5 'P' Dimension to Employee Engagement!

We are all privy to importance of being engaged at our respective workplace. In life of a working professional, no one day is same as the other – there are good days, great days, painful days, excruciating days, delightful days or just plain and simple days. While through our job(s) we all go through emotional linearity, highs and lows across these different days; however there is a constant that connects them all – that is the skills, abilities we display and performance we bring forth in our job! Our skills and abilities are at work in every task and responsibility we fulfil and we test our potential each day to deliver the goals we envision or entrusted upon us.

Hence an engaging experience has PERFORMANCE at its core!.. Getting to do the best job is the best way to engage – a belief personified by my senior and mentor at work and I indisputably resonate with!

With performance of every individual at the core – every organization leverages 4 other 'P' to augment the core and failure in even one of them is the weakest link in the chain of employee engagement. Just as individual performance is unique and so is the interpretive value of the four P supporting it. The idea is to inspire individuals to understand this alignment amongst the 5 P and for them to individually evaluate the weakest link to re-calibrate it from time to time.

1.     Personality – this is the most elemental, unique, individual criteria that represents the “person to job” fit and is the starting point that paves the way for an individual’s engaging career. For an organization, a diverse and inclusive culture empowers multiple personalities to work together and offers employees an opportunity to keep calibrating their competence (skills, knowledge, traits etc) to work together cohesively and with trust.

2.     People – This “P” represents the team, colleagues, stakeholders, managers and leaders, every employee is working with. An employee delivers expected performance on job not only with individual capabilities but also team efforts – catalysed by colleague’s help, manager’s mentoring, leader who is also a sponsor, an appreciative stakeholder or customer. It is imperative for organizations to nurture a reciprocal culture where network relations are strengthened and people find value in collaborating and working closely with each other.

3.     Plan – for want of keeping a “P “ word - It represents the organizational structure, policies, systems, overarching blueprint that enable employees, to work stress free and bring their authentic self to work. This also means opportunity for individuals to inquire, learn, innovate, be participative in organizational change initiatives that makes the blueprint more relevant to the times.

4.     Purpose – the first “P” amongst equals. It represents organization’s vision and values. It offers brand value proposition that promises to pass on structural advantage to employees or even prospective employees to envision their careers within. Pride in one’s organization’s purpose is like a tiny spark to start a raging fire of value added performance. Imagine the heights of engagement when there is alliance of individual life purpose to the organizational purpose!