What the F&*k is Employee Engagement?

I’ve worked in employee engagement for 7 years, and for 6.9 of those years, I didn’t know what engagement was, but I think we’ve finally figured it out.

Employee Engagement is your ability to move a group of people from apathy to engagement. In short, are your people buying what you’re selling? ?We think about this as making your employees your first customers. Are they connected to what you’re trying to do?

My favorite example of this comes from Moe’s, a burrito spot here in Atlanta. When you walk into Moe’s, the employees are supposed to welcome you with “Welcome to Moe’s!” And you can tell the apathy to engagement curve at any given Moe’s by how vociferously they shout this at you. If you get a mumbled ‘Welcome to Moe’s …’, odds are you’ve arrived during an apathetic shift.

Beyond burrito data, the real data tells us if your employees buy (metaphorically) then so will your customers. A myriad of benefits flow out of businesses that get this right:

·????? 10% increase in customer engagement

·????? 23% higher profitability

·????? 51% reduction in turnover (!)

·????? 70% higher employee wellbeing

Nearly every vector of the company (and shareholder value) improves when you move people from apathy to engagement … from “I don’t give a shit” to “I give a shit.” And this is around anything you’re introducing to your business.

(quick reminder that anything you do for your business should directly or indirectly benefit the customer).

But how do you do it? We use marketing because marketing helps us see how people relate to apathy and move toward engagement. In short, Marketing is the study of intentionally changing people’s minds.

Reason #1 – they believe in what you’re doing. You can bet your ass when you walk into Patagonia that most of the folks working there believe in what Patagonia is selling. And maybe just to make sure of it, they probably get a pretty sweet discount too.

People who respond well to this are called Believers.

Reason #2 – what you’re doing has an unequivocal advantage. I don’t love Instagram. I’m not thrilled at what it does to people’s well-being. But as a marketer, I know there is no better ad platform on the planet. It has an unequivocal advantage over every other option.

People who respond quickly to social proof are called Swayables.

Reason #3 – they’re scared of what happens if they don’t. This is what most companies do. They want people back in the office 5 days a week. If you don’t do it … you’re fired. Find a new job. Fear. I’m scared. So I’ll engage. Hair loss companies use the same strategy: “no one will ever love you unless you call us right now!”

People who are unresponsive to the first two and only change with fear are called Drains.

?People often start with Reason #3 (fear) because it will get you the fastest but thinnest results. People will engage, but it’ll be a brittle peace, and you’ll have to maintain, escalate, and publicize your campaign of fear regularly … sounds thrilling! Robespierre and Stalin were big fans of Reason #3.

?Reason #2 is better and will get you the most results because this is the largest segment of any population. They will engage when it works. But you’ll need to constantly be on guard for your unequivocal advantage, and you’ll need to maintain the reputation of your advantage like a young banker who insecurely buys a BMW to prove he’s doing well. Because once they find a better option, you’re toast.

?Reason #1 will get you the stickiest and most enthusiastic support for your efforts. But this group has all the same issues as a cult. People will engage because they believe in the vision, but you'll risk being constantly surrounded by sycophants, blinded by rainbows and yes-men. At its worst … This is Dwight from the Office.

?To avoid the pitfalls of any one of these approaches, we guide our clients to link these groups into a system.

A. Gather believers together and get them using whatever you’re building, even if it’s messy. Work out most of the kinks and get it as close as you can.

B. Skip the swayable for now. They need proof, and no matter how confident you are in what you’re doing … trust me, you’re delusional. You’re not there yet. Just ask Theranos.

C. Time for your Drains. They have the best feedback, and whatever their most common and consistent complaint about what you’re doing is … grab that feedback and get your Believers to work fixing it. Yes, they’ll probably hurt your feelings, but get over it.

D. Back to the Swayables. Once you’ve addressed the feedback from your Drains, you can engage your Swayables. You’ll have a powerful vision to sell, but you’ll have the proof in the pudding because you’ve addressed the most critical elements, and an unequivocal advantage will follow.

E. If you’ve done your job, you’ll never have to use the fear message, but if you have any lingering laggards … now’s the time to light a fire. It’s my favorite scene from Ocean’s 11 when the gang is gathered at Reuben’s, and Matt Damon’s character refuses to go inside and join the team. Reuben, the patron of the heist, walks up to him and says …

?“You’re Bobby Caldwell’s kid? From Chicago? It’s nice there, do you like it? That’s wonderful. Now get in the goddamn house.”

Next time, we’ll discuss ‘reach’ and its importance.