You Mean “ID” is Not Just About Sex & Money?

May 6th was Sigmund Freud’s Birthday. Why is this of note to me?

1. I was a psych major in college and given my HUGE crazy family, I thought I wanted to become a psychologist most of my life (you know - ages 7-22). But life as a rule doesn’t go the way that you expect it to.

2. Being involved in interactive recruitment marketing is a match for me because it is a constant study of personality and human motivation combined with technology (and I am a total geek).

What messages will effectively pique the interest of a person and make them want to explore and hopefully consider a company as a potential employer? It seems a lot like dating actually. But back to Freud. Siggy was one of the first to really lay down a theory of human personality and human motivation. As a woman and rational human being, I have had my differences with his sex-driven theories for years. I recently heard an interview (listen here) replayed in honor of the “psycho” analyst’s birthday on NPR (and you know how I love NPR). The segment featured Freud’s granddaughter, Sophie Freud. Apparently, Sophie got into the family biz as well, and in the interview she discussed her major departure from Grandpa’s theory. Sophie felt that grandpa’s theory was extremely “indulgent” and particularly doesn’t believe that we are all motviated by sex. Good thing - as I am not sure how well the “Come work for us because we make you think of sex” messaging would go over in recruitment advertising anyway.

Sophie feels that our main personality driver is the need to save-face, be respected, and be made to feel valuable. Coincidentally, Career Builders blog posted a bit ago about a topic that centers on human motivation and work. The info originally came from a post on The Happiness Institute’s weblog where in a recent survey they found that more than half of all American workers are either looking for a job or are open to other offers.According to the study - one of the most common reasons people look to leave their place of work is because they feel “undervalued”. The KEY to keeping employees at their jobs depends on how well employers engage them and promote their development. The top five factors identified in the study that help keep people in their current jobs are:

1. Having opportunities to learn.

2. Working for a company with a reputation as a good employer

3. Having pay set fairly

4. Having a manager who understands them

5. Working in a company that retains high caliber people in general

I have to say that this assessment speaks to me. I brought this post up to a friend in my biz whose response was - “yeah, but employers just don’t care about any of that”. I have actually found through working with a very select few of my clients, that there are some employers that obviously do care about “all of that”. These are the messages that they emphasize in their recruitment marketing - but MOST IMPORTANTLY - it immediately shows in their employees’ overall happiness with their job, the company’s reputation as an employer - and most importantly - their bottom line.

So tell me - where IS the disconnect between the majority of the “just not giving a crap companies” and the minority of that are the “great companies to work for”?