Job Stability – The Key to Having Engaged Employees

Employees are more likely not going to give their best if they have any reason to feel that their work environment is unstable. An impromptu and swift change in an organization without prior notice to the employees leads to psychological resources such as optimism and resilience been stretched to the limit. If the future of an employees in an organization is uncertain, such employee will waste no time in considering the future of such organization but rather focus on personal self and how to achieve personal goals.

Organizations find it difficult to find a balance between stability and change thereby affecting individual contributors. In the race for digital transformation and innovation, the idea of stability got mixed and lost in the process. There is a need for us to acquit ourselves with the merits of job stability. To have an environment where contributors survive/excel, your workforce must trust that the organization will state clearly employees’ roles, give feedbacks on time, allocate resources adequately and pay attention to how work is structured.

It has been observed in the retail industry that, spontaneous and unplanned work schedules will do both parties (i.e. employer and employee) no good. With a more predictable schedule for employees; productivity is sure to increase. This observation is quite obvious, things that will eventually lead to stability gets insignificant attention compared to other topics, such as agility and productivity. Surprisingly, stability can serve as the base for the other things. It was discovered by Google’s Project Aristotle discovered that psychological safety was connected to team effectiveness, which is a tip of the iceberg comes to strategizing how to bring our best selves to work.

Organizational and personal stability is of utmost importance – we just don’t see them as priority in many organizations. But can employees give their best at work and be fully engaged if they are not assured stability at work? Can organization stand the test of time (i.e. surviving for 60 to 120 years or more if core stability is not carefully considered and acknowledged?