Team Member Engagement - What are you doing about it?

Team member engagement is the degree to which a team member feels connected to their job. Engaged team members are far more productive than disengaged team members. (Disengaged team members feel no real connection to their jobs and tend to do the bare minimum.) The objective is to have a team of highly engaged team members, and that is what this article is all about.

Engaged team members produce superior results, are more productive, loyal and stay at an organisation longer, and team member engagement links to better business outcomes - across industry, company size and nationality, and in good economic times and bad.

Engaged team members are highly involved in and enthusiastic about their work and workplace. They are psychological "owners" who drive high performance and innovation and move the organisation forward.

Non-engaged team members are psychologically unattached to their work and their company because their engagement needs are not being met; they're putting in time but not energy or passion - into their work.

Actively disengaged team members are unhappy at work; they are resentful that their needs aren't being met and act out their unhappiness accordingly. Every day, these team members potentially undermine what their engaged co-workers accomplish.

Gallup research has shown that engagement creates a positive feedback loop. People who are engaged are more successful, and success helps people engage in their work. Strengths-oriented teams improve engagement and team cohesion; thus, they have less turnover -creating conditions that will enhance the likelihood of success. Researchers have developed various definitions of team member engagement; they have also created categories to describe and distinguish its differing levels.

?Although the concepts of team member engagement and job satisfaction are somewhat interrelated, they are not synonymous. Job satisfaction has more to do with whether the team member is personally happy than with whether the team member is actively involved in advancing organizational goals. Team member engagement is the emotional commitment the team member has to the organization and its goals.

Team members' emotional commitment means engaged team members care about their work and their organisation, identify with its vision and purpose, use discretionary effort, and are enthusiastic about it. They are committed to their work and workplace. Their level of psychological investment is a measure of the strength and mental and emotional connection they feel toward their workplace. This means an engaged supervisor works overtime when needed, and an engaged clerk keeps the store clean.

Engaged employees lead to better business outcomes. In fact, according to Towers Perrin research, companies with engaged team members have 6% higher net profit margins, and according to Kenexa research, engaged companies have five times higher shareholder returns over five years.

Engaged and disengaged team members

Gallup distinguishes between employees who are "actively engaged" (loyal and productive), "not engaged" (average performers) and "actively disengaged" (ROAD warriors, or "retired on active duty").

Disengaged team members feel no real connection to their jobs and tend to do the bare minimum. Disengagement can show in several ways, a 9-to-5 clock mentality or a tendency to seal oneself off from other team members. It becomes most noticeable when someone who's ordinarily outgoing and enthusiastic seems to fall by the wayside and has nothing positive to contribute. They may resent their jobs, tend to gripe to co-workers and drag down office morale.

?Researchers at Kenexa High-Performance Institute looked at 840,000 responses on team member engagement from companies in the U.S. and Britain and found that after two years in a job, 57 per cent of the respondents were disengaged.

Engaged team members are highly focused and intensely involved in their work. They are enthusiastic with a sense of urgency. Engaged behaviour is persistent, proactive, and adaptive in ways that expand the job roles as necessary. Engaged team members go beyond job descriptions in, for example, service delivery or innovation, they feel focused with a sense of urgency and concentrate on how they approach what they do, satisfied team members, in contrast, feel pleasant, content, and gratified.

Team members who receive daily feedback from their managers are 3 x more likely to be fully engaged. Higher levels of engagement affect business outcomes such as. 41% lower absenteeism, 24% lower turnover, 17% higher productivity, 21% higher profitability.

Engagement levels are significantly influenced by the team members manager (through job assignments, trust, recognition, day-to-day communications, and so on.)

Effect on productivity

Most managers understand that team member engagement directly affects an organisation's profitability. According to Gallup, just 33 per cent of American workers are engaged by their jobs. Fifty-two per cent say they're "just showing up," and 17 per cent describe themselves as "actively disengaged" therefore, most managers have a lot of work to do to unlock the full potential of their teams.?

Engagement can be affected by social cohesion, feeling supported by one's manager, information sharing, a team vision, communication, and trust. Team members want to feel valued and respected; they want to know that their work is meaningful, and their ideas are heard. Highly engaged team members are more productive and committed to the organisations in which they work.

The role of managers

"Google manager research revealed that one of the most important behaviours of their best managers was that they were effective coaches. This is seen in other professions, as well. For example, in sports, many former athletes can tell stories about how a coach changed their life by identifying strengths, unlocking their potential, and encouraging them to persevere. Managers can be effective coaches by focussing on the individual needs of each team member. It is also important for managers to be able to flex their coaching styles - for example, the needs of individual team members may require them to be a "teaching" coach where the manager passes along an expertise to achieve something or a "facilitating coach" where the manager asks questions and listens instead of telling or giving answers." Source: Google Project Oxygen.

"Have regular 1:1s with your team members and be fully present and focused on the team member.

Practice active listening and ask open-ended questions to facilitate the team member's insight (questions that start with "what" and "how" encourage expansive thinking).

Provide specific and timely feedback.

Balance positive (motivational) and negative (constructive) feedback and understand the unique strengths and development areas of each team member." Source: Google Project Oxygen.

Team member engagement increases dramatically when the daily experiences of team members include positive relationships with their manager. Team members want relationships, particularly with a manager who can coach them to the next level. Managers drive team member engagement. Between regular meetings, weekly check-ins and touch bases, managers see the full spectrum of work their team is working on. The manager is the one who sets expectations, highlights opportunities, improves collaboration, and often distributes the workload. This can only happen successfully when the manager is involved in and engaged with their team.

People want purpose and meaning from their jobs. They want to be recognised for what they are good at and what makes them unique. This is what drives employee engagement.

One of the critical High-Performance management functions is team member engagement, this is because your most valuable assets are your team members. Disengaged team members feel miserable while at work, and that misery follows them home, compounding their stress and negatively affecting their overall well-being. Team member engagement should be a manager's primary role responsibility.

High-performance managers make an effort to get to know their team members and help them feel comfortable talking about any subject, work-related or not. They trust trained team members to take authority over decisions in their assigned jobs. High-performance management is designed to give team members room to be creative, look to the future, and find new, creative solutions to old problems. Team members on the leadership track will also be prepared to become high-performance managers through mentorship and training.

How much of your time do you spend working on your team member relationships? Building strong professional relationships and an environment of trust and respect takes time and effort, but it pays huge dividends in performance.

Most managers don't know how to make their team member conversations meaningful, so sometimes their actions may be interpreted as micromanaging without providing the right tools and direction.

The ultimate goal of engagement is the professional and personal growth and development of the team member.

People who are engaged are more successful, and success helps people engage in their work.

But mere transactions between managers and team members are not enough to maximise engagement. Team members need communication from their manager about their roles and responsibilities and what happens outside of work. An effective workplace is psychologically safe enough to experiment in, question, share information, and support one another - but none of this can happen if team members do not feel engaged.

Middle managers play a crucial role in team member engagement, creating a respectful and trusting relationship with their direct reports, communicating organisational values, and setting expectations for the organisation's day-to-day business. Studies show that people leave managers, not companies, and ensuring managers actively participate in and manage team member engagement is essential. According to a 2017 Dale Carnegie study, "Just 26% of managers surveyed say that team member engagement is a very important part of what they think about, plan, and do every day. Another 42% say they work on it frequently, and the rest only occasionally, rarely or never."

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