How to maximise employee engagement – key things you might not have been told !

How to maximise employee engagement – key things you might not have been told !

Probably everyone has heard the phrase “employee?engagement”, but for many who have, unless they are in HR, few will know exactly what it is, why it’s important and that every leader needs to make it happen to so they, their team and organisation more successful.

As a?leader,?it is your route to success. HR can support you but, in the end, it’s about what you do, no one else. In a wider context,?all employers, and senior leaders in particular,?need to pay more attention to organisational and team engagement. Each?year?if possible conduct?employee?engagement?surveys?to make?sure?employees?are having a?great?employee experience. Because if they aren’t they won’t be performing well and may be thinking of leaving.

Engaging your?people?is how you maximise your potential to achieve real success for any?organisation?set against any?important factors?you care to mention, from customer?experience?to risk management and high performance to innovation.

This isn’t some soft fluffy idea about being nice to?people?this is a proven evidence-based organisational strategy for success and maximised return on investment.

Having an?employee?engagement?strategy?will enhance?employee?experience, boost employee satisfaction and thus build an?engaged?workforce. That is one of the?best?ways?to minimise employee turnover, increase?quality of?work?and boost morale across the?entire?organization.

But also a?great way?to grow positive?core values?and?company?culture?which then enhances the?organisation’s?success long term.????

Certainly, anyone in senior leadership roles needs to understand in detail what?employee?engagement?is and how to optimise it within their area of responsibility.

At C suite?employee?engagement?is not just a responsibility of HR, it’s the strategic responsibility of everybody at senior level to role model it and to support it. In particular, the CFO, as it will maximise the return on investment from human capital.

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What is?employee?engagement?

There are numerous technical definitions of?employee?engagement?but to keep it simple and practical you can say that “engaged”?employees?are?people?who are genuinely giving their best at?work.

Thus when you see a figure for?employee?engagement?in an?employee?engagement?survey?this is the percentage of?employees?in the?organisation?who are doing that.?Employee?engagement?is the process by which?organisations?seek to get more of their?employees?engaged and thus giving their best.

It is worth mentioning “discretionary effort” here. This is effectively the amount of effort an individual can withhold but it is unlikely to be identified that they are doing so via performance management. In other words, they will be rated as performing satisfactorily but yet there could be up to 30% extra effort they could give if they were engaged. It is this the additional effort?employee?engagement?is seeking to gain to maximise organisational performance.

Why do all?leaders?need to know about employee engagement ?

Just reflect on the potential impact of a significant proportion of an?organisation’s?employees?giving 30% more effort. Better?employee?engagement?will enable any?organisation?doing anything anywhere to be more effective and successful. But it is individual?leaders?above all who have to make it happen. Simply because the vast majority of factors which influence how engaged?people?are relate directly to the behaviour of their boss.

In the final analysis no matter what senior?leaders?are doing, no matter what HR is doing, if the employee’s own boss is not taking day-to-day action to engage them then it just won’t happen.

The Corporate Executive Board in a study of over 30,000?employees?across the world found that?of the top 20 drivers of?employee?effort 17 were actions that individuals’ bosses needed to take ?and the other three of which were not, in terms of importance, ranked less important than 15th. (Refer to page 13). This is why it is vital every?leader?understands?employee?engagement?and how to make it happen.

Those actions which increase our?engagement?do so not because of the?job?that we do but because we are human. So, for example, my report for the King’s Fund on?developing leadership in the NHS to enhance patient care ?submitted to the UK government enhancing?employee?engagement?proposed the same core strategy and actions just as much as when I proposed them as?a key element in enabling better financial performance at UBS ?and transformation at London Underground during restructuring. I’ve also helped deliver them in construction, not-for-profit and other sectors. They?work?everywhere. They?work?not because of our?job or the organisation?but because we are human.

Why?employee?engagement? The return on investment

There is a vast resource of data based on studies of all types from?organisations, professional bodies, consultancies, academic institutions, and other sources which show that high employee engagement improves performance in many areas. This vast resource of data confirms that when?employees?are engaged, and therefore giving their best, the positive impacts are not restricted to their own performance but apply to everything from customer service to cost efficiency and operational risk management.

