time of difficulty or crisis.  While some of this cannot be avoided, it is important not to lose sight of the horizon.  There is a future out there, and that future will one day become your organization’s reality.

If 30% of us get stronger and better during difficult circumstances, doesn’t it make sense to conceptualize ways of indentifying who those people are in your organization and support their efforts?  I’m not talking about pre-selecting those who you think are going to survive.  That doesn’t work. 

Instead, I’m suggesting you notice which of the people on your team are selecting themselves by displaying the transformational coping skills of commitment, control, and challenge.  These are the people in which you should invest resources.  Your investment will pay a big dividend in future performance and increased commitment to your organization.
 
Is your organization the only one suffering challenges?  Of course not.  Some of the 30% mentioned above are being arbitrarily jettisoned from their organizations.  There are others who are not getting adequate support and opportunity from their organizations (ex. some employees are getting hours cut).

These are talented survivors who have been dealt a difficult hand.  Like me, many will need to go through a process of grief and self-discovery.  But at some point, their batteries will be re-charged and they’ll come out with guns-a-blazing.  Will you be there to find them?  

If you’re too inwardly focused, you won’t be able to engage these individuals.  Besides, they won’t be attracted to organizations that have their “heads in the sand” anyway.   Progressive companies are always recruiting.  Survivors know where the escape hatches are.

 

Finding the Pearls in a Crisis

The current economic funk doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom.  But it feels this way for the millions affected personally.  I know it’s really hard to see, but many of you will thrive more as a result of it. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not out whistling a happy tune every day.  However, research has found that in stressful business environments, 30% of us will become stronger and better at what we do.  With this experience, we will be able to achieve more and perform better in the future.  I want to be part of that group.

Stress is an interesting thing.  It can devastate some, but invigorate others.  Those who approach stress with a sense of curiosity, hard work, fortitude and the characteristics of resilience (remember: the 3 c's), can unveil aspects of themselves that they didn’t know previously existed.  If we are able to fend off despair, we can enter a period of self-renewal.  This process plants the seeds of new growth and new opportunity.

Let me give you an example from my own life.  I lost a great deal of money in the Tech crash of 2000-2001.  My hope of someday having the freedom to figure out “what I really wanted to do” was quickly dismantled.  From this disappointment I had to make my way through the stages of grief (Shock and Denial, Pain and Guilt, Anger and Bargaining, Depression, Reflection, Reconstruction, Acceptance).

As a result of this experience, I realized I was putting off developing what I really wanted until some future arbitrary date.  This deferred hope was not a reliable platform on which to build my future.  I realized that I needed to start doing “what I really wanted to do” in the here and now.  Where I once was feeling loss and despair, I was now feeling a new found self-renewal… an opportunity.  I became excited about learning, growing, and ultimately carving a new path with renewed vigor.

While I learned a lot from this crisis, I constantly have to re-learn this lesson based on the new circumstances that come my way in life.  This same principle applies to organizations.  Tomorrow I’ll share how current economic difficulties can be a catalyst for making your organization stronger.
 

A Compulsion to Fix Things

This past weekend I was reminded of how I am cursed with a need to fix things.  This is a shame because I really don’t have the training to do so.

I’m not talking about psychology here;  I’m talking about things…household things.  For instance, during the first 18 years of my marriage I kept a clothes dryer “alive” that had been given to us when my wife and I were first married.  And, when it was given to us, it was already ten years old!

My initial commitment to a yearly ritual of reviving this old clothes dryer began with the poverty-driven need I had in graduate school to save cost or starve.  Out of desperation, I would extract broken parts and take them into the appliance parts supply store.   It was common for the counter guy to invite the entire staff out for a good laugh and history lesson about “the days when all parts were steel like this one.”

My compulsion continued long after it would have been less time consuming, more energy efficient, and well within my financial capabilities to replace the monster.   But, I was not to be defeated.  I simply had to fix it.

This past weekend my water heater began leaking. My wife and I actually had a fight over this ridiculous compulsion of mine to prove that “I’ve still got it”.  And, of course, the need to save a few bucks.

