Keep Your Team Engaged

In contrast to what stems from lists like "Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work", employees care much less about which company they work for, and its overarching employee engagement strategy.

Employee's engagement and satisfaction mostly depends on local, team level interaction (Gallup’s Q12):

01 I know what is expected of me at work.

02 I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right.

03 At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.

04 In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.

05 My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.

06 There is someone at work who encourages my development.

07 At work, my opinions seem to count.

08 The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important

09 My associates or fellow employees are committed to doing quality work.

10 I have a best friend at work.

11 In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress.

12 This last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow.

There seem to be much more variability in how strongly employees feel about the above within a company than between different companies.

As employees we should not dispense of the notion of "company culture", rather we should be careful not to mistake it for something it isn’t. We should be aware of specific "company signifiers", designed to lure us to join. Culture locates us in the world. It consists of stories we share with one another. These stories give life to the empty vessel of "company", BUT, in the end, we shouldn’t expect from these stories to explain our experience at work, as these local, team-level experiences have far more bearing on whether an employee is engaged and stays. Teams make work real. Good teams unlock what is unique about each of us in the service of something shared!

While people care which company they join, they seem to not care what company they work for, but about what team they are on…

The good news for us team leaders is that what our subordinates care about the most is within our control. We simply have to decide whether to embrace it… ??