Simple day-to-day?employee?engagement?actions by their boss can significantly boost the effort that individuals give. For example, if your boss does these?things?versus a boss who can’t be bothered then this is the potential extra effort uplift from individuals:

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When you multiply up the impact of all?leaders?taking these actions at a strategic level it has a?significant effect. The UK Government Report,?Engage for Success , for which I was part of the Expert Panel, has many examples and evidence of return on investment from?employee?engagement. One of the most important is that if every?leader?in the?organisation?starts to engage their?people?effectively you could potentially get 30% more effort, the discretionary effort, from 60% of?people.

Depending on business model, margins and other factors that could deliver up to 10% on the bottom line for free. In anybody’s book, in particular a CFOs book, that’s not a bad return on investment.

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Here are a few others:

  • Companies with high?engagement?are 71% more likely to outperform their peers in the sector.?
  • Can produce Earnings per share 2.6 times higher than competitors with low?engagement?(Gallup)
  • Could increase revenue by up to 43% (Hay)
  • Bank branches with high?employee?engagement?achieved 16% high-profit margin growth than those with lower scores (Standard Chartered)?
  • Engagement?can halve days lost through sickness (CBI)

Once, after I spoke on this to a group of CEOs and CFOs on why they need to significantly increase their efforts on?employee?engagement, the CFO of a major telecoms?company?came to me and said “Chris why has nobody told me about this before? This is a no brainer! It’s a license to print money if we get it right!”. It is indeed !

How are we doing on?employee?engagement?

Could be much better. The latest data from?Gallup?would suggest that most European countries have?employee?engagement?rates on average lower than 25%. ?In?addition?potentially with?employees?who are “not engaged” around 50 to 55% with another approximately 20% “disengaged”.?The UK data is even worse. ?Low?employee?engagement?is simply a?long-term?block to future success.

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The fact that these figures are to some degree so dismal should make every?leader?reading this ask why, given how simple it is to improve?employee?engagement, are we languishing at these levels? But the flip side is that it’s a great opportunity for you to take action and get some great easy wins.

Clearly, these are country or region-wide figures and lack the accuracy of?survey results?from an in-house?employee?survey?which is run on a?regular basis but they are a useful indicator.

What’s hidden under the surface you need to know

It is not just the?“engaged”?employee?figure which is important. The “not engaged” and “disengaged” are also very important to be aware of. You have probably never been told about them but this is why you really need to know. You can?work?on the principle that of those who are not in the “engaged” group, ie 100% of employees minus the “engaged” – probably 70 – 80% of this group are “not engaged” and 20- 30% are “disengaged”.

The “not engaged” are sometimes giving their best sometimes not but they are your potential “engaged”, some of whom will move to become that relatively easily with proactive improved leadership from their boss. These are your real target to get greater?engagement, greater performance and greater success. They are your easy win. Within this group are likely to be Quiet Quitters – those not giving their best and also potentially planning to leave when they can.

The?disengaged?employee?is perhaps one of the?biggest challenges, needing a really?good reason?for them to become a?satisfied?employee.

I suspect the “disengaged” is also a problem no one has probably told you about. These are?people?who really don’t care about the?organisation, their?team, their boss and maybe even their colleagues. They will do as little?work?as possible, to the lowest standard acceptable, and generally get away with as much as they can.

You need to have 4 “engaged”?people?to counter the negative impact of every 1 of these disengaged” . So?work?out the maths. If you have potentially 10% “disengaged” in the?organisation?you have to hit 40% “engaged” minimum to counter their impact.??

But it is possible to move them to at least “not engaged”, but maybe even to “engaged” if you find the driver for their disengagement. From?experience,?these aren’t bad?people?it’s just there is an issue of some type. Find that issue and resolve it, and yes, if you do that?I have seen “dis-engaged”?move straight to “engaged” because their boss solved the problem and showed they cared.?

But if they will not?change?then, for the benefit of others, maybe they need to move on, but they must be given the opportunity to?change?first.

