The next big driver for corporate productivity as identified by a new study by CEB is creation of a “one-company” culture that requires employees to become “enterprise contributors.”

According to the study titled, “The Employee Performance Paradox: Balancing Execution with Impact,” companies those who implemented a “one-company” culture witnessed increase in revenue by $16,400 and profits by $2,500 per employee annually.

“The era of the star individual contributor is over. The most profitable and highest-producing corporations will be those with employees who work cooperatively and are rewarded for doing so,” said Brian Kropp, CEB’s Human Resources Practice Leader.

According to the study, 75 percent of employees report that their company’s culture and practices prevent them from effectively collaborating with others and, therefore, are cutting into profits. Setting up of a one company culture provides incentives for employees to collaborate across divisions and units, such that their work benefits the overall enterprise.

This is a complete shift from the typical corporate practices, wherein highest net worth is placed on individuals who have been consistent key performers, delivering value, but are not necessarily “enterprise contributors” to lead the team.

The study further identified four organisational “paradoxes” that prevent employees from being effective in a collaborative work environment: competition, empowerment, collaboration and motivation. The key for companies is to recognise and overcome these four barriers that hamper corporate productivity efforts.

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You can create a workforce of enterprise contributors only if your organisation could realise and understand ways to manage:

• Competition: To overcome competition among employees who are vying for promotions, pay raises and opportunities, executives should change the way they approach their performance review process to focus more on “competitive” cooperation.
• Empowerment: Employees need to feel empowered at work and this has to be done without undermining their autonomy. It requires that executives look beyond transparency to give employees the context needed to prioritise work efficiently.
• Collaboration: To facilitate development of a collaborative workforce while sticking to deadlines, managers should ensure that the employees not just learn to work efficiently but also address some collaboration challenges during the process. This will make employees feel empowered to manage and tackle the challenges that hamper productivity.
• Motivation: Current financial incentives more often diminish employee morale, confidence and do not provide motivation to help their co-workers and lead productive efforts as a team. HR professionals should begin using non-financial rewards to accelerate growth and improve performance.

Kropp added: “Organizations that break these paradoxes and show employees how to manage the trade-offs will triple the number of enterprise contributors in their workforce and greatly increase productivity.”

To achieve breakthrough performance in the new work environment, employees must demonstrate enterprise contribution—the combination of individual task performance and network performance.

“Getting this right has the potential to unlock the big increase in productivity, companies have been looking for since the technology boom of the 1990s and is particularly important given the increasing complexity and size of companies today.”

Also read: Science Claims Happy Employees are More Productive