My Views on Employee Engagement

Hello All,

I am currently on my maternity leave and trying to find sometime to pen down a few articles. I have gathered this information from publicly available sources and also included several viewpoints of my own basis my experiences.

If there are any other topics of your interest related to HR, please, message me personally and I would be happy to take a hit at them, if time permits. With a small baby at home, I am a bit restricted on time :)

What is employee engagement?

Employee engagement is the measurement of employee’s involvement, satisfaction, happiness, and loyalty with their work. High engagement of employees in the organization leads to direct impact on profitability, productivity, innovation, customer satisfaction, improved brand value, retention, attendance, good reputation and helps outperform other competitive organizations. If the employee jumps out the bed excited to come to work, fully absorbed at work and strongly believe that their work matters, then the employees are engaged. Employee engagement is about building an environment where employees are invested in their work, enthusiastic to achieve the goals and take action to further their career and the organization as well. A fully engaged employee is ready to go the extra mile. Three components of employee engagement include cognitive engagement – the mind refers to employee’s beliefs about the company, the body or behavioral engagement – which refers to the physical effort employees put at work and the soul or emotional engagement of how employees feel about the company.?Needless to say, the secret sauce for employee engagement is to grow the bottom line.

Personally for me, engagement is nothing but a story which we tell ourselves about our experience at work. Employee engagement is a combination of nature (person’s general behavior) and nurture (the environment which has been set up for the employees to either thrive or sink).

What employee engagement is NOT?

Employee engagement isn’t something that you do to people but it is the state of mind which people get to when they feel they are valued at work. This is not a onetime event but a process overall. One of the mis-representation of employee engagement is to drive fun at work and drive high impact touch points such as celebrating milestones such as anniversaries, however it is more holistic than that and needs to be addressed during the entire hire to retire journey of the employee. Also, Employee engagement is much more than rightly compensating the employees.

How to Develop and Sustain Employee Engagement?

?Always ask the question what do the employees needs to be engaged? Per Maslow, the 5 basic needs are Survival, security , belong, ego gratification and self-actualization. We consider ourselves in the right place, doing the right things at the right time. When applied to employee engagement, employees have basic needs to be fulfilled before they engage in the organization and at work. In terms of engagement, the Maslow’s theory can be applied in the below fashion.

·??????Survival: To survive, employees need to be able to make enough dough. Concerns for low salaries below the market standard and non-competitive salaries can lead to disengagement. Improving the overall wages at par with the market and to match the employee contributions effectively through effective base pay, variable pay including pay per performance and can help address some engagement issues.

·??????Security: Employees need to feel that their roles are secure and the physiological contract should be built with trust between the employee and the employer should address this. Right expectation settings, clear work responsibilities and well defined performance model would help provide more clarity to employees

·??????Belongingness: The employees should feel that they are valued and there is a culture of positive environment with good social relationships. Belongingness is an ancient tribal need and the human emotional need to be accepted. Be it at work or personal life, universally, people tend to have an inherent need to be an important part of something greater than themselves. Once the organization is able to create

·??????Self-esteem/Ego gratification: The self-concept is what we think about the self; self-esteem, is the positive or negative evaluations of the self, as in how we feel about it." This is an individual’s subjective evaluation of their own worth. Having a strong recognition, timely positive feedback including acknowledgement of employee efforts help build a positive psychological state and boost self-esteem. Positive self-esteem helps have a direct impact on increasing productivity

·??????Self-actualization: We all search for meaning and when we find meaning in our work, we become one with it. The deepest engagement comes from this aspiration. This is a wonderful leadership opportunity to build a great framework to create an engaged team

Assessing the current state: If the organization wants to drive effective employee engagement, the best place to begin is by assessing the current state of engagement. This can be done through surveys, interviews, skip meetings and so on. In my experience I have found surveys as an effective mode of understanding the current state and employees respond even better when it is anonymous.

