Five keys to building a better workplace

Communication may be an overused word in the world of workplace management, but not all companies do it well.

David Maxfield is a Utah business consultant on the most effective ways to talk and engage with employees, especially when it comes to underperforming workers.

Maxfield is also co-author, with Joseph Grenny, of the best-selling "Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High."

Maxfield, who is vice president for research at the Provo-based corporate training and leadership company VitalSmarts, says research has identified five major ways that employees relate to their work. All of these connections give managers an opportunity to raise engagement and productivity while also improving on-the-job morale.

"The organization needs to connect to at least one of these," he said. "Communication plays a role in each. The question becomes: How do you make the connections obvious and apparent and trouble-shoot them when they go awry?''

• Employees want to feel their work has a positive effect.

Managers need to make the link between the workers, the customers and the products as clear as possible, Maxfield said. What kinds of positive impacts does the employee have on the world? How, exactly, are they benefiting customers?

• They want to be part of a team.

Maxfield likens the bonds between work team members to those made between soldiers in battle. "They will die in order to protect their foxhole mates,'' he said. Do employees have friends on the staff? What is their sense of connection with the team and the organization?

• They love what they do.

Do workers identify with their profession as something larger than the workplace? "If you can get out of their way, remove bureaucracy and the politics," Maxfield said, "that will make them very satisfied."

• They seek development and personal growth.

"Is it a job or a career?" the author asked. "Does your organization allow that kind of career growth?"

• Employees connect to work through their paycheck.

There's nothing wrong with that, Maxfield said. But employers can help workers broaden short-term financial goals into longer-range ones, turning the workplace into something perceived as helping them realize their futures.

tsemerad@sltrib.com

Twitter: @Tony_Semerad