It took all of Saturday to do the research and all of Sunday to install it.  Around the Mashburn house that evening you could hear things coming out of my mouth like, “We’ve got hot water”, or ”Try taking a bath”.  It was like I had done something powerful and magic.  I think I felt manlier.

What does this have to do with recruiting, coaching or personal performance you ask?  Does this somehow apply to the subject matter of this blog?  I have no idea.  Maybe someone smarter and more creative could come up with some compelling esoteric description of how this could help you, but not me.  I was too focused on conquering my water heater over the weekend!

Resilience Revisited: Avoiding Anxiety Paralysis

Before the holidays, we wrote a couple of articles on resilience.   The articles highlighted the research of Dr. Salvatore Maddi and summarized the principles that he discovered.

Last week, Business Week did an article on resilience as well.  In today’s economic climate, it’s a topic that interests a lot of us.   Like the bathroom plunger under the sink, I don’t care for the circumstances that require me put the tool into use, but I am glad I have it.

Dr. Kerry Sulkowicz makes it clear you’re going to need resilience if you’re going to maintain a clear head during  tough times:

“Many psychologists consider [resilience] a key component of emotional health. Resilient people, they have observed, are naturally better at containing their anxiety. And that enables them to see in hardship the seeds of opportunity. What would emotional resilience entail in the face of the current crisis? The ability to resist being swept up in the global state of panic and to adapt as creatively as possible to one's setbacks and losses.”

We see this principle played out with our clients every day.  Some people are not very good at containing their anxiety and they become paralyzed as a result.  But, others are busy working to find new opportunities.  We all feel the strain, but some people have figured out how to use that strain as a catalyst for action.

If you find yourself in the second group, Dr. Sulkowicz has some advice for you:

“But just as there is no shortcut to emotional health, you can't become resilient overnight, or by sheer will, or by reading the latest book on the subject. Instead, resilience is acquired through increasing self-awareness. You must connect with trusted and candid intimates who help you build confidence. You need to repeatedly expose yourself to a range of difficult circumstances and then overcome them.”

If you’re responsible for coaching those around you, this is a great opportunity.  You’re the “trusted and candid intimate” your protégés need to overcome their anxiety.  Can you help them identify the things they are already overcoming?  This is the foundation to build upon and can give them courage to take on the next challenge.

If you’re struggling yourself, then you need to connect with others who can provide you support.  The first tendency will be to just talk with those who will compassionately identify with our circumstances.  While this may help, we also need those “tough love” friends who can give us the push to take on the next challenge.

Editor’s Note:  Did you miss the previous articles on resilience?  Click on the following links to catch up:  

Resilience: Are You Able to Thrive Under Stressful Conditions?

Resilience: Are You Able to Thrive Under Stressful Conditions? Part 2

The Stars Might Lie, but the Numbers Never Do

Yesterday, I told you I would follow-up with an example of how using metrics has equipped us to save our clients a significant amount of money on candidate advertising.

A few months back, we were interested in buying advertising in a metro area where we had a major client.   The client needed to source more than 500 candidates per month to meet its hiring goals.  In  this metro area, there is a regional job board that is very prominent—you see its ads on the sides of buses, at bus stops, on trains, and you hear its ads on the radio.  It constantly refers to itself as the #1 job board in this metro area.

We inquired about advertising on this company’s job board.  The prices were high, but its claims of traffic to the site were high as well.   Since we had been advertising in this city for more than a year, we had reliable metrics on this vendor’s competitors “advertising cost per applicant.”

With these competitive metrics in hand, we were able to negotiate a one-month trial at a fairly low price.   The trial pricing was based on a one-year commitment assuming the job board was able to hit a cost per applicant benchmark that its competitors were meeting.  

As you probably guessed, the trial did not meet the expectations of either party.  To this day, we’re able to source candidates in this marketplace through a group of competitive job boards and search strategies at an advertising cost of $3/candidate.  The trial with the prospective vendor produced a cost of $15/candidate.   Working this backwards, a job posting on this company’s job board priced at $300/month was really only worth $60/month for our application.  

