As digital technology has continued its relentless march into our lives, the concern around our ability to detach has escalated. Whilst those concerns are undoubtedly valid, a recent study from Portland State University suggests that an equally important issue is our ability to reattach to wok again each morning.
The research suggests that being able to plan and simulate the looming workday is vital to engaging with the tasks ahead of us and the various challenges we may face.
“We know that detachment from work during non-work hours is important because it creates positive outcomes like higher life satisfaction and lower burnout,” the authors say. “Now we need to think about helping people mentally reconnect to work at the beginning of their work shift or day so they can create positive outcomes during their work day and be immersed in their work. It’s not enough to just show up.”
Re-engaging with work
The research, which surveyed a few hundred employees from various industries, found that our ability to re-engage with work can vary from day to day. It would typically involve the person thinking about the work to be done that morning, perhaps even mentally going over conversations they’re due to have or considering their to-do list that day.
“Through reattachment, employees are able to activate work-related goals, which then further creates positive experiences which allow people to be more engaged at work,” the authors explain. “Engagement is a sense of energy, sense of feeling absorbed, feeling dedicated to work, and those are all very important motivational experiences that translate to positive outcomes for both employees and organizations. They’re more satisfied with work, more committed to work, enjoy work tasks more, perform better and help out more with extra tasks.”
Whilst one might be forgiven for thinking this reattachment is the responsibility of the individual, the authors go as far as to suggest that organizations may actually do things to help employees transition into the workday.
For instance, they might encourage a short period of contemplation to kick start the day, or initiate a planning conversation with each employee about the day ahead and to help prioritize the goals they may have for the day.
Checking-in
In Nine Lies About Work, Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall advocate a weekly check-in by the manager to each of the people in their team. The process consists of two simple questions:
- What are your priorities this week?
- How can I help?
They suggest that this relatively simple task is enough to elicit a 13% increase in employee engagement, versus a 5% decrease if managers perform this routine once per month.
Indeed, so powerful do they believe this simple routine to be, that they argue that team size should largely be determined by the ability of the manager to perform this weekly check-in successfully with each member of their team. If you have capacity to do 2 check-ins per week, then you should have 2 people in your team, and so on.
They suggest that not only does this weekly process provide a nice way of getting engaged in the work week, but it also shows your staff that you care, with the relatively short time frame forcing you to talk about meaningful tasks to be done that week rather than generalities some way into the future.
It’s perhaps fair to say that this kind of routine is not something that is performed in many teams today, but perhaps it’s something to consider starting.