Some questions could include “do you know what is expected of you at work?”, “do you have the opportunity to do your best every day?”, “is there someone who helps with your career develop?”, “do you think your opinions and ideas count?” and can be customized basis the need. All of the questions aim to understand how satisfied are the employees with their jobs and the companies and how motivated they are and their intention to stay.?Additional data can be gathered from tenure, turnover data, absenteeism, performance, employee development plans which can provide more perspective on the current state before we work on the action plans. Once surveys are done, building communication and transparency helps build trust and making employee’s part of the solution helps build trust and confidence for the employees.

I believe that the employee engagement should become a strong aspect engrained into the DNA of the organization starting right at the candidate attraction stage.

1)??????Attracting Engaged Employees:

Great companies attract engaged talent. Make the entire hiring process interesting and engaging. Job seekers can get a sense of the company by seeing the brand details. Brand your company as an engaging place to work and have real people examples shared. Branding should reflect an engaging experience. Hiring page of the company should be interesting and exciting. The page should tell stories, video testimonials from existing employees talking of opportunities and career growth, about culture and diversity and the page should invite you in and should make the job seekers feel that I would really want to work here.

Tell job prospects that what the organization needs - Be clear on culture and expectations and disengagement would not be accepted. We need them to bring “all to work” and be ready to get out of the comfort zone. Apply engagement strategies at job fairs. These should be made fun and engaging. Employers should find a way to draw people in. For example free coffee at the drive for building social gathering and connects, LCD screen projecting testimonials of great place to work and create an engaging workplace. The organization goal should be to attract already engaged talent. Continue to iterate and develop your recruiting plan to suit the changing needs and attract top talent.

This would be a great starting point to use social media and technology to build a strong engaging presence.

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2)??????Make your onboarding process engaging:

I like to say, like first dates, first impressions with the organization really matter. First work experiences will go a long way to define the employee’s engagement experience. I have always found cost effective simple practices such as welcoming the new hire with goodies, having their name card with decoration at the desk, supervisor personally connecting with the new hire virtually/physically, sponsoring day 1 lunch, helping them with floor walks, designing an end to end onboarding plan including key contacts and most importantly assigning the new hire with a buddy right at the start. If budget permits, I also would also like the new hire to take something back like a t-shirt, coffee mug with the company brand name which instills a sense of pride and happiness which they can share with their family as well. The manager should map the onboarding experience in the right fashion which is a great first step to show that you care for your employees and drives positivity and employee engagement.

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3)??????Learn from New Employees:

Many leaders write off their new employees and don’t pay regard to their ideas and suggestions and some are blatant to pass comments that you are new and you should pay focus on learning and understanding the process. Personally, I think new hires carry a whole new perspective and should be provided equal opportunity to share their ideas and thoughts. They are here in the company as they met the hiring bar and cleared stringent rounds of interview. New hires have an outside perspective and creating a culture of listening to the new employees and tapping their knowledge from day 1 is a great way to go.

With the new hires, similar to exit interviews, I have challenged my leaders to conduct entrance interviews (within week 1 of joining) which helps them know their employees better, understand their aspirations and expectations and lays the ground for how to best tap the potential of the employee. This can be followed by 30 day and 60 day survey to understand if the new hire is on track or not. Hiring a round peg to work in a square hole is always a disengagement aspect and can lead to a guaranteed turnover.

I have always encouraged my own team to write about their 90 days experience and present to me as the supervisor on what they feel as good, bad and ugly giving them a free pass that they wouldn’t be penalized. This has really helped me to understand some situations of employee’s job misfit situations and rectify them early on. Early attrition is a major concern for many companies and this can be reduced as much as possible if the engagement state of the employee is known.

4)??????Engage Talent during their lifecycle with the company

Several global surveys have indicated that compensation is a major factor driving engagement as the employees need to feel that they are compensated at par with the market. Fix the compensation and half of the employee problems get sorted. A holistic compensation plan including competitive benefits helps drive the engagement.

