Recently I’ve been having a lot of discussions on the topic of Employee Engagement, and for good reason. Companies seem to be understanding the importance of having engaged workers, and maybe more importantly the risk of having disengaged workers. Still though there is a lot of confusion around what Employee Engagement actually is and how to achieve it. By no stretch is this article going to answer all your questions but hopefully it intrigues you enough to take this seriously for you and your business, and inspires you to take action.
Defining Engagement – The widely accepted definition of Employee Engagement is “an employee’s intellectual and emotional commitment to the company.” So what does that mean, why should we care, and how do we achieve Engagement within our businesses?
Let’s start with the Why we should care. Here’s what the statistics show:
- Outperform the Competition – Organizations with highly engaged workforces outperform others by as much as 200%.
- Disengaged Employees are Expensive – Gallup estimates the cost of disengaged employees in the US cost $300 billion a year.
- 69% of disengaged employees will leave a company for as little as a 5% increase
- Increased Productivity and ROI – Actively engaged employees are more productive, make more money for the company, and are more ethical and accountable.
- Higher engagement = lower turnover which saves you money and increases productivity.
Now, how do we cultivate that emotional commitment and develop a culture of engagement? Well, the good news, or scary news depending on how you look at it, is we are the answer. Whether you’re a Leader within your company or an Owner, what we know is that a Culture of Engagement is significantly impacted by an employee’s belief and satisfaction with you.
In order to help employees get the connection you desire, here’s what we recommend you consider:
- Be a Leader Employees Can Believe In – Belief in Senior Leadership is critical to engagement: Dale Carnegie’s research study found that “61% of employees who have confidence in their Leader’s abilities and think that Senior Leaders are moving the organization in the right direction are fully engaged.”
- Cultivate a Workplace of Open and Honest Communication – When we have a culture of mutual respect it helps employees feel connected to the organization. Effective communication is a two-way street. We need to communicate what’s going on with the organization and we need to make it safe for people to provide input on how to make the organization even better.
- Empower Employees by Creating a Collaborative and Supportive Environment – 61% of employees who say they are satisfied with the amount of input they have in decisions affecting their work are engaged.
- Provide Recognition and Appreciation – Dale Carnegie says “Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement.” He also says “Give honest and sincere appreciation.” When I trained at Dale Carnegie I used to ask participants how many people “feel appreciated enough for the work we do?” If I told you the answer was less than 5% would you be surprised? While it was, in fact, about half of that. This is the cheapest and most effective tool you have available to you, if you do nothing else, I encourage you to make this part of who you are as a Leader and thank people for their contributions.
- Become Interested in Your Employees – One of my favourite quotes is “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Employees are more engaged if they feel their Leader cares about their lives outside of work and understands how that can affect job performance. I’m not asking you to become best friends with your team members, but I can assure you that becoming human and showing you care about who they are will have dramatic impact on both you and them.
- Provide Direction and Purpose – “People support a world they help create.” Providing people with an understanding of where you are as an organization and where you’re going will help them to build a sense of pride in the organization. And research shows that “Pride in the company and a positive workplace environment energizes people; they look forward to going to work and are willing to put in extra effort to make their organization a success.”
- Provide Opportunities to Grow and Develop – This is a particularly important one for all employees and research shows that it’s even more important for generation Y and Z employees in your company. A healthy growth and development plan consists of formal training, on-the-job training and coaching and mentoring. Ensure you are creating opportunities for your team to access all of these.
- Focus on Strengths and Don’t Criticize – Myself included at one point in my career, we all spend too much time focusing on what we need to improve. And while I still aspire to the notion that we all can and should learn, I also have seen great results by focusing on people’s strengths. It builds confidence, it’s engaging and empowering for employees, and it builds trust and respect.
- Manage Your Emotions – Daniel Goleman research shows that the difference between a good and great Leader is our level of Emotional Intelligence “Our ability to recognize and understand our emotions and the emotions of others, and using this awareness to effectively manage ourselves and our relationships with others.” We need to lead by example and if we’re not in control of our emotions it will become contagious – our team will follow our lead!
Recent research that I came across shows that although 90% of organizations say engagement impacts business success, 75% do not have an engagement plan or strategy. My experience suggests that building an engaged workforce is a journey and everyone needs to be committed to that journey. It requires planning and action and isn’t for the faint of heart.
Fairwinds Training has a team of people who know how to build a strategy for success that will impact your business in a meaningful way. Give us a call and let’s get started on this journey together.
I leave you with this thought: Be the change you want to see in your organization. Commit to treating people with mutual respect, be willing to openly communicate and develop employees, and show genuine interest for them and you will see the results.