Motivation for the type of work is the foundation for employee engagement. If someone enjoys doing the types of tasks most required for producing good performance, then that is the number one element to keep them engaged.
If the key tasks fall outside someone’s high interest areas, no matter how great a work environment you create or how many benefits you provide, ultimately, they will not find job satisfaction.
I recently checked my agenda one morning and saw I had screening interviews scheduled for a client and I felt a sense of excitement. I realized that this is an activity I enjoy as it is related to one of my top three motivational work interests, people.
My other work interests are Enterprising and Creative. The three that are lower are Technical, Financial/Admin and Mechanical. In fact, Financial/Admin is so low it poses a problem as a business owner as I avoid tasks related to that area of interest.
I did not need to do a study to discover this. I learned about my top three interest areas through the PXT Select assessment that I also use with my clients. Combining the feedback from the assessment along with self-observation deepened my self-awareness and why I get excited about doing certain tasks and avoid others.
Here is the explanation from the Quick Reference Guide produced by Wiley, the creator of the PXT Select. You can use this to self-assess and determine your top three occupational interests out of the sixth. Read through each description of the interest area and score yourself on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the highest motivation). After doing that review again and decide on your top 3.
Interests
We’ve identified six interest areas that are effective in describing people’s motivation and potential satisfaction with their jobs. Each interest area reflects a group of related aspects of a job or task.
Creative
A Creative interest suggests the enjoyment of imaginative and artistic activities. It often involves personal expression, emphasis on aesthetics, and novel ways of solving problems, producing ideas, and designing new things.
Enterprising
An Enterprising interest suggests the enjoyment of leadership, presenting ideas, and persuading others. Individuals with this interest may desire responsibility and exercise initiative, ambition, and resourcefulness.
Financial/Admin
A Financial/Admin interest suggests the enjoyment of working with numbers, organizing information, and office routines such as record-keeping and completing paperwork. It could indicate an eye for detail and a desire for accuracy.
People Service
A People Service interest suggests the enjoyment of collaboration, compromise, and helping others. It may indicate a strong sense of empathy and support and a knack for bringing people together.
Mechanical
A Mechanical interest suggests the enjoyment of building and repairing things and working with machinery or tools. Individuals with this interest may like tasks that involve using their hands, being outdoors, and/or breaking a sweat.
Technical
A Technical interest suggests the enjoyment of learning technical material, interpreting complex information, and solving abstract problems. Individuals with this interest may enjoy working with numbers, data, and/or computer programs.
One you decide on your top three, you can verify that by gauging how you feel about different tasks and where they belong. You can then observe others and see if you can gain insight into what motivates them.
Having engagement with the job begins with the tasks or activities but if the job becomes stagnant or routine, many people can become disengaged. So, it is important to keep the job challenging so people feel they are learning and deepening their skill set. Once you have the right person for the tasks and you keep them challenged, the other elements of engagement that revolve around external activities such as corporate events, community involvement, team development etc. will be icing on the cake.