Why?employee?engagement?matters – you as a?leader

Proactively taking action to improve the?engagement?of your?people?is probably the best single strategy for any?leader?to improve the performance of not only individual people?but also of their?team?and its contribution to the wider organisation. Engaged people will be inspired, they will help the?team?work?more effectively and that will make your life easier. Not only that but the delivery of greater success by the?team?will demonstrate your success to your boss, to peers and to the wider?organisation.?

So for any?leader,?better?employee?engagement?delivers better performance, positive feedback and potential promotion. Bearing in mind that improving?employee?engagement?can be achieved by simple day-to-day actions which take virtually no time, cost no money, and which you are already doing some of, in terms of a return on investment of your time as a leader it’s about as good an investment that anyone could make.

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Why?employee?engagement?matters – C Suite and the?organisation

If you are in C suite in the?organisation?very much the same principles apply. From the perspective of C-Suite if you know individual?leaders?can achieve a significant uplift in performance through better employee engagement?via simple day-to-day actions then obviously enabling your own?team?and then every?leader?in the?organisation?to do the same makes perfect sense.

So inherently any actions taken by C-Suite to make this happen more widely create a leverage effect across the?organisation. The more levels this happens at, the more places in which it happens, the greater the success it will deliver.

But the criticality of the role of senior?leaders?and C-Suite is not only how they support the improvement of?employee?engagement?through the development of?leaders?and the support that HR gives but it’s also by their own example. We know from?experience, and it’s supported by the evidence, that?people?copy the behaviour of their boss or those perceived to be key influencers within an?organisation.?

So the simple reality is that if C suite is not leading by example on engaging?people?the likelihood of the true potential of the?organisation?being realised is significantly reduced. Not only does an example from the top encourage?leaders?below to do the?right?thing?it also creates a further multiplier effect on the effort which can be encouraged by?people?across the?organisation?as we will see later.

Why?employee?engagement?matters – from reactive to proactive

So I’ve said that better employee engagement delivers a significant positive impact but how does that work? It’s about two key areas, overall effort given, in technical terms giving that “discretionary” effort and moving from reactive to proactive. The potential effort boost has been set out earlier but often little is said about the?change?from reactive to proactive. This leverages the additional effort given into areas where previously it might not have been.?

What’s very powerful from my?experience?is that as the?employee’s?mindset?changes their approach to their?work?becomes a more proactive outward-looking approach which makes a real difference. What do I mean by that? A simple practical example is an?employee?who is “not engaged” may see something going wrong which is not directly their responsibility. They probably won’t say anything to their boss about this unless they are asked specifically, and maybe not even then.?The?“engaged”?employee?however will see what’s going wrong and, even though it might not be their responsibility, will probably tell their boss, or someone else, about it.

Why does this happen? Simply because?people?who are “not engaged” tend to just do their?job?and nothing more, especially if they are “quiet quitters”. However, those who are “engaged” give their best to the?organisation. This inherently means they care about the?organisation?and its success in a context that is wider than just doing their?job. As a result, if they see anything which potentially threatens success, or indeed?things?which could better deliver that success, they are likely to speak out.?

That effect is enhanced further if everyone around them is also engaged. Creating a culture where everyone is proactively giving their best and seeking opportunities for the?organisation?to be more successful, to flourish, will have a significant?positive impact. It’s that “buzz” you can sense in an organisation where it exists. Where?people?are enjoying?work?so much they would never consider leaving. It’s what I call the “We not Me” culture.

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Can better?employee?engagement?help you beat your Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting ?

Great?employee?engagement?will not only help you beat the Great Resignation, and yes it is still out there, but also minimise the loss of your best?people?in the future.?

It’s worth saying briefly that the Great Resignation was driven by three key factors,?

1 – The?change?in perception about the value of life and well-being versus?work?as the result of Covid experiences,?

2 – The resultant lower tolerance level amongst?employees?for low-quality leadership and poor organisational culture,?

3 – The fact that no one had been able to?change?jobs for two years when they wanted to.?

The combination of these three created a perfect storm of people?who wanted to?change?jobs quickly. There was a recorded reduction in?employee?engagement?in 2021 and 2022, set against consistent rises over the previous ten years which demonstrates that something significant happened.?Engagement?clearly fell in the US. ?Thus either?leaders?got worse or the benchmark against which?people?were measuring them increased. More than likely the latter.?

