Typically, there are two levels of employee expectations in an organisation. The first level is set out in the employee contract, rules, procedures and job descriptions. The second level of employee expectations is less concrete. These are the implicit expectations that are part of the psychological contract between employer and employee. Examples are loyalty, respect and job security. It is these often unspoken expectations that when breached can cause an employee to be demotivated and, even worse, go work for the competitor.Unpspoken employee expectations can cause havoc in organizations because they create fuzzy expectations. In his The Coach Is In column in the Washington Post, Marshall Brown aptly refers to this practice as managing by "mental telepathy." The result, says Brown, is "hesitation, indecision and uncertainty," which ultimately negatively impacts productivity and performance.
Brown provides some good pointers on how to set clear expectations. Notably, expectation setting is a two-way communication process between employer and employee, notes Brown—when developing the vision, deciding on how to get there and giving feedback. Equally important is for an employee to be able to make and see progress. This requires setting benchmarks and performance measurements.
There is a darker side to employees under performing due to a lack of clear expectations, and that is employees working over capacity to fulfill undefined expectations. A disconcerting trend mentioned in previous blogs is Americans who are not taking refreshing and productivity enhancing vacations. Now the Randstad reports that 40 percent of UK workers believe that their workloads do not allow them to take a break. Sixty seven percent of these workers report increasing workloads.
