Business Performance Improvement Stymied by Low Passion, Finds Deloitte

 Deloitte’s Unlocking Passion of the Explorer survey revealed that not only do organizations need to hire workers with passion for their jobs in order to improve performance, but that just 11 percent of workers possess those attributes necessary for reaching accelerated learning and performance improvement. Deloitte reports that return on investments (ROI) in the U.S. have been declining for nearly the past half century even as labor productivity has increased. The data collected for the survey found that traditional corporate responses for improving ROI, such as reducing costs and demanding more productivity out of workers through harder work, is not a sustainable, long-term solution.

Instead of recruiting for particular skill sets, concludes Deloitte, which typically become outdated within five years, organizations should recruit passionate people and inspire passion in their current workforce. Passionate workers tend to learn new skills and improve performance at a rapid pace, and outdated organizational practices and structures are to blame for the lack of passionate “explorers.” To the contrary, Deloitte has found that many organizations actually stifle passion through outmoded practices.

“CEOs are struggling mightily to position their organizations within the hypercompetitive global economy, but instead of simply squeezing harder on costs, they should take a step back and reconsider exactly how they are pursuing their mission,” said John Hagel, director, Deloitte Consulting LLP and co-chairman, Center for the Edge. “Unleashing the passion that is latent within existing employees is a long-term solution versus narrowly focusing on just recruiting passionate people. Passionate people will naturally drive their organization to the next level and set up their employer for longer-term success.”