In March 2020, when the pandemic started breaking, people turned to baking. While knowledge workers could work from home, bags of flour couldn’t ship themselves. For factory workers at General Mills, one of the world’s largest suppliers of baking goods and other packaged foods, the pressure was on to try to meet soaring demand, amidst a devastating pandemic.
Senior leaders knew they had a difficult road ahead, and HR kept a close eye on employee well-being through pulse surveys. At first, employee well-being looked stable, but by October 2020, there were signs of fatigue. Workers had to work overtime and forego vacation to meet crazy demand, and spirits began to lag. Leadership wanted to do something to help.
At first, leaders thought an extra day off would be appreciated by workers and help increase their well-being. Yet, the pulse surveys showed a strange variation: In some plants people seemed to be doing just fine, while others were really struggling. There was also talk among the HR team about how some people could see a day off as a negative, for example, if they were trying to maximize their overtime to increase their earnings during an uncertain time.
The HR team had recently participated in a workshop with the NeuroLeadership Institute, and learned, in particular, about the motivational power of a sense of autonomy. Autonomy is a feeling of having control in a situation. We feel an increase in autonomy when we’re given a choice we didn’t think we’d have, and this experience activates a strong reward network in the brain.
As it turns out, autonomy is a gift that keeps on giving, at four different points. When we discover we are given a choice, this activates the reward network. Then, anticipating that choice, reward activation also increases. When we make the choice, it is rewarding, and when we enjoy the choice, it is also rewarding. On top of this, it turns out that unexpected rewards, such as being given a choice you didn’t think you would be given, are even stronger than expected rewards.
With this research in mind, the HR team at General Mills rolled out a unique strategy, something they had never tried before. To maximize the impact of giving something back to help employees, they decided to bake in choice.
Enter the Gift of Choice
On January 7, 2021, General Mills rolled out the Gift of Choice to around 10,000 workers in its North America manufacturing plants. The initiative centered around giving workers three choices. Employees could choose to:
- Take an extra paid day off on the day of their choice
- Receive a $250 bonus, or
- Direct the donation of $250 to a charity of their choice.
The first lesson from the data was that people really valued being given autonomy, mirroring what the research suggested. Initiatives like this one communicated via email usually get around 30% participation. Before the launch, the HR team set a stretch goal of 50%. By the time the survey concluded, approximately 85% of 10,000 plant workers had taken the survey and made their selection. “We were delighted with the engagement. It really demonstrated that the extra effort to make this happen was worth it!” explained Kristina Morton, Supply Chain HR VP at General Mills.
The excitement over the initiative was palpable throughout the organization. The unions embraced the idea, and excited employees could be heard discussing the merits of their choices. Workers that weren’t familiar with their work emails sought help so they could make their selection. The Gift of Choice became a hot topic among the plant workers. And perhaps nothing illustrates the enthusiasm more than a worker who had been with the company for 30 years: “What a wonderful surprise! I'm still in shock!”
The next big insight was in the choices people made. When choosing between dollars, a day off or a donation, 59% chose the day off, while 39% chose the dollars, and continued to work. About 2%, or 120 workers, decided to donate the funds to non-profits. As a General Mills Plant HR manager explained, “Over the entire course of the pandemic, this is the best surprise and delight action we’ve done! Employees really appreciated the choice of options. Not only do they feel like they have a choice, but they also feel like they have a voice that is being heard in terms of what is most important to each of them right now.”
Imagine someone who was trying to maximize their earnings being told they were given an extra day off. Instead of the desired positive motivation, they would have been annoyed. Compare this to making the choice they want, then enjoying it over time. The gap between the negative and positive is quite wide. Now consider what would have happened if the company had chosen for people, perhaps just giving them the day off. Something around 39% of people, nearly 4000 employees, would have been far less motivated. This is the power of autonomy: activating positive motivation, over time, while also reducing negative experiences.
So, what’s next for the General Mills HR team? In short, they are going to continue down the path they have started on, following the science, experimenting, and leveraging the data, across other areas of HR. “The science really gave us confidence to test out this idea. And we are excited about what we are learning! We are now bringing similar concepts into our recognition and retention efforts,” explained Kristina Morton.
It turns out that baking in choice can have surprisingly large benefits, especially if it is unexpected. The big question now is, where can your organization work harder to give people a choice? While perhaps not as delicious as fresh sourdough or banana bread, science strongly suggests that giving people unexpected choices can maximize the impact of any talent strategy. Perhaps as you think about the right hybrid workplace strategy, we should all be considering providing employees with more autonomy than they are expecting.
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May 20, 2021 at 09:38PM
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Baking In Choice: How General Mills Harnessed The Power Of Unexpected Autonomy To Boost Morale - Forbes
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