There are no two ways on HR basics and 1:1s with the employees are a great time to understand the engagement levels of the employees and course correct as needed. Pay per performance and incentives also help drive the right expectations for the employees. Setting expectations right at the start from the job description stage itself is extremely important and helps in a long run.

It is a well-known fact that employees leave when they feel that their management is not invested in their growth. Evert employee is different and they have different priorities. Depending on the employee’s aspirations, leaders should invest in providing opportunities of career growth and more importantly for the high potential talent. One of the important task of the managers is to constantly think about how to encourage and retain top quality employees who want to advance their careers. Designing full career path basis their interests. Don’t wait for employees to approach you and make sure you are proactive. Listen to their ideas and talk honestly of opportunities available and what excites them. Most people leave their jobs in less than 4 years. You can extend the tenure of top employees by helping them understand there is room to grow and giving them a path to follow.

The concept of fairness, transparency can help create disengagement/engagement situations. Building a culture of promoting fairness day in and day out including in measuring the performance can help create a great balanced perspective for the employees. If you are driving a car with poor directions, you will be lost and frustrated. It is the same experience at work. Performance management process which defines clear objectives, results and benchmarks to work together towards a common goal and allows us to stay on track. Lack of clarity makes things go bad and never better. Clarity should be provided on expectations and employees if they know what it means to succeed, they are most engaged.

5)??????Being a model leader:

Engagement should start with the leader (you). As we all know that people don’t change companies, but change managers. May of the leaders fail to realize until it is too late that their style has a direct impact on the employee’s behavior. ?I have always looked up at my leaders and in my own way drew insights on what are positive attributes that I should inculcate and also what are some leadership traits which are a complete “no no”.

A large part of the engagement is emotionally driven. As the workforce becomes global, dynamic and a mixed workforce of virtual and at office employees, the top leadership should invest in the leadership development to tap into their potential, provide means to improve emotional intelligence and capabilities to ensure the leadership does this naturally as a part of the job. Managers who best engage the people have three things in common – strong communicators, build on employee’s strengths and manage performance.

One advice I have always given to myself and the leaders is to pause and reflect. We are after all human and sometimes make mistakes. Reflection and correction is a great mechanism to learn from the mistakes and develop ourselves. One thing which works well is visualizing the future (Eg PR (press release FAQs document) where Share the positive future work experience and work backwards from there and discuss at length with your team. Helping people visualize a powerful future through story telling will draw them out of their disengagement.

6)??????Social Media Presence:

Having a great positive social media presence is always a plus. Job seekers in today’s work gather information from social media platforms such as Linkedin, Glassdoor, company’s website and have a story about the organization and even about you as their supervisor. I like to say that similar to dating websites, work related social media platforms sets an expectation even before you meet. Social media aspects of great stories on work culture, diversity, Corporate social responsibilities Impacts Company’s brand and the work experience. In the changing world, assigning someone to monitor and respond on social media queries and issues, encouraging employees to be a part of sharing their positive stories and experiences and celebrating the positives helps advance the brand.

7)??????Brand Engagement and make it a part of the culture:

Every square foot tells a story and this impacts the engagement and key is to put the same efforts in internal brand as much as external brand development. Internal branding is a great tapping opportunity. Align the branding to reflect the vision and mission of the organization and make employees a part of driving the same. Brand what you are and what you want to be.

I have always suggested to make this as visceral as possible by using pictures of products, people, customers, community, testimonial stories and so on. This should not just be in a corporate set up but also in other sectors such as factories/manufacturing which creates a sense of belongingness. ?Post sayings, vision, mission and quotes and corporate culture statements throughout the company to reinforce the very purpose of the job. This is not difficult to do and relatively inexpensive.

Allow employees use markers and so on and allow them to leave positive vibes. We do this in our company building lifts. Employee art of families and so on can be hung up for display. MBOs- management by objective, strategic objectives and public financial detail can be published for employees to see. Let the employees be in charge of decorating and branding their own space. Internal branding is a great opportunity.