But what were the specifics in the behaviour of?leaders?which drove?people?to leave their jobs? ?The evidence would suggest that it was simple day-to-day issues; they left because they felt their?leader?didn’t care about them, they left because they were being given unreasonable workloads, they left because they could see no future in the?job?either in terms of promotion or longer-term career prospects.

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These drivers continue to cause?employees, especially talent, to leave?organisations, or to stay and Quiet Quit if they can’t leave. So what’s great about better employee engagement is that as well as minimising leaving it’s also likely to minimise Quiet Quitting – those who would leave for the reasons set out if they could but can’t so they stay and minimise their effort until they can.

Where?leaders?proactively engage their?people?via simple actions it will mitigate these risk drivers. The higher?employee?engagement?the more likely the?organisation?will be able to prevent these drivers of departure and from being a constant threat.

A?good example?applies to talent.?Research on?effective?ways?to keep your talent shows good?employee?engagement?boosts retention, especially amongst talent, reducing it by 87% versus low-engagement?organisations. Ref page 2.

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Can better?employee?engagement?improve remote working??

First of all, it’s worth restating that only somewhere in the region of 30% of?people?can remote?work, everybody else has to do their?job?where the?job?needs to be done. So whilst a lot of attention has been focused on hybrid working it only applies to a minority of?employees. This is worth bearing in mind when considering the overall larger?employee?engagement?picture.?

The evidence from the Covid remote working?experience?shows that those working remotely, if supported effectively by their boss and the?organisation, can improve performance, deliver their?best?work?and have better well-being. If?employees?are engaged it is likely they will be more engaged in both the workplace and when working remotely. And there are situations where remote working can be preferable.

Certainly where the?work?being done requires peace and quiet to enable full concentration, or to enable individual creativity, doing so remotely works significantly better than in a busy distracting office environment. Being distracted from?work?can cause you to take 25 minutes to get back to full concentration.?

But Covid remote working also showed that if remote?work?is not structured and supported by the individual’s boss this can lead to overwork, disconnection from the?team?and the?organisation?and in some cases even mental health problems. Lack of?regular feedback?was a feature here, the?bare minimum?is not enough for?remote?employees.

So when?employees?are remote working actions to engage by their boss are as important if not more so than when in the?workplace. That said with careful planning of the balance between remote and in-office?work, which hybrid offers, many of these issues should be addressed.?

It’s also worth noting here that when?people?state that they would much rather?work?at home than in the office that is not necessarily either an implication that they do genuinely want to spend more time at home or that they don’t like being in the office. There are other considerations that?people?bear in mind, for example, a study by Kings College London found that only 15% of?people?said they wouldn’t?work?in the office but?over 60% said that the reason they didn’t want to was the time and cost of travelling to do so. ?That factored into 80% saying the top benefit of working from home was avoiding travel, higher than the 66% who quoted family responsibility flexibility.?

These nuances mean that?leaders?must talk with their?people?to understand the optimum way of working and how individuals need to be engaged to give their best both in and out of the office. Thus for hybrid working to be optimised and?engagement?maximised it’s not about overarching fixed organisational rules, ie everyone one in the office 2 days a week, applied to all, but about tailoring by line?managers. In so doing these conversations and actions will boost?engagement. Tailoring should focus on :

  1. Individual’s needs and wishes
  2. The make-up of their?work?within the role
  3. The need for face-to-face?team?interaction and collaboration to deliver objectives?
  4. The need to ensure the?organisation’s?vision, values and culture are embedded at all levels.

This is effectively good?employee?engagement. While C-Suite and HR can provide examples and guidance, in the final analysis, this is the responsibility of the individual’s boss to make this happen and in that way optimise the hybrid equation. But they need organisational support in doing so.

How to maximise?employee?engagement

1. Get your task management slick

This will probably be the first time that you have ever seen task management?skills?quoted in relation to?employee?engagement. And that’s one of the problems as to why?employee?engagement?might not be as good as it should be in our?organisations, simply because this critical factor is often totally ignored.

You need to have the bandwidth to do your own tasks and engage your?people?as well. If your own task management?skills?aren’t slick you might have trouble finding time to engage your?people.?

