Engaging For Success - Enhancing Performance Through Employee Engagement

Managing modern-day uncertainty and navigating the changing world of work requires behavioral skills over teachable technical capabilities, CoachHub’s?Global HR study?found.

It’s no wonder. Just look at the forces affecting people inside and outside of the modern-day office. The global coronavirus pandemic completely?altered how we work.

People had to learn new ways of communicating, collaborating and leading. While some companies are pushing a return to in-person work,?a majority of employees?have shown preference for remote or — at minimum —??hybrid work.

Without good leadership and employee engagement, those negative factors can hamper performance or worse: lead to “quiet quitting” or voluntary departures.

Many employees are drifting from their organizations – even when they are not actually leaving. Only 1 in 4 employees strongly agree they feel connected to their culture and only 1 in 3 strongly agree that they belong at their organization. But organizations can reel them back in.

We all intuitively know that there is a link between leadership and culture. Leadership has a?significant impact on the morale?and feelings of employees. We also know that leadership drives?retention. As the?cornerstone of engagement?- everything else depends on it.

To build the right workforce for the future and leverage its capabilities, leaders must take a human-centered approach to building their employee experience and employer brand. It starts by demonstrating to employees that you value them by recognizing their contributions.

Job candidates and employees want to know employers value their work enough to invest in their development.

They are looking for organizations that offer them learning opportunities. Nearly 70% of workers would stay in their jobs if there were more opportunities to upskill, according to the University of Phoenix's Career Optimism Index 2022.??

Employers, according to the index, say there are many barriers to providing Learning & Development. But they should at least understand what can be done.

When organizations get employee experience right and prioritize the relationship with engagement and performance, they can achieve twice the customer satisfaction and innovation and generate on average, 25% higher profits

It's about how we create the conditions in which employees offer more of their capability and potential.

Access to learning and development could provide those conditions.

It may mean providing employees with access to higher education through tuition reimbursement or external certificate programs and courses.?

Ideally, the employer offers its own learning and development program that includes a range of courses related to employees' jobs but also allows them to?gain new skills for the future to manage future uncertainty.?

Reskilling and retraining people in a world of greater uncertainty will continue as a priority for employee engagement. With half of all mid-sized enterprises planning a restructure, it’s likely that next year will be more about delivering change than adapting to it.

There are certain aspects of engagement that seem to explain the difference between the best and worst organizations. In particular, differentiating elements appear to be: communication (especially senior management having a clear vision of the organization and this being expressed to staff, enabling them to understand how their role fitted into the bigger picture.

Providing staff with feedback on their performance and listening to their concerns; giving staff autonomy and control, by allowing them the opportunity to show initiative and input into their own job plans; and having confidence in the senior management team and in their concern for the employee.

This emphasis on good leadership and management as a crucial enabler of employee engagement recurs in the work of Beverly Alimo-Metcalfe, Professor of Leadership at Bradford University. Metcalfe has carried out a three-year longitudinal study of 46 mental health teams working in the NHS.

Her study indicated that a culture of engagement predicted performance, and was more important than other variables including competence: “We were able to provide evidence that engaging leadership does, in fact, predict productivity. This style of leadership increases employees’ motivation, job satisfaction and commitment while reducing job-related stress.

Benefits for the Individual

Engagement also brings a clear win for the individual employee.

Because it is achieved by making changes that positively impact how employees think and feel about what they experience at work, it is likely to impact positively on their well-being too.

People often feel stuck when faced with unexpected change, disruption and volatility.

To embrace unfamiliarity and make change possible, people must learn skills like agility, resilience and confidence. Additionally, managers must often adopt different management styles, understand cultural transformation and elevate their empathy.

Employees who work for an engaging organization say they feel proud to work for managers who are more likely to listen and care for them, leaders who listen to and inspire them, and that provide more opportunities for personal growth.

They are likely to perceive the deal they get from their employer as positive, and they get lower levels of stress and a better work-life balance.

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