Employees get satisfaction, but only when properly motivated.

How can you keep employees dedicated and productive when you cannot give traditional rewards, such as promotions and raises, as often as in the past? What can you do to retain valuable people when you are asking them to do more with fewer resources, and in the face of ever-accelerating change and uncertainty? Downsizing and restructuring are forcing employers to find new ways of keeping employees satisfied and productive.

Some companies offer employees flex time, or job sharing, or the option of doing some work from home. Others have taken the approach of expanding benefits, such as childcare, eldercare or referral services. Others are instituting, and paying attention to, employee attitude surveys.

Another approach, and one that has far-reaching implications, is to help employees take charge of their development and job satisfaction. This can be done by helping employees assess their skills, determining what they like and dislike about their jobs, and identifying areas they would like to develop or change.

This type of process encourages people to probe deeply into what motivates them and what would make their work more satisfying -- closer supervision, less travel, more customer contact, more opportunities to work on special projects, and the ability to keep weekends free for family and personal interests. Employers then prepare employees to negotiate with their managers to redesign their jobs to make better use of their strengths and serve their personal goals as well as the organization's goals.

Companies that have used this type of development process -- among them Pitney Bowes, Raychem, Alumax Mill Products and Boeing -- have found numerous benefits to the organization. Employees feel they have more control over their careers and their lives.

Alumax Mill Products began using this type of process because managers there felt that employees were "waiting to be told what to do." The idea that they had responsibility for their career and development, and could create options for themselves, was new to many employees, according to Diane Frisch, vice president of human resources. In these turbulent times, she says, people often feel like victims. Teaching them to be proactive, to initiate discussions with their managers, and to seek out ways of getting more of what they want makes them feel less vulnerable.

Even though they cannot control the larger economic forces, people who learn they have the ability to improve their job satisfaction feel more secure and valued as individuals. Being seen as a person with unique contributions inspires loyalty and commitment. Employees also learn to see the big picture.

This process is a potent method of showing employees how their assignments contribute to organizational goals and strategies, and for giving them opportunities to add value to their jobs.

At Boeing, for example, policies that start at the top -- such as reducing waste, or decreasing cycle time -- are fleshed out at the division level. Managers and employees together define performance expectations, strategies and measurements of accomplishment. Individual development plans are integrated into all stages of Boeing's performance management system.

All assignments are tied to a master plan for achieving organizational objectives that are clearly spelled out for everyone. What Michelle Rutt, manager of management development and succession planning, calls a "single thread" approach provides a focus and clear sense of direction and purpose that is a real bonus in today's turbulent workplace climate.

The employees' own development plans give them a "buy-in" to the overall vision, Rutt says. Individuals see how their performance relates directly to the broad objectives, and they have a say in how those objectives will be met.

Communication between managers and employees is enhanced. This kind of development training "challenges the notion that employees will be taken care of and supervisors have all the answers," says Gary Selick, director of training and development at Raychem Corp.

Companies that teach people to take charge of their own job satisfaction report both managers and employees benefit from the change, and the supervisor/employee relationship improves. Employees like being on a more equal footing, and feel freer to initiate discussions with managers and put their own ideas forward.

Managers are frequently relieved not to have to play God, to be able to share more responsibility and reap the benefits of improved motivation and morale among employees. Since employees are clear on their priorities they feel more confident to make decisions on their own.

These new development processes cast the dreaded, and often ineffective, annual performance appraisal in a new light. They encourage employees to talk with their managers frequently -- not just once a year -- about their performance, and it becomes natural to continue negotiating and fine-tuning their responsibilities. The process also gives managers a way of talking to employees about their performance that is developmental, rather than judgmental. This makes employees more committed to improvement.

Some companies, including Alumax Mill Products, use the annual appraisal to perpetuate and reinforce ideas and methods taught in the initial development training. Skills inventories, self-appraisals and individual development plans are extended into the performance review, employees are measured against their own goals. and the final review forms are signed by both manager and employee. Discussions of compensation and raises are not part of the review process.

This type of development process can provide a foundation for all training. At Raychem, training that emphasizes values clarification, skills analysis and career development planning is the core of a continuous development effort that includes all 11,000 employees at every level, and in 60 countries worldwide. Raychem University, as this development curriculum is called, grew out of the company's philosophy that continuous learning provides a major competitive advantage and is the best way of attracting and retaining outstanding employees.

Teaching employees how to identify what they want from their work and to think in terms of their own development lays the groundwork for all future training -- whether it be in quality, communications, team-building or workplace diversity. It gives employees a meaningful, personal stake in the larger mission.

"We knew we would have to get the buy-in of each employee if our vision of a continuous learning organization was going to succeed," says Sue Burish, a senior staff consultant at Raychem. "This training gave us a way to gain individual commitment and promote organizational goals."

Employees get comfortable with change. This may be the most important result of teaching people that they own responsibility for their careers and will be rewarded for taking charge of their personal growth and satisfaction.

According to Charles Presbury, a senior corporate trainer with Pitney Bowes, "Your job won't stay the same. You'll be growing all the time."

This new development training helps people understand that jobs are becoming more sophisticated; everyone is being challenged to work harder, faster and more effectively; and the only certainty is change.

"People have to learn new things, and new things usually don't look so good at first," Presbury says. "It takes time for new skills to take hold, and we have to let people know that it's okay to develop and not be the ace we remember you as."

The career development process used at Pitney Bowes encourages employees to think of themselves as future-oriented, developing individuals, and to think of growth and change as a natural process, not as traumatic events. It also broadens their understanding of what constitutes positive change.

As Presbury says, there are not as many opportunities for upward promotion as there once were. It is no longer helpful to define "up" exclusively as moving into upper management positions.

Some people discover that they want to grow in technical expertise. Some find their greatest satisfaction comes from teamwork. Others, including some managers, realize they do not really like managing others. Some decide that a lateral move is what they really want.

Occasionally, an employee faces the fact that he or she would be much happier working somewhere else, and leaves the company. Managers learn there are many ways of getting a job done, and that the actual employee in front of them may fill the bill better than the ideal employee in their mind.

"It's a big fallacy to think that a company can give you a career," Presbury says. "A company can give you opportunities, but only you can define what you want out of a job and only you can say what satisfies you."

For further reading

Henckoff, R., "Getting Beyond Downsizing," Fortune, January 10, 1994.

Noble, B.P., "Dissecting the 90's Workplace," The New York Times, September 19, 1993.

Sherman, S., "A Brave New Darwinian Workplace," Fortune, January 25, 1993.

Kiechel, W., "How We Will Work in the Year 2000," Fortune, May 17, 1993.

Kelley, R. and Caplan, J., "How Bell Labs Creates Star Performers," Harvard Business Review, July-August, 1993.

Harry Gaines is CEO of Blessing/White, an international individual and organizational development firm in Princeton, N.J.