So what are task management?skills? These are simple basic?skills?that enable you and the?team?to get what needs to be done as quickly and effectively as possible within the time and resources that you have. They are:

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  • Prioritisation??are you focusing on the?work?which supports the achievement of strategic objectives and has a clear purpose ??
  • Time management?– are you delivering that?work?as effectively as possible using time management and simple planning?tools?
  • Delegation?– if you are a?leader?are you delegating effectively ?to ensure other?people?can do what they can do and you do what only you can do? Good delegation is a key?engagement?driver.?
  • Communication?–?are you communicating effectively ? Is communication open so other?people understand what you are doing, what needs to be done, and their role in that as concisely and clearly as possible so that there is no doubt in their mind? Are you also helping them understand the?bigger picture?so that if the first plan fails they can adapt appropriately to still deliver? Are you also answering the ” what’s in it for me?” question? All these boost engagement.?
  • Giving feedback?–?are you able to give other?people?constructive feedback ?on what they are doing, or have done, in a way that enables them to know how they are doing, engages them, shows how they can potentially get better and motivates them to do so? Again a key?engagement?driver.

I am regularly told by?people?that it’s quite clear from the actions of their boss that the boss is more focused on the task than on them, especially if they have asked for help and not received it. They quickly assume that their boss doesn’t care about them. That might not be correct but if it’s the perception they develop you can be sure this individual is unlikely to be engaged, giving their best for that boss, and maybe they could be thinking of leaving.

Having seen these situations on many occasions it’s rarely that the boss doesn’t care it’s just that their task management?skills?are lacking and they are frantically trying to stay on top of the?job?so it doesn’t go wrong. That’s not just my supposition based on the evidence of what I have seen over 35 years in leadership it’s also borne out by a number of studies. But it’s also borne out by what?leaders?tell me, and what you have probably seen over your career.?

There is a real task management skill shortage in?organisations. Every time I speak to a group of?leaders?I always ask them the simple question “how many of you in this room have, at any point in time in your?career, ever been given any formalised training or development in how to delegate effectively?” In 10 years, other than for military and emergency service audiences, no audience has more than 20 to 25% indicated they had been trained to delegate effectively. Have you??

At one leadership conference, only 8 of over 600 raised their hands. If it’s a critical part of the leader’s day-to-day role to delegate then if 75% of?leaders?have not been taught how to do so effectively it begs question what’s the impact of this? If they had how much difference could it make? If I have time when speaking I run a very simple exercise that takes less than 5 minutes in which I discover if those in the room could delegate more effectively and what benefit would accrue.

The results are quite staggering, within those 5 minutes on average in any audience the vast majority will have discovered they have an extra half working day a week of time. Think of someone who has been a?leader?for 20 years, how much more time could they have spent engaging their?people?if they had been taught to delegate effectively from their first leadership role? But the good news for them is that now they have the way to get that extra time then from now on they can use it to proactively engage their?people?so that everyone wants to give their best.

Many leadership experts and speakers will just give you a list of?things?to do to engage?people. The problem is that the list is useless if you don’t have time to do them. That’s why this Firm Foundation is so critical to?employee?engagement. You need to self-assess whether your Firm Foundation is in place to give you time to take the simple actions to engage. If not take action to ensure it is !

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2. Simple actions to engage and get the best

What is strange for me writing an article on how to maximise?employee?engagement?is that most leaders know how to engage their?people?well but don’t realise they know! You already know how to get the best from?people?even if you have only just taken up your first leadership role. That’s because most of us at some point in our career will have had a boss who genuinely inspired us, who made us want to get up and go to?work, who made us happy at?work?which helped make us happy out of?work. We remember how great that felt. We need to do the same for our?people.

So we need to reflect on what that very special boss did day-to-day that made them so special and which then made us give our best. Yes, there are many places where you can get a list of?things?you need to do to get the best from?people?and boost?employee?engagement. But why use somebody else’s list when, within your?experience, you have your own list of actions that you know personally inspired you and will therefore probably inspire others as well? You will implement your list which resonates with you much better than someone else’s which doesn’t.?