With this information (a metric that can be used across vendors, reliable data from a vendor’s competitors, and low-cost trial data from the new vendor), we were in a much better position to understand the true reality of the situation.   In the subsequent negotiation, we were able to get this vendor to quickly reduce its prices by more than 50%.   It still ended in an impasse because the vendor was not willing to lower its price enough to displace its competitors, but you do have to feel sorry for all the companies paying $300 per posting!  With just a little more information and the confidence to ask, they could be paying $150 for the same advertisement.

If you apply this principle across the thousands of candidate advertising impressions we provide our clients on a daily basis, it adds up to some significant savings.  Granted, it cost us money to define, develop systems, and track this data, but the numbers do pay off.

I hope you’ll find an application in your business where you can use metrics to save you money or find opportunities that you’re missing.  It reminds me of the theme of one of my favorite Mary Chapin Carpenter songs, “The stars might lie, but the numbers never do.”

There's Gold in Them There Metrics!

I wanted to follow-up on Dave’s discussion yesterday by demonstrating how the principle of measurement has worked in our business.

As many of you know, I’m the Managing Director of Tidemark.  Tidemark is a recruitment process outsourcing company that specializes in sourcing large numbers of candidates for high volume hiring applications.  In simple terms, we’re hired to help companies develop a consistent and predictable flow of candidates.

We use many different tools to accomplish this task for a company, and we find that each application needs customization to produce the best results.  However, one tool we commonly use is the traditional job board. 

There are more than 40,000 job boards on the internet today.  The general business model for a job board is to charge a fee to “list” a job on their website.    Successful job boards drive a lot of traffic to their sites, and the jobs on the high-traffic sites get viewed by more potential candidates.  Theoretically, the price of a job posting on a particular site is related to the traffic a job board can garner.   Higher traffic—higher cost per job.

But, reality does not always match the theory.  In a business arena where it is difficult to measure and verify common metrics such as internet traffic, it is to our advantage to dig deeper.  We advertise very specific jobs in very specific industries.  We have an interest in what kind of traffic can be generated to our specific jobs.  We also have an interest in knowing how many people viewing our jobs actually turn into applicants.

Although there are a number of other factors that cause results, we eventually boil down this process (from a job board perspective) to a single metric:  “advertising cost per applicant.”  With this metric we now have a negotiating platform that is based on solid data and reality—our reality.

Over time, we’ve been able to collect data from more than 20 metropolitan areas and track issues such as seasonality, changes in the job market in the industries where we source, and even revenue flowing into our client’s industries.   But, everything still filters down to the “advertising cost per applicant” metric.

With this metric in hand, we’re able to cut through the sales and marketing rhetoric offered by a job board as a way to justifying pricing.   We question the job board on a very specific issue:  can the job board produce enough candidates to support the price that they are suggesting we pay?  If their competitors can produce results at a certain “cost per applicant” for our application, doesn’t  it make sense that this vendor should be able to meet the same metric?  If they can’t meet this standard, they need to lower their prices to meet their competitors—that only makes sense.

In this process, we’re not trying to disparage the vendor; we’re just helping both sides to see the true value of the service for our unique application.  Through this process, we’ve saved our clients tens of thousands of dollars in advertising expenses.  Tomorrow, I’ll share a specific example of how a negotiation was done with a particular vendor.  It will help clarify the concept if I run through an example.

Of course, most of you are not in the recruitment process outsourcing business, so what worked in our business will not directly apply to what you’re doing.  But, don’t miss the principle:

Every business process has points of measurement that can be identified and then optimized. 

What are the measurement points in your business?  If nothing comes to mind, that’s a red flag!   If you do have measurement points identified, are they the right ones?   In some cases, metrics are overcome by events and need to be adjusted to match a new reality.  It may be worth the time to take an inventory of one your business processes and see what can and needs to be measured.