How to define employee engagement.

We hear engagement, engagement, engagement all the time, and esp. since Covid forced employees to exist, collaborate, and produce in a virtual workplace.

So…what “IS” engagement? Intellectually, we understand it involves people doing their best work. Easy to say this, but engagement seems difficult to define, much less MEASURE. Or is it?!? I mean, we know that engaged employees are more productive, and perform at a higher level. But what does it look like when employees are engaged?

Daniel Pink’s 5 measures of autonomy are a great place to start, as we know that people who feel they have control over their work and the work is meaningful to them shine. According to Pink, autonomy entails employees deciding what they work on, how they perform their jobs, who they do it with, where they get their work done, and when they work on what they work on.

BUT…this requires organizations to give up their control, empower their people and hire people who possess a key characteristic of being intrinsically self-motivated. In short, they’re driven. Then, the work they do needs to engage (challenge) them. As Hungarian sociologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi said this entails employees being in “flow” – when the work they do challenges all of their capabilities AND is aligned to their passions/interests/strengths, AND there is a high probability of ‘failure’.?

But there are so many other obvious yet often overlooked signs of employee engagement, namely:

·????????They volunteer for projects.

·????????They ask for additional responsibilities.

·????????They pursue additional skills through training, certifications/accreditations, courses, and continuing professional education.

·????????They join your employee resource/interest groups.

·????????They willingly participate as your organization VIP/brand ambassadors to speak well of the organization.

·????????They refer other top talent to their employer.

·????????They get involved in your organization’s community engagement efforts by volunteering.

·????????They offer to participate in your coaching, mentoring, and sponsorship programs.

·????????They come up with ideas on new products and services to increase revenues, and find ways to improve your organization’s processes, procedures to increase its efficiency, reduce costs, and increase overall profitability; and

·????????THEY STAY WITH YOU THROUGH THE GOOD TIMES AND THE BAD.

Understanding all this, how does your organization define, communicate, identify, evaluate, promote, reward, and recognize your people’s engagement?

Ethan L. Chazin, MBA

The Chazin Group, LLC