Lone workers

/ 01 July 2010

Treating employees as individuals

Think of a time when you were motivated at work. Why were you there? What kept you there? What rewards, beyond the end of month payday, made you commit your time and resources to that organisation? Now take those answers and apply them to your neighbour. Would those same answers apply to them in exactly the same way as they do to you? How about a colleague in a different team? Office? Country?

We are all different, we learn differently, we process information differently and yet many organisations have a single way to train, a single way to motivate and a single way to reward.

Workforce of One presents the case for a more customised approach to human resources. The central premise is that the way an organisation rewards its workers should be as customised as their approach to dealing with customers, and the idea is augmented by examples of organisations that have taken a more flexible line on pay, reward and motivation than the traditional school of thought.

While clearly a book steeped deeply in human resources and aimed predominantly at HR professionals, there is enough here to still make it accessible. If you are an HR executive or senior manager then this book is ideal. If you do not work in the field or have limited experience then it could, at times, be too specialised in comparison to other books that discuss motivation, training and reward structures.

Both authors use their experience working for Accenture to bring case studies, real world examples and anecdotes to life. Citing Microsoft, Tesco, Best Buy and others support the case for a more personalised way of dealing with human resources to be justified beyond that of simple opinion. The presence of data from 557 employee surveys in the US also illustrates the simplicity and veracity of the argument.

Reviewed by Stuart Burrell

Harvard Business Publishing