Employment vs Enrolment

Employment thinking is the phrase I've started using to describe the set of beliefs and assumptions that most Business Owners, HR Leaders, Recruiters and hiring managers don't even realise they have, that lay the foundations for all our people practices.

It's based on scientific management philosophy from the industrial era. Back when jobs were about manual labour, tasks, efficiency, hours worked, and specific skills repeated over and over.

When IP was safe for decades and value was created by making more widgets for less money. Jobs were for life, your manager knew what you did and you got all your human connection, sense of self-worth and validation from your family and community, not your work. 

The principles are command and control, the goal is to reduce work to the smallest possible parts so it doesn't matter who does it, cogs in wheels are replaceable. 

Fast forward to 2025.

While we say things lie we care about 'employee engagement' and 'culture' and we do the bare minimum when it comes to offering flexibility and 'perks' in an effort to 'make people happy' the truth is that behind closed doors most people still roll their eyes and think all that is unnecessary and people should be grateful to have a job and should be prepared to 'go above and beyond' for the privilege.

The trouble is, everything has changed.

Not only what great people want from their jobs, but also what small businesses need from their people and the entire landscape of 'business as usual'.

You need emotional intelligence, good judgement, critical thinking, resilience, a growth mindset, great communication, quick learners and discretionary effort.

You need people to think on their feet, be creative to solve problems, be innovative when pivots are required and to be nimble because things change so fast these days.

The other thing is, you often won't know how to do what the person you're hiring needs to do for you, so there needs to be a lot of clarity on deliverables not so much on tasks, and there needs to be a ton of trust. that dynamic doesn't come from command and control, it comes from more of a 'partnership' style relationship.

The other tricky thing is that because of this change in the nature of work we need to approach the way we create jobs, structure compensation and importantly, the way we advertise and recruit for these positions. 

Because what motivates and incentivises people to do manual labour does not motivate and incentivise them for 'knowledge work'.

Wow right?! 

Which is why so many business Owners are tearing out their hair saying thing like 'You can't find good people anymore' and 'Nobody wants to work'.

Because when you use 'employment thinking' practices when you're creating a job, hiring somebody or even managing them, psychologically you're actually switching off intrinsic motivation!!! 

So, to fix that we want to adjust our perspectives on the world of work.

We need to look at the work of work in 2025 and realise that if we need to get something different from our people, we have to do it in a different way.

Enrolment thinking is about collaboration, it's about emotional buy-in and philosophical alignment.

It's recognising that you don't just want somebody to be transactionally 'employed' you actually want them to be emotionally committed to achieving the goals they're responsible for that help you turn your vision into a reality. You want them to help you create a transformation.

Enrolment practices are being clear about what you need to achieve and why it matters, then creating a campaign that paints a picture for people so when they see the position advertised they say "OMG that's me!" and they start to imagine themselves working in this role.

This approach is designed to turn on intrinsic motivation.

So. if you're happy with just having people punch the clock and do what's on their job description, cool, employment is fine.

But if you really want a team of people who are all great at what they do, working together to achieve exponential results, then enrolment is the way to go.