How do you do that? Just by simply reflecting on what that special boss did day-to-day that was different from other bosses and just writing it down. You should get a list of 10 to 14 simple day-to-day actions that helped encourage you to give your best. If you do more of each of these with your?people?you will get the best from them, making them engaged?employees?and building a?great?team. Here are a few which always come up:

  • Set realistic but challenging targets?
  • Kept me informed about what was going on
  • Let me get on with?things?and didn’t interfere – empowered me.?
  • Developed my?skills?and career
  • Praised me and encouraged me

Build your list and use it as a simple action plan for what to do more of.?These simple actions which build?trust?can significantly increase the?emotional connection?employees?have for their boss , and emotional commitment significantly increases effort and performance.

If you want to take your courage into your hands you can ask your?team. Tell them that you want to grow and develop and to be a more effective?leader?for them. Ask them what they think you’re doing well, what you should do more of, what you should do less of, how can you help them be better, and how they think you could be better. For a?team?member,?there is really no greater demonstration of?trust?by their boss than when that boss genuinely asks them for feedback on how they can be a better boss.

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3. Alignment is vital –?engagement?isn’t enough!

The problem with most writing on?employee?engagement?which purports to set out a road map to successfully implement it is that it leaves out the final step. This step is not technically “employee engagement” but it ensures that?employee?engagement?is successful in terms of maximising the performance of the?organisation and that it delivers a maximum return on investment for the time you spend engaging your?people.?

This links back to the point made about prioritising earlier –?are you focusing on the?work?which supports the achievement of strategic objectives and has a clear purpose ? We’ve all heard the phrase “busy doing nothing”. That can be applied to unfocused?employee?engagement. The purpose of employee engagement is to engage?employees?so they give their best but that doesn’t answer the question give their best to do what??

As we have all seen from our?experience?it is perfectly possible for individuals or a?team?to spend a lot of time focusing effort on something which doesn’t really make any difference at all to the success of the?organisation. The cause of this is often a failure to align operational activity to strategic objectives. So it’s critical to ensure that the great extra effort?people?are giving when they become engaged is accurately focused on delivering what supports the achievement of strategic objectives.?

Leaders?at all levels from C-Suite down must make sure that there is an effective line of sight between the objectives set for departments,?teams, and even individuals through to the delivery of strategic objectives. And that is aided by the fact that a critical part of?employee?engagement?is to enable?employees?to understand their role in the big picture as this delivers both greater effort and alignment.

So the final step in successful?employee?engagement?is alignment of effort on to strategic objectives with everyone understanding the big picture.

Boosting?employee?engagement?– The C suite

If you are C suite you have 3 roles in?employee?engagement. First, your role as the boss of your direct reports, second your role as a strategic influencer in your?organisation?and third being responsible for setting up the support systems in both line management and HR that enable?leaders?at all levels to engage their?people?to get the best from them.?

As a boss,?you need to consider using those simple day-to-day actions which any?leader?needs to take to engage their?people?as you discovered in your list.?

As a strategic?leader,?people?watch your example and will copy it, so you have a perfect opportunity to role model the behaviour that you expect every other?leader?in the?organisation?to demonstrate to engage their?people. In addition it is you who can ensure an effective system is in place to help line managers maximise their ability to engage their people.

But it’s also worth noting that the actions of strategic?leaders?can have a multiplier effect on the impact of the actions taken by individual bosses across the?organisation.

These actions create an overarching culture of?engagement?across the organisation which people observe in addition?to what they see in their?team. The result has what I describe as a double engagement effect. Does it make a difference? Evidence from Corporate Executive Board would suggest that actions focused on the following by C suite or senior?leaders?have multiplier effects on?employee?effort as follows:

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Boosting?employee?engagement?– as a colleague

Even as a colleague you can play an essential role in?employee?engagement?because whilst the main influencer of positive?employee?engagement?is everyone’s boss those who?work?with you, be that in the?team, or your peers, or elsewhere in the?organisation, are influenced by you and they influence you.?

So you can play your role in boosting?employee?engagement?across the?organisation?by simply doing the same?things?which everyone’s boss should be doing, eg support, engage, develop, and?work?collaboration with your colleagues. As a colleague, there is no reason why you cannot support and help your colleagues develop, why you can’t show genuine interest in them, why you can’t ask them for their ideas, why you can’t help them understand the big picture through what you do.?