8)??????Drive engagement with fun:

My philosophy has always been that life is too short not to have good natured fun. As a part of Amazon, I have had the opportunity to travel to Seattle several times and there is one experience which brings a smile on my face even now and I love sharing this example in many circles. In the pikes place fish market, the staff members are required to work with dead, slimy and smelly fish. I was awed to see how they fly the fish, have a lot of cheering, great customer interaction and cash register is always busy. This produces such great bottom line, this helped developed fish philosophy mantra – be there, play, make their day and choose your attitude. If folks can have fun working with dead slimy fish, you can as well.

Staying engaged is a choice as well and it needs to be worked both ways by the manager and the employee. Have a fun committee and give them a budget, fun events, high impact touch points. Life is too short not to have fun. Step up and take the lead and develop the culture. ?

9)??????Deal with Disengaged

Managers shy away from conflict management and this is an important aspect to be addressed. Disengaged employees spread negativity and can do much worse as well. Gallup surveys of global workforce assessments on engagement revealed that 2/3 of the employees in any organization are disengaged at one point or the other in their tenure and ~17% of the employees are constantly disengaged. As a leader, dive deep to understand the cause of the discontentment if it is due to general behavior or due to any specific circumstances. If the circumstances need course correction, they should be fixed.

Workers with positive attitude can become disengaged due to circumstances. If circumstances are issues these should be fixed. If it is behavior issues, follow the company policy and approach the discussion as a coach and help your employees to understand the expectations and share the repercussions.?Let them own their problem. Punish in private, be specific, attack the conduct not the person and give actionable advice and document everything. In serious cases, get HR involved. HR can review independently and provide suggestions and helps make you follow company policies and procedures. Disengaged employees can wear you out. Give them a real opportunity to change and if they don’t, it is time for them to move on.

10)???Exit Interviews:

These are a great source of information and exiting employees are more candid and reveal a lot of information which would be essential to course correct. In the spirit of continuous improvement and growth mindset feedback from the employees help.

Finally in summation, engagement goals should be a key part of the strategic goals and the top leadership should be invested and drive this as a part of the culture. Coupling this with tangible measurements with key milestones helps the organization.

Impact of Employee Engagement on Performance of employees

It has been proven that there is a direct co-relation between leadership behavior and engagement. ?.

Increased absenteeism, turnover, lack of zeal to go the extra mile, fear of retaliation due to loss of trust on the management are some of the key indicators which directly impact the performance. The employees would not be able to bring their 100% to work every day when they are disengaged. This effects the bottom line and the ability to meet the goals including up to damaging customer trust and company reputation including higher employee grievances.

Disengaged employees tend to drive negativity, bad publicity and impact the environment negatively as well. This can impact their ability to work with the team, the leadership and exhibiting performance dips and could lead to costing their job as well due to bad performance.

How does Employee Engagement Affect Business Results?

There is a direct correlation between engagement and business results.

A positively motivated and engaged employee looks at not just furthering their career but also furthering the organization. These employees have a sense of belonging and are excited to go the extra mile. Positive environment and engagement helps the employees feel that they matter, their leadership is invested, they have all the tools and support needed to advance their career and this is a powerhouse of energy to drive several new ideas.

Engaged employees bring their best to work every day and drive a positive customer experience. Companies are focused as they understand that moving the needle even an inch in the right directions hugely impacts number of factors. This will allow hire great talent, meet KPIs and exceed as well, ?build customer satisfaction including new business and development of the whole company.

Satisfied employees speaking positively helps so much with staffing and retention. Engaged employees are secret sauce of any organization and happy customers will bring more business.

Employee engagement also impacts your ability and reputation as a leader. If you have a highly engaged, you will be viewed as an effective manager. Tools and environment where people would want to come to work and doing their best every single day.

In summary, employee engagement should be engrained into the DNA and fostered as an integral part of the organizational culture.