It’s notoriously hard to motivate people who work in repetitive or routine administrative or blue collar jobs. Adam Grant, management professor at the Wharton School of Business, however, has done some research which perhaps makes the task a tad easier.

Knowledge@Wharton reports on a series of experiments by Grant, all linked to the idea that if you have the opportunity to meet, face-to-face, with at least a sample of the people who ultimately benefit from the work you do, your performance level will rise.

• In a fundraising call center, reps who had met a few of the recipients of the funds were more persistent, spending significantly more time on the phone, and secured significantly more donation money.
• Lifeguards who read case studies of people whose lives had been saved by the actions of other lifeguards increased the hours worked and were rated higher by their supervisors on helping behavior.
• Individuals at a Career Center editing the resumés of job seekers, if they had even just a brief chat with the applicants, spent much more time on the task.

Adam Grant summarizes the results: Employees who know, first hand, how their work impacts others in a positive and meaningful way are happier than those who don’t and are vastly more productive.

He goes on to point out that this dynamic holds equally for employees whose work product serves internal “customers” (end users).

Think of your work flow and administration processes in your organization. Food for thought…