Doing every single one of these?things?will help you engage your colleagues positively via a very simple and proven psychological response called reciprocation. They will then do the same for you.

Employee?engagement?– the ripples impact everywhere

If you can get?people?more engaged using these simple?powerful steps?so that they are giving their best it will have a?major impact,?and not just at?the personal level in terms of their?job. In?addition,?they will care about the success of the?organisation, they will be looking out for opportunities to make themselves, the?team?and the?organisation?more successful.

The ripples of?positive impact?spread out across all parts of the?organisation. Some you may never see but they are still there and making a holistic difference. Over my career, and supported by the evidence, I have seen improvements in all of the following areas as a result of increasing?employee?engagement:

  • Boosted individual performance
  • Better customer service
  • Smoother?change?and transformation?
  • Enabling innovation and disruptive thinking
  • Finding cost efficiencies
  • Building the brand – every?employee?a proactive brand ambassador
  • Enhancing operational and reputational risk management
  • Development of personal and organisational capability for the future
  • A deeper understanding of the big picture to align operational activity to strategic objectives.
  • Enhancement of collaboration and breaking down of silos
  • Retention of talent and expansion of the talent pool
  • Attraction and recruitment of best future?employees?through personal networks of current?employees
  • Return of the most talented?employees?after a?career development?break with another?organisation.

What next? Your?employee?engagement?action plan

As an individual?leader

In the?modern?workplace,?an?engaged?workforce?inspired by?team?leaders?is one of the?main reasons better business outcomes?are delivered.?It’s about getting?people?to give their best and the easiest way for you to decide on actions that will achieve that is to focus on those actions you revealed in the list you did of the actions your best boss.

As a?leader?this isn’t about a complicated strategy it’s about deciding on one, two or three simple things you’re going to do more of every day to encourage?people?to give their best and so get them engaged. That might be to proactively ask?people?for their ideas when you’re briefing them on?work?that you want them to do, it might be making more effort to understand that?people?do make genuine mistakes and respond to that positively as a learning event rather than a blame event, or it might just be simply asking people how they’re doing and showing an interest to show that you genuinely care.

Hit the easy wins first

There are the technical?best practices?for?employee?engagement?and then there are the quick and simple real-world easy wins. Yes, you have your “engaged”, they are doing great, but your easy win target is in your “not engaged”. It’s a group I call the “nearly engaged”.?These are the 20% of the “not engaged” closest to becoming engaged. You can probably tell who they are on your?team, those who are not quite fully committed, but close.

This is a real target area for quick wins. Focus effort on these?people?in particular, reach out to them, support them, and use your “best boss” actions with them. They just need a little extra care and they will quickly move over the line into your “engaged”. Just doing this could get your?engagement?figure for the?team?easily up by 10% or more. Working with many?leaders?and?organisations?I have suggested they think about their?teams?and identify their “nearly engaged”, then reach out. Try it, it works.

As C suite

As C-suite, it’s about taking these actions for your?team?but also as a strategic?leader?it’s about creating the example and support system down the line management chain so all?leaders?can get the best and engage their?people?with HR support as well, inspired by your example. The easy win “nearly engaged” group is also a great target for an?organisation-wide?engagement?push.

Finally – We are all Human

Above all?employee?engagement?is about understanding what we as human beings want out of?work?and life, and that’s in many?ways?the same for all of us. It’s consistent, it doesn’t really?change?with time and we all have our own?experience?of it.

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As Aristotle said “Pleasure in the?job?puts perfection in the?work”, that’s as true now as it was 2500 years ago and making it happen through?employee?engagement?is so simple. So whether you are a team leader, in the C suite, or just a colleague, reach out today and start to engage with those around you so both they and you engage to genuinely give your best to deliver success for everyone.

Originally published on my website at?How to maximise employee engagement – key things you might not have been told !

??Brian Keltner??

?? Award-Winning Agency Helping Entrepreneurs Get More Clients, Business, & Interviews??Reputation Restoration | Online Reputation Management | Business & Professional Branding | Social Media Management | Gunslinger

4 个月

Chris, thanks for sharing!

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