Increasing employee productivity is all about finding work that they engage with.  Employee engagement is becoming an area of increasing significance in today’s modern workforce. According to a Gallop Consulting poll of 47,000 people, it was found that 82% of employees weren’t fully engaged with their role and 61% just did ‘what was necessary’ to do the job.

Hiring and retaining productive and engaged employees is becoming a focus for businesses in a bid to increase the output of their employees and become truly competitive. A thorough recruitment process should be so rock solid that employees who are not fully committed will be weeded out. Many businesses aim to ‘hire for ownership’, which is really about employees ‘owning’ their role and having the responsibility to manage their area as they would if they owned the business themselves. However, if there is ongoing disengagement, individuals really need to question the type of work that will fully engage them.

Just about everyone I know has been stuck in a career rut at one time or another. They consider what they ’really’ want to do with their lives – whether that be to start an online business or retrain as a teacher or write a book. It’s hard to find the right balance between seeking your passion and paying the bills. So how exactly do you do what you love (and get paid for it)?

The first step is really finding what type of work you should be doing. There are various ways to get clear on this. One highly recommended book is ‘Do What You Are’, which really delves into your personality type, how you react to the world around you and how you process information. Based on how you answer the questions, you will be recommended a series of careers that would suit you.

If you want a less ‘practical’ approach, you can just work on determining your passion. Andrew Blackman, writing for envatotuts, suggests that this can be difficult to define. He recommends asking yourself questions such as:

• What did you enjoy doing as a kid?
• What did you secretly dream of doing when you grew up?
• What aspects of your current job or life give you the most pleasure?
• What would you do if you didn’t have to be so responsible all the time?
• List five crazy things you’d like to try doing one day.

So what do you do once you have determined what your passion actually is? Well, at this point, you need a plan. You may not be able to jump into your dream career at a point that sustains you and your family. So here’s some recommendations on planning an approach, from Trent Hamm, in the article: ‘The Myths and Realities of Doing What You Love’, published in ‘The Simple Dollar’:

• Develop your passion through a ‘side hustle’ initially to determine if it is viable
• Keep trying new side gigs (to find the best fit for you)
• Test and learn (what works best and why)

Keeping your passion as a side gig enables you to fail spectacularly (or not) but if you do, there is no negative impact on your ability to generate an income. Many experts argue that you should be spending your time growing your skillset, becoming an expert at providing value to your client base, which will ultimately lead to success.