“A Persistent State of Work Fulfilment”
If workplace engagement can be defined as “a persistent state of work fulfilment”, how to continue to engage employees beyond that first flush of enthusiasm is a perennial issue for employers.
There are well-researched links between the level of employee engagement and their organizational performance and whole industries devoted to helping you sort this out: consultants who will draw clever models for you, firms that measure employee engagement (or disengagement) and then provide some sophisticated statistical analysis around the “levers” for your particular organization, regular and robust research from the big consulting firms and academia, all freely available for all to read.
And this stuff is important; it matters. Whatever your organizational definition of “success” looks like – there is pretty strong evidence to suggest you are more likely to achieve it with a workforce of committed employees.
And yet the models, the statistical analysis and the new research continue to repeat the same message time and time again. We need to ask ourselves why this is when the core elements of what makes for engagement between employee and employer doesn’t really change from organization to organization or from generation from generation or from country to country.
And while there are new perspectives given and new elements introduced from time to time, overall we know what makes for an engaged employee.
We already know that the following elements are important to our staff:
- Empowerment (where there is some control over a job and some decision-making authority)
- Opportunity for ongoing learning and development (including feedback)
- Acknowledgement and appreciation
- Understanding the big picture and where you, as an employee, fit in and contribute
- Healthy organizational culture
We also know there are some non-negotiables such as safety and basic conditions that are a precursor to engagement.
We know this not only because consistent well-researched models and theories tell us, but also because most of us have been employees ourselves for most of our working lives. If we think back, we know when wewere engaged and what made a difference to us.
So my question then, is why aren’t organisations doing better at this? Why – almost daily, can you find new articles, new research, new models? Why, if we know the components, and we know how important these are to organizational performance, do we not make this a priority?
Human behaviour explains part of this. Just as we know that having a well balanced diet, getting regular exercise and sleep and moderating the less-than-positive elements of our lives will help us achieve optimum health, how many of us actually do this day in day out? So knowledge, while important – isn’t enough to effect change on its own. There needs to be a desire to do something differently. Or as the well-known change model puts it: the pain of staying the same needs to be more than the pain of changing.
Another considerations that for this to work it has to be more than just the latest initiative. It needs to be embedded within the organizational fabric. In this fast-moving world, — as people move on and priorities change – any initiative that can survive beyond its initial launch is doing well. Engagement needs to be able to survive specific leaders and changes to organizational ownership. And for that it needs ongoing managerial time and commitment. And most importantly, a culture where this stuff matters.
It needs line managers who “get” it. And who understand that all the knowledge in the world is meaningless without implementation. Those line managers need to understand their teams and the individual motivations that drive each employee and adapt each element of engagement to the specific employee. For example, whilst recognition is key to engagement, for some this means a splashy morning tea and public acknowledgement, for others a quiet thank you. As an aside, it also needs systems that support and enable, not hinder line managers.
Positive employee engagement doesn’t have to be about ostentatious new initiatives. It doesn’t have to be about consultants leading workshops and telling you how to run your business.
It is like any other change that you want to make work over the long term. You need to:
- Do it every day
- Make it everyone’s job.
- Keep it simple.
An abbreviated version of this article appeared in Issue 12.2 of Human Resources Director Magazine (www.hcamag.com)
Thanks to engineerblogs.com for the